I have had my Hubitat for just over a year and I really need this to work for a bunhc of reasons but cannot seem to get it to work at all. I have 48 devices, most of them are Inovelli blue switches and there are a few temp sensors, smoke alarm sensors, a relay, and a water shut off valve. Hubitat has not worked well at all, but it was at least useable off an on until I got a new router (TP Link Tri-Band BE9300 WiFi 7 Router Archer BE550 6-Stream 9.2Gbps Full 2.5G Ports 6 Internal Antennas).
The last time things didn't work I changed the Zigbee channel and it worked for a bit after that.
I have tried to change my Zigbee channel number and power. It randomly connected for about a day and then disconnected but that was a few days after changing the power settings, etc... I've tried to reboot the radio, rebuild the network, unplug and plug in after 15 min.
My Inovelli driver is up-to-date as well. My hubitat and my router are on the same shelf up high in a closet for good coverage around the house. I just have not idea what else there is left to do. I used to have SmartThings and it worked so much better. I'm new to hubitat but I'm a tech guy at work (no code) so it's not new to me how to manage rules, devices, etc.. just nothing left I can think of to try.
Move the Hubitat to at least 3-6 feet from the router. Also make sure you’re not using 40MHz channel width on the 2.4GHz WiFi. I have my hub mounted on the wall outside of my network closet, because I saw what a hit connection strength took when I tried putting it in the closet. Most people seem to have good luck using channel 25 for Zigbee since it’s above channel 11 on the WiFi. You also want to have strong repeaters within 10 or 15 feet of the hub.
Get your Hubitat hub as far away from your router as you can. As stated above 3 to 6 feet is good but if you can go father then do it. Make sure your wifi channel width for the 2.4 wifi is 20 Mhz not 40. The typical channels to run are 15, 20, or 25 zigbee. If your router is wifi channel 6 or 11 you can away with using Zigbee channel 11 as well but then you can't use wifi channel 1. Just remember if there is may interference between zigbee and wifi that wifi will always win.
A higher power level is not usually the answer. You are better running your hub power lower say 4 to 8 and have several good repeaters throughout your mesh. Higher hub power has two problems. Just because your hub can get info out to the far away device doesn't mean that end device that is far away can get it back to the hub. Also the higher power can just cause unneeded noise in the mesh causing instability.
Good repeaters are a must. What relay are you using? There are many people on here that we're using Sonoff relays that have horrible experience with the relay and mesh instability. The relay doesn't play well with the mesh. Same thing for using Sonoff plugs as repeaters. Third Reality makes a really good plug that works great as a repeater. I can vouch for these personally. Other use Tuya USB style repeaters that just plug in an outlet via a power brick. I can't vouch for these but a lot of people use them.
Try moving your hub, getting some good repeaters, choosing a more stable channel and lower power setting letting the repeaters bridge the gap, Unless there is some other outside issues like one of the switches or the relay wrecking havoc or a neighbors wifi or zigbee network flooding your space you should see improvement in your zigbee mesh and overall performance.
thats bs.. i use sonoff repeaters in 2 differnt locations 2-3 each wither their own antennas and they and the mesh are rock solid.. not sure where you get the idea that they problems. in fact the opposite of what yhou say is true .. third reality plugs if you are not carefull if they are power reporting plugs can bring down your mesh.
but i agree the problem is most likeoy the 2.4g settings on the new router and the channel used.. do you know what channel you are using.. looks like from you post above the hub is on 19.,. so hopefully you 2.4g is on channel 1 and only 20mhz channel width
I’m pretty sure they’re referring to the actual relays (assuming they are the Tuya ones that many have complained about?), not the Sonoff Zigbee dongles (which are excellent).
Look back through many threads where many members have both complained about the Sonoff Relays and the Sonoff Plugs have both caused extreme issues with their zigbee mesh. I don't have them but I didn't make it up. There is a thread I wish I could find where @kkossev gave specific models of which Sonoff plugs not to use.
As for the TR smart plug I have three of them that are energy monitoring and 4 that are not. I have ZERO issues with mesh instability and they are my main repeaters in HE. I can speak personally on these as I live with their performance daily.
As for the Sonoff dongles those are rock solid. I have one of them as my HA coordinator and another as a router. They are excellent. I am not knocking Sonoff stuff as I use their location sensors all throughout my home. I was simply giving advice based on numerous people's accounts on different threads on this forum.
But thank you for bringing up the Sonoff plugs. It is good to see some people have good experiences. This way the OP can look at this from all angles.
No problem. Their smart plugs acts as repeaters as well and they are the devices people have complained about. The dongles are great. Zero issues with them for me.
One last point to add to what everyone else has already stated.
If you change channels, many devices will never change channels with the hub.
You really have to wait 24-48 hours after you change ZigBee channels in order to see if your devices have moved to the new channel. If they have "fallen off" the mesh, you must "re pair" them. Usually wired devices will follow the Hub, most battery powered devices will not follow to the new channel.
So I did the update to the power and channel (Power 8, Channel 25) and made sure my antenna was nice and tight with a wrench. I went around and re-paired all of my devices and it went great — Everything was back to working again — HOWEVER, about 24 hours later and my Inovelli Blue Zigbees all stopped working. Keep in mind my other devices (temp sensors, relay, smoke alarm sensors, etc are still working) BTW I don’t need repeaters, when they work I have plenty of coverage. I have no idea what’s going on… any thoughts or suggestions?
It isn't always necessarily about coverage with repeaters. If my memory serves me correctly you can only have 32 end devices connected to the hub at one time. Repeaters don't count toward that number. Repeaters allow you to go into the hundreds of end devices since those end devices don't connect directly to the hub.
I believe that it is still a total of 32 directly connected devices (including repeaters) allowed to connect to the hub. It's just that other devices can directly connect to a repeater and not the hub, thus not affecting the 32 device limit.
Then again, I could be completely wrong and have misunderstood how this works for the least decade.
Have there been any firmware updates for the Inovelli Blue? If everything is working except for them, kind of sounds like they are the culprit. How many Inovelli do you have?@mike.maxwell any thoughts?
Wow, so I did confirm it's only 32 devices. I honestly probably wouldn't have bought this setup knowing it was a limit of 32. It's odd that I can connect MORE than 32 and then it drops them overnight. I have updated firmware on the Innovellie's and that has been checked and rechecked since the issue started. Like I said, they connect and work, but they just drop. I'll see about staying under a 32 count and see if they drop after that.
Fairly certain many Zigbee hubs work that way. If you add a repeater, it adds another set of slots for use by end devices.
I am not certain if all repeaters are also 32, but in theory, if the hub has 32 slots, and you add a repeater with a theoretical 32 slots, you will have 63 available slots for end device use. Add another repeater, and you get 93.
A repeater is not necessarily a specific device, although you can buy a repeater. Most like powered devices can become repeaters, although some are better than others. Light bulbs are notoriously bad repeaters. Certain wall plugs are bad as well.
You do.
Most mesh systems like Zigbee and Z-wave like to have many paths, and repeaters (or repeating devices) are necessary. If you force it to be hub and spoke, that system likely will be much less stable and robust.
Any suggestions for repeaters that do not require home assist or any other setup? I could use simplicity without having to setup another item but I've never used a repeater. I looked at the Sonoff one mentioned above.
If you have good repeaters well-positioned in your mesh, you don't need to worry about that 32 number -- it won't be an issue you ever need to be concerned with.
I've had Blues since they were first launched, and this may very well be just be my own anecdotal experience, but I've never been impresssed with them as repeaters.
I do not rely on them as repeaters; instead, I use other mains-powered zigbee devices that I know are strong repeaters and (physically) position those so that they cover my mesh needs.
