Senses 2nd event, never first: Sengled Smart Door Sensor, Zigbee

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1

Howdy! Haven't found an answer for this yet, so inviting the collective wisdom.

I have an installation of (3) C8's throughout a church - front, back and side. The "front" C8 is the one that runs rules and apps. The other two only feed sensor information, mostly door sensing, to help avoid having doors that are left ajar overnight, sometimes by millimeters, but still, unsecured.

Every item works fine, except for one door. Because it was the most distant (roughly 45') from the "Back" C8, I originally tried it with Z-Wave, with a repeating device halfway. Only reliable about 30% of the time (so, not). Removed and factory reset the C8, and deployed a Sengled Zigbee door sensor, and thought it worked. Open door, C8 senses it. Close door - senses it. Yay!

Come back next day.

Open door - no sense.
Close door - no change.
Open door - NOW senses the open door.
Close door - From here on out - it senses every event, absolutely no problem.

Come back next day - Exactly same result. Does not sense the first open, but every one after that.

You all probably know exactly what this is, but it befuddles me. Please, what can I do to get it 100%? (more details follow, if you're so inclined)

There are 5 more identical door sensors talking to this particular C8, all slightly closer (40', 32', 16', 12' and 9'), none have this issue (that I'm aware of). I've also put a Sengled smart switched outlet into an "always on" outlet roughly 22' away from the C8, so that it might use it as a repeater. Still no joy. There are a total of 12 of these Sengled door sensors (not gen 2) throughout the building perimeter, and all work perfectly, except this door. I've swapped the unit with another, only to have the same result. Have factory reset the C8, still with no joy. FWIW, did not have a happy experience trying out the G2 Sengled door sensors, so none are in the system.

Please, any thoughts?

2

Bump.

Admins? Actual tech support? Bueller?

3

This is a sign of having a wholly inadequate zigbee mesh. That’ll need to be fixed for reliable communication between end devices and the hub.

Phrased more simply, your hub’s zigbee mesh needs a lot more by way of zigbee repeaters/routers to function reliably.

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4

Have you tried increasing the Zigbee power level? @aaiyar is correct, but I imagine there are difficulties with adding Zigbee repeaters in a church. You may need to add one or two Sonoff Zigbee dongles.

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5

Thanks so much for the reply. So one repeater halfway along isn't enough, is what I think I hear you saying? If I were to add 2 or 3 Sonoff plugs, in the area, that might solve it?

Like this item: SONOFF S31
https://a.co/d/hIfEojp

Again, thanks for the help!

6

I would not recommend the Sonoff outlets. They haven’t worked well for me as far as repeating goes. I only suggested the dongles because they have been very strong repeaters on my C-8. There’s a thread if you search “market for high powered zigbee repeaters”. Aeotec also makes a dedicated zigbee repeater “Aeotec Range Extender Zi - Zigbee Network Extender” available on Amazon.

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7

Thank you. I really appreciate the practical, first hand suggestion. I will try the Aeotec. I had assumed that the dongle needs a computer, yes?

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8

Only to flash the firmware to use as a router, then it just plugs into a standard usb outlet.

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9

I second this recommendation.

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10

Also, if you haven’t already, you can try increasing the Zigbee radio power to 20 and see if that fixes the issue.

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11

@user4480

For a trouble-free and highly performant zigbee mesh, I recommend getting two of this two-pack of the Sonoff dongle (so 4 dongles in total):

https://www.amazon.com/SONOFF-Gateway-Universal-Assistant-Wireless/dp/B0BFHBPW4C/

This will give you 4 very strong repeaters to place within the church. They can be plugged into the AmazonBasics power supply linked to below:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0773JFWDC/

The dongles can be flashed using directions posted by @danabw in the thread linked below:

Pair two of the dongles to each C-8. Place the dongles about 15-20 feet away from each C-8 and in opposite directions.

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12

Thank you all. I will try these suggestions and report back. I will actually try the Aeotec first, since that's straightforward and doesn't require knowledge of flashing firmware. I have to keep in mind that someone else will likely inherit this system after I'm gone, and want to make it as simple to maintain as possible.

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13

I have a couple Aeotec Zi's - they work perfectly fine. There's not a unique driver for these, and they don't need a special driver... I'm using the "Ikea TRADIFI signal repeater" just because I psychologically like having a repeater-oriented driver there, but even just using the plain "Device" driver would work just as well.

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14

100% yes. Those things are beast repeaters!

15

Thanks for the advice Ken, and thanks to all who helped!

After a few days of testing, the Aeotec Zi seems to have done the job. I relocated the Sonoff outlet nearby, and installed the Aeotec Zi where the Sonoff outlet was, roughly half the distance between the C-8 and the farthest (troublesome) door sensor, about 50'. I opted for the most simplistic approach, since someone else will likely inherit this setup, and may not be as tech savvy. It is now reliable 100% (at least during testing).

Again, many thanks Community!

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