I configured the Wink Motion Sensor and it works fine near the HE hub. However, when I bring it 45' away and up 10 stairs it no longer responds. For my test, I also have a Smartthings Zigbee Motion Sensor right next to it.
The Z-wave sensor does not respond, but the Zigbee sensor responds as expected. Also, something interesting is that the bedroom to the left of the chair I put these two sensors on has a Sengled Zigbee Element Color Plus Bulb and a Securifi Zigbee Peanut Plug and those have been working perfectly for weeks.
I thought Z-Wave was supposed to have longer range? From my test here with these devices, the Zigbee range and connectivity I am seeing is way better.
I'm guessing someone may reply saying I need to put in a Z-Wave bulb to act as an extender...but why do I need to even do that? The Zigbee next to it is working fine.
FYI that I'm not a Z-wave fanboy or a Zigbee fanboy...Actually I'm pretty new to all of it. This is just what I'm observing trying to get a motion sensor working in my upper hallway.
I appreciate any suggestions and insights into this.
FYI that I just now put a new Sonoff Zigbee SNZB-03 motion sensor next to the two others and it also works well and responds as expected.
Maybe that Wink sensor isn't that great? I still don't see why I would need a Z-wave 'repeater' of sorts when it's only 45' away.
Also, since my first message, it occurred to me that maybe I have a stronger Zigbee Mesh with my other devices up there. Still though... How did the first Zigbee device connect to become a repeater for the others whereas the Z-Wave device does not appear to do the same?
30 feet is often quoted as the typical effective range for a Z-Wave device when used indoors once the attenuation of building materials, appliances, and furniture is taken into account... roughly 10 times shorter range than what you'd expect in open air. This tech bulletin from Clare shows how some common scenarios impact range:
Good question re: how a lone Zigbee device could perform better in the same environment; one would expect a win for Z-Wave here though it is definitely on the fringe for both technologies. Some installation guides I've seen for Zigbee recommend using 15' as typical effective range indoors. These things were definitely intended to used in a mesh configuration.
Thanks for your comment Tony. Yea, from what I've read, I'd expect Z-Wave to have longer range just in general as well...I thought that was one of it's big touted advantages due to the lower frequency.
For the location in the hallway there, my goal was to use a motion sensor that includes a lux meter and then turn the hallway light on at whatever level. Even during the day, that hallway can sometimes be dark so it would be ideal to be able to detect motion and then if the lux is below x then turn the light on for 5mins or something like that.
Zwave has a lower frequency and thus better penetration but lower bandwidth. Zigbee is on the 2.4 GHz band better bandwidth but a lot of potential interference from other wifi. I get about 75 feet direct connect to hub on zwave with the majority of my devices, but I have taken a lot of steps to reduce attenuation and interference and have a very open single story floor plan. A couple of devices are even further and still direct connect. Avoiding electrical motors, multiple walls, ups, or noisy electrical devices, line of sight issues all help. Also moving devices around after you pair them can cause routing issues and takes time for them to heal. Not all devices are created equal either. Comparing two similar types of devices that use different radios can add an additional layer of variability. Do they have the same transmit strength. What is their receive sensitivity. Do they handle errors in data transmission similarly. Do they have similar sleep behavior. Are the batteries in similar condition? All these play a big factor.
I generally find zigbee battery powered devices behave better, and zwave mains wired perform better. But this is just a general feeling I get from about 150 devices and my personal experience with them. Both have potential to go berserk when there is an issue with the mesh, and typically perform about the same when everything is working well.
Thank you for your comments @lewis.heidrick. Since I'm learning about smart devices in general I bought various kinds of devices and purposely got both Z-Wave and Zigbee to learn from.
If I plan on using Z-Wave at all upstairs (and based on your helpful comments also) maybe I should just get a Z-Wave bulb there that will be mains powered and will be able to act as a repeater... That may provide stability upstairs if I choose to add more devices there. I only have Zigbee up there so far and those all work fine as I have detailed.
Maybe I should look for a Z-Wave bulb that has the following traits:
White dimmable with temperature range at least 2700K - 5000K
Remembers last setting in case accidentally shut off at switch or power loss
I generally avoid using bulbs as repeaters because people turn them off and then stuff breaks. I specifically had to make a rule that turns on the girls bedroom light switch whenever it is turned off because they have rgb bulbs. To turn off their lights they double tap the on switch to toggle them now. I still see errors in the logs occasionally from the bulbs when they forget and turn them off with the off switch. With the rule to turn the lights switch back on it fixes itself but it does show the tendancy to forget even a year later.
For my use cases I use zwave for all the light switches and zigbee for the electrical outlets. That gives me good coverage for both then sprinkle in some rgbw here and there.
Hmmm.. I see. I was thinking the light location is good because it's between where the hub is and the upstairs level... Basically when you walk upstairs the bulb is above you...but I see what you're saying. I really don't want to replace any wall switches since this is a rental. So I am using bulbs/contacts/Motion/plugs/HE/Alexa.
They have them for both zigbee and zwave. The zigbee ones usually last longer on battery than zwave but it depends on the device. 700 series zwave and zigbee battery life are about the same.
That's a really neat innovative idea. It takes a coin cell battery & I've grown to absolutely despise coin cell batteries. I'm cheap and I prefer sensors I can use LiFePO4 rechargeable batteries. Changing my door sensors as we speak. I get on a 6 month recharge schedule and I'm good to go. I started this experiment about 13 months ago. I get 6-8 months with an Iris v2 sensor with a CR2 rechargeable. I'm about to discover how long the door sensors will last with a 14500 rechargeable. off topic rant
off topic rant
