Request for Assistance: Zigbee Issues

Smart meter w/load control capability?

Iā€™d like to extend a huge thank you to all the community members who jumped in with suggestions to help resolve my Zigbee issue. A special shoutout to @bravenel and @mike.maxwell from the Hubitat team for their invaluable insightsā€”your patience and expertise are truly appreciated.

At this point, I still donā€™t know exactly what caused the issue, but Iā€™m leaning toward @aaiyarā€™s theory:

So far, this seems like the best working explanationā€”until, of course, something else breaks, and I have to reconsider everything.

The Road to Recovery

The good news? My Zigbee network is back up and running. Following @bravenelā€™s advice, I changed the Zigbee channel from 20 to 25, and things started coming back to life. Within an hour, over half of my devices reconnected on their ownā€”like lost pets finally finding their way home. I let the system sit for a few more hours, and, miraculously, more devices followed suit.

For the stubborn ones that refused to reconnect, I resorted to the age-old trick: removing and reinserting their batteries. That worked for about 60ā€“70% of them. The remaining holdouts? I had to get up close and personalā€”standing directly in front of the hub in repair mode, pairing them one by one like some kind of high-tech animal whisperer. Eventually, almost all devices rejoined the network.

Now, I still have three rogue devices hiding in less accessible locations, likely laughing at my struggle. Iā€™ll deal with them mid-next week, once Iā€™ve handled lifeā€™s more pressing matters.

Network Stability and Observations

A quick check of Settings > Zigbee Details shows that all connected devices are logging messages consistentlyā€”no signs of distress. Meanwhile, Settings > Zigbee Logs confirm that none of them have gone rogue and started spamming the network (at least not yet).

The Great Repeater Debate

I know adding more repeaters is usually the go-to advice, but my home is only 1,400 square feet. Space is limited, outlets are already occupied by too many power bars, and my electrical panel is looking at me like, ā€œDonā€™t even think about it.ā€ Upgrading my service is on the to-do list, but letā€™s just say itā€™s not exactly in the budget at the moment.

That said, before this whole meltdown, my repeater distribution seemed to be working quite well. After reviewing the Community app Zigbee Map 2.2.1, things are looking much better now, so Iā€™ll hold off on adding moreā€”at least until my devices stage another rebellion.

Zigbee Plugs and Repeaters

I really appreciate the thoughtful suggestions regarding the plugs and drivers I am currently using. However, since Iā€™m not seeing excessive chatter, Iā€™m going to stick with them for now. That said, Iā€™ll definitely keep other options in mind if the need arises.

Closing Thoughts

At this point, things are stable, and everything seems to be behaving itselfā€”for now. Iā€™ll continue to monitor the system over the next week, and if any new issues pop up, Iā€™ll follow up. Otherwise, if all remains quiet on the Zigbee front, Iā€™ll go ahead and mark this as solved. Thanks again to everyone for the help!

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FWIW, these maps are not all that "trustworthy".

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I was referring to the Community app Zigbee Map 2.2.1 not the Hubitat stock one.

Suffers from similar limitations .....

Incorrect. See @dandanacheā€™s post below.

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LOL, Well as a wise man once said "We work with the tools we have".

Fair enough.

A map made use an Xbee3 reflects the current situation of the zigbee mesh. And doesn't rely on interpreting historically acquired values.

Xbee3-generated maps show some overlap with those made using historically generated data. But also a lot of differences.

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devices failing to connect or falling off could be the result of another faulty zigbee device causing interferance even though that faulty device may stay working.
Best way to find that device is to power down (unplug or pull the battery) from all your zigbee devices then try and pair the device that does not want to pair.
If that device pairs fine now problem is being caused by one of the other devices.
Figuring out which one is slow and painful. Powering them back in groups or leaving suspect devices off for a few days and the powering the rest on. Once you have narrowed it down power back on the suspect device and see if you can replicate the problem and confirm the faulty device.

As far which zigbee channel depends on your enviroment but I would not trust the indicators from Hubitat.
a few of my hubs I run on channel 20 and gives me a "Weak Zigbee channel found" error.
But I tested afew other channels where I do not get that error and with my zigbee arrival devices (Xbee3 set as end devices) in my cars that trigger my garage lights to turn on and doors to open.
They will not turn on and open until I am in my driveway for 5-10 seconds.
I tested several zigbee channels with the same results ( I didn't go through them all).
But back on channel 20 with the "Weak Zigbee channel found" error they trigger my garage 1/2 - 1 block away (depending on vehicle speed).
So channel 20 is definately not weak.

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This is a spurious message in my setup as well.

That message is really intended to be an indicator of a potential source of problems, more than a result of problems actually found. The way it's presented is not quite clear on that, unfortunately. So it should be read more as "If you're having Zigbee issues, Channel 20 may not be your best bet, and if things are OK you can ignore this message."

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ok thanks
but you can say that for every channel.
I am getting far better results than other channel.
If it's not a weak signal what is triggering it?
or nothing triggering it not a real error.
Is it just because it's channel 20 and a default error message is displayed?

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This ^

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Thanks for the info! Thatā€™s not something I see myself ever tinkering with, but I appreciate the insight.

Thatā€™s a great idea! Iā€™ll definitely keep it in mind if the issue comes up again. Appreciate the tip!

This suggestion came directly from the Hubitat team, so I had to give it a try, especially if it turned out to be a hardware failure and I could get it replaced...

So far, so good! Iā€™ll let it run for a few days and report back.

The Zigbee Map app is pretty "trustworthy", does not suffer from the same limitations as the builtin map, and does not use historically acquired values.

It paints the map in real time, by querying the repeater nodes in the Zigbee network, starting with the hub, and building outwards.

You are probably referring to the old Zigbee Graph app that was used as inspiration for the built in map feature.

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Yes! I havenā€™t tried the new app yet.

Thanks, Dan! This application was very helpful in diagnosing my issues.

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