Mesh Network

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1

Just a general question if anyone knows the answer.
I seem to have a pretty strong network set up. Across my home i have:

  • At least 10 switches / dimmers ( Zwave)
  • 4 smart plugs ( both the wave and zigbee have been enabled)
  • a couple of iris wave or zigbee repeaters ( honestly don't remember which protocol they use)
  • 2 garage door openers ( i think are wave)
  • 9 zigbee water sensors
  • 4 zigbee motion detectors
  • about 8 zigbee contact sensors ( iris v1 and iris v2 zigbee)

I have been told that more wave devices create a stronger network.
My question is 2 fold.

  1. does extra zigbee devices also create a stronger network?
  2. If so - i have about another half a dozen iris v1 zigbee contact sensors and 4 more iris v2 zigbee motion sensors not being used at the moment. If i connect those and distribute across my house - will they increase the mesh strength of the network?

Thanks
Mac

2

please ignore spelling...for some reason, my apple tablet doesn't like when i type z wave and removes the z......

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3

From what I understand battery powered devices are not repeaters and do not enhance the mesh. For the most part I believe bulbs also make poor repeaters. I only have Singled bulbs as they are by design non-repeaters.

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4

The best mesh starts by planning and knowing your setup. Writing it down in an Word or Excel document helps with that. Also if something does start to give issues you can keep versions of that document with a description of the location of all your devices. So that you can keep track of any changes and if they help and such...

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5

In addition, I have found out that certain devices are better repeaters than others.
As well, it appears that certain zigbee sensors (Xiaomi in particular), do not repeat well on many different types of zigbee devices. It appears that the Ikea Tradfri Repeater is an excellent zigbee repeater, as well as the 2018 SmartThings outlet, etc. (More in the forum about that)

6

Appreciate the reply

7

Appreciate the idea.
I have one started...as i have moved them around - now go need to find some
Regards;
Mac

8

I recall about 2 years ago i was having some problems with connectivity to some devices far from my hub. I contacted IRIS and they suggested getting smart plugs as repeaters. I have 4 but i may get a few more. I can find a use for them anyway as i have a few other things i want on smart plugs. I know with IRIS the system took case of the wave / zigbee portion of the setup, Found a recent post here that the iris v2 smart plugs need to be paired to z wave and separately to zigbee to act as a repeater on each protocol. So i have recently dome that too.
Will keep an eye out for a few more smart plugs on ebay.
have to say - so far i have seemingly had good success with anything centrality..and i think those iris v2 smart plugs are centrality too.

Appreciate the reply
Mac

9

You cannot have too many Zigbee repeaters. Z-Wave on the other-hand, has a limit of four hops. So too many Z-Wave repeaters is not going to be a help.

10

I have 3 of those Iris smart plugs. I got them because they would work for zigbee and zwave - a winner!
However, they don't work well with Xiaomi sensors.
Does anyone want to buy them?

11

I get it for the z-wave repeaters. But why would too many zigbee repeaters not work?

12

How much are you looking to get for them jtmpush18? Are they the v2?
Mac

13

For those looking for Iris v2 3210-L outlets, they are still available on ebay for a decent price.

14

trust me....seen them. Ive been scouring ebay. Picked up some v2 smart buttons, a v2 iris keypad for my konnected IO and scored 9 water sensors. just have to look for the deals! gonna be sad when all of the old iris inventory is gone!

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15

I have purchased from this seller many times, all the stuff looks and works great. The dual repeaters seem to work fine and it is nice they report power on the Zigbee switch as well.

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16

You misread my post. E.g. Go nuts if you want!

17

I put an offer in for $50 for the set of 5 and it was accepted. Can't beat that price.

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18

I did the same. Are you suing the Z-Wave repeater in them? I tried a few and couldn’t tell that it made a difference, and was kind of thinking it made my Z-Wave worse...

19

One thing to consider is smart plugs that have energy monitoring. Although I'll warn you this is a deep rabbit hole. What I found is even devices I really had no interest in controlling through HE, say for example my Refrigerator. I'm never going to turn the switch off, but I can see how much energy the refrigerator is consuming as well as now it's plug in is now a repeater strengthening my mesh.

And switches you do plan on using on/off, you get all 3 functions. On/off Energy Monitoring, and strengthening your mesh.

20

Most of my devices are Zigbee or Caseta. I have like 5 z-wave devices and none are locks, so I haven't really needed the z-wave half. But every time I do a z-wave repair it picks them up as all being there.