I'm new to Hubitat, long story short I was going to go with Home Assistant but it felt like too much work and liked better Hubitat.
So, before changing my mind on hubs, I got Sengled light bulbs based on some recommendations of affordable Zigbee light bulbs. I've read some threads and is a common headache for Hubitat.
So far, i have:
Re-paired them
Added repeaters (Sonoff)
Changed the driver to legacy and the advanced rgbw
Rebuilt the network a bunch of times.
And still some of the light bulbs keep losing connection. And now is worse, since I changed the driver to the advanced one, my groups didn't work. So I read a thread and saw that i had to turn off the switch optimization, but that only controls one light bulb. I could turn on ones that still had control on it, but the group can't reach them.(i know that the network visualization is on beta, but sometimes i can see the light bulbs that can't be controlled, and the last network built is awful, some of the light bulbs connected to an outlet that is way far away)
I'm getting very frustrated with this, i don't know if it's HE, or the light bulbs or both. It's been less than a month, so I'm ready to return the light bulbs if there are some others that work flawlessly. What else should i try to make these to work?
Interesting, I would start with any interference in your home and other wireless. I chose Channel 20 for Zigbee because it sits between 6 and 11 nicely:
I have a house full of Sengled Classic Zigbee bulbs not the RGB ones and they are almost flawless when it comes to commanding them though the Hubitat.
Thanks for the suggestion, I had it on 20 based on other threads recommending it, and put it on 25 yesterday. Regardless, most of my WiFi devices work on 5Ghz, I only have just 3 or 4 on 2.4Ghz, so on that end I didn't see anything that busy and 2.4Ghz wifi is on channel 6.
I rebuilt the network and got pretty bad, with all light bulbs connected to one of the repeaters(outlets), some of them even far away from the outlet, and in between 3 walls and still picked that outlet. Today looks like they picked another outlet, but same thing happened even the ones further away picked the same outlet. And again most light bulbs are not reachable again. Here's the visualization(based on proximity, attenuation, etc, Porch light bulbs should be all on Foyer Outlet, and Back light bulbs should be all on Garage Outlet).
I'm wondering if my rules are also causing this, I have 3 rules:
Turns on light bulbs 30 minutes after sun dawn.
Turns off light bulbs close to room's windows a few minutes before bed time.
Turns off all light bulbs a 30 minutes after sun rise.
All of them basic rules, independent, and calling the group switch.
So, I'm starting to see a pattern. I agree that on everything tech-wise, there are better devices than others, but I haven't seen something making it unsuable to a degree?! So, what is the usual problem?
Hubitat?
Zigbee protocol?
Sengled color light bulbs?
Need more repeaters?
I'm coming from an Alarmdotcom Z-Wave mesh, with 30+ devices, just 2 repeaters, and all connected to a Quolsys panel. I never had a single issue with a device, everything worked perfectly well, no drops, no problems with inclusions, etc., for 7 years. Now I have had these for a month, and is just not working.
These are the ones. Multiple people on here complaining about them, including myself. The Zigbee 3.0 dongles are usb powered repeaters with an external antenna. They work well, but do require that you flash them with router firmware.
Generally speaking, all powered zigbee and z-wave devices are also repeaters. The Sengled bulbs do not repeat, so they may require additional repeaters.
Agreed, that's why I added repeaters in my previous mesh, and this one, but this one doesn't seem to work with those. Is just annoying. I also went with Sengled, because those don't repeat by design. I'll take a look at those repeaters, but I wonder if it's going to be yet SOMETHING else. I feel like is just a guessing game at this moment. Should I reach out to support? Are they helpful?
I completely understand your frustration. All I know is that I have not had any problems since adding a few of the dongle plus (not the E version) repeaters to my mesh. I also have quite a few other repeaters, including Samsung Zigbee 3.0 plugs (which have been amazing repeaters). Aeotec makes a plug in Zigbee Repeater Zi that works well if you want something that is plug and play. I have over 100 zigbee devices and they are nearly 100% reliable, so it’s definitely doable.
If you don’t have many devices, you might want to try increasing the power of the Zigbee radio. The default is 8, but it can be set as high as 20. Just increase slowly and give it time to settle before increasing it further. I used 20 for many months, but recently have been experimenting with it set to 12 and discovered that most of my devices reported higher lqi with the lower power after a few hours, but initially showed lower readings. You can see that communication in the Zigbee Logs under Settings/Zigbee Details, or at http://YourHubIP/hub/zigbee/getChildAndRouteInfo. Just plug the address of your hub in where it says YourHubIP.
Yes, please, at this point you are having too many Zigbee issues and it seems like you have tried your best to cover your bases. One thing to note, that unlike Z-Wave, Zigbee has a limit on how many non-repeaters can be connected directly to a controller before they must go through a repeater. The number for Hubitat Elevation is 32. I may have missed it, but what is the power lever of your radio? You can see it on Zigbee Details page. In any case, please create a warranty case by visiting the following page. We would like to make sure that you are not dealing with some sort of hardware malfunction:
I will reiterate that the forum has a handful of anecdotal experiences with the Sonoff plugs creating havoc with Sengled bulbs in particular. Myself included, though I don't claim to have an adequate technical explanation.
If you just need to sprinkle a few repeaters, these are fairly inexpensive and there are reports of good performance (again, myself included).
Overall - you can't go wrong following @bobbyD's advice. I am just one schmuck with experience that is unique to my environment.
I have 7 light bulbs as of now(and 3 of the SonOff outlets, is rather small), I haven't added the doors and I wanted to get more things, but I haven't because of these issues.
The power is set to 8 as of now, is that the power of the radio signal amplifier? If so, does that make any difference with repeaters? Thanks!
Good question. In theory if the location is prone to interference from other radios running on the 2.4ghz band, increasing the power of the Zigbee radio may help. On the other hand, a boost in radio power may trick some devices into trying to connect to the hub's radio directly instead of nearby repeaters. My sweet spot for my location seems to be 16, but the power needs vary by location.
Increasing the power should increase the range and thus the signal to the plugs and lights. I would try that first before you start adding anything else. Just beware that the reception sensitivity is also amplified when the power level is increased. Try to keep the hub at least 6 feet away from your WiFi router as many people have noticed problems with interference when the hub is too close.
Thanks! But increasing the power doesn't make a lot of sense. If the repeater/plugs reach the hub, there's no need to increase the power, unless I would want the signal to reach all the light bulbs directly without repeaters OR Zigbee works very differently(even more than Z-Wave). That's why I was asking about the signal, that shouldn't make any difference, unless Sonoff outlets are adding noise to the radio, hence not repeating, but they are since they don't drop, and continuously work. I get that adding redundancy(nodes/repeaters) adds resilience to the network, but in this case, I am not sure what "dropping"(the hub still sees it, is just not reachable or controllable) random devices mean.
I wish I had a clear explanation, or how to debug it to get to the root of the issue and fix it accordingly. All of these are still guesses that don't add up based on the engineering facts. Of course, if it's the repeaters because of a particular problem, then that's it, but how to know?
