Smartthings presences sensor changing status every couple minutes

It did this same thing before I even had the rig for power on a different smartthing presence sensor. I only got a new 1 because I lost the 1st, but this issue was happening with that running off the regular battery. I assumed that's why it was happening because I could put a brand new batter in on Sat. and it's at 40% come Thurs and 0% in another week.

That is probably because you were using Zigbee channel 25... Channel 25 and 26 are low power channels (as dictated by the FCC)... Lower power equals lower range. Your devices where probably at the fringe of reception range. At the fringe, they will connect and disconnect, as you were experiencing, and they will be powering on the radio transmitter more often than needed, causing extremely increased battery usage.

You have changed to channel 21... That will increase the range of the device (and the range of your HE as well)... Give your Zigbee mesh a few days to readjust and your problems will more than likely be resolved. You probably won't even need the external battery...

Yes I did change the channel to 21. I will also just change the battery in my fiance presence sensor and not rig that 1 yet to see if I get better battery life as well.

Thanks for that explanation

I'm using three with the battery hack. Performing flawlessly for several months now.

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Are you also on channel 21 or lower and if you check your logs, do you see the frequent arrival and departure while at home?

Yes, and no, never changes unless our presence does

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I’ve just changed the batteries in my 3 - After 2 1/2 years!

Andy

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@Cobra what brand of batteries are you using? (2 AA mod I assume)
I am just using rechargeable AA and only get 4-6 months from them
(I don't wait for them to die as soon as they report less than 60% I change them out).
I was thinking of changing my mod from 2 AA to 3 AA.

I just use standard Duracell AA batteries
I don’t think rechargeables are suitable for this application

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Typical AA rechargeable batteries will lose that much charge just sitting on a shelf with no load on them in 4-6 months.

Hello guys,

It's been 3 days now since I switched the channel, 4 smartthings motion and door sensors aren't working along with 3 cree bulbs and my presence sensor.

I was hoping rebooting the hub would do some force check to bring them back online but that hasn't worked yet. Has it taken this long for some of you to get everything seen on the new channel?

I'm really hoping it's back on soon because I don't want to have to reset them all to add them back manually.

Running the latest build: 2.1.9.114

As I was looking around in the system to see if I can figure anything out. I notice all but 1 of my zigbee doesn't have a 64bit ID anyone know if that's an issue? I have several smartthings motion sensor and all of them have a 64bit ID except for this 1. I can't tell if it's working right yet because it's also 1 of the sensors that's still not on the 21 channel.

If it's been a couple of days then I would rejoin the devices.
You don't need to remove them from Hubitat, just reset the devices and search for zigbee devices the same way you did when you joined them originally.
This should join the devices with the same names etc so your apps/rules are not affected.
However; I have heard that Cree bulbs can cause all sorts of issues
Tagging @april.brandt who has had some experience with these I believe.

Andy

Thank you, I was hoping I didn't have to reset, but I will. I thought Cree was good, I got rid of my last sets of lights GE because I saw on the FB HE group that Cree where good. what's the recommended bulb of choice then?

I'd hate to say that your crees are what is causing this issue. But, don't throw them in the box of shame just yet. We've discovered that the lightify gateway can recognize them and I have been running about 5 of them on that hub using the alpha lightify integration. They've been rock solid. There's not a perfect light bulb that's right for every system. I prefer the sengled bulbs myself. They're reasonably priced and they don't try to repeat. They can be connected directly to the HE hub. They've been very solid for me. It's a fact that crees take down networks if connected directly. I've lived it. I know what you're going through. Looking at your screenshot above, do you have all battery powered devices? Or am I not seeing your entire list? This can be a problem as well as your mesh is relying solely on the hub to carry your signals. Can you give me an equipment list?

Definitely your Crees bulbs is the cause of your departures and arrivals of your presence sensors, I had the exact same problem until I moved the Crees to a Hue bridge, then I replaced all Crees with Yeelight color. Hue hubs are cheap on fleabay and you can link them to HE easily.

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Hello April,

It's not the full list, but everything is battery operated. except for my door Chime alarm.

Zigbee Device list


image

View from the device list




I see that as a contributing factor in your mesh. How many crees do you have total? The magic number is around 9. I've seen that a number less than that directly connected to the hub will still possibly run ok. NOT that you should bank on that, but you can use them in anticipation of replacement.

BUT, what is more concerning is that you have no repeaters other than the Crees. And that is not a good combination. I would strongly suggest that you get some zigbee and zwave repeaters into your build. There are some Iris 3210's that are sold on ebay in lots of 5 for around 50$ that are great. They're zigbee, so they repeat zigbee, but they have a built in z-wave repeater as well. They work very well and cause minimal issues. I suggest getting some of those added to your network to improve the strength. I would also suggest getting a lightify or hue gateway and getting those crees separated from the rest of your stuff. They'll become the bane of your existence if you leave them directly connected. I could explain why, but I just don't have enough words this morning to do so. Just trust me. :wink:

[EDIT]
You should look at your zigbee logs and see what the rssi is on some of your things.

I only have 3 cree bulbs, the rest of my bulbs are lifx that's not on the HE hub. I've never checked my zigbee logs until today but this is all I see

I learn so much from you guys. I see now I was misinformed about zigbee repeaters, I thought all zigbees where automatically repeaters, I have seen a few recommend zigbee because they're repeaters, I didn't know it was certain zigbees. I was also told to stay away from the Iris because they're no longer being made, but I will get a few now

Are you referring to a bundle for $50 because I'm seeing them for $22 and under
Iris plug

This is the guy that most of us purchase from. He's got positive reviews and he's trusted with a lot of the users here.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-5-Z-Wave-Plus-Smart-Plug-Model-3210-L-White-Zigbee/153454971494?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

They're difficult to pair as a zwave repeater, but these are stable. There are also the ikea tradfri ones that get rated highly here. Search the forum here.

Bulbs are generally bad repeaters. Here is one of the many posts regarding this.

If you look at your zigbee information and trigger your devices, it will start to give you rssi. It's something to base your communication woes off of, but not the end all be all of information. You'll be able to see if there is poor communication with that but it's not 100% accurate. If you search the forum, there are posts on zigbee routing tables and rssi. I suggest looking that up.

[EDIT]
If you're considering adding equipment, please do a quick search here. If you're getting mixed reviews post that question out to the community. You'll get straight answers.

And BTW - welcome to the community. The rabbit hole is deep here. See you on the other side.

[EDIT -again]

I see that you're using some Xiaomi devices. Be aware that such devices can be problematic as well. They're nice and cheap, but most that use Xiaomi and crees have them paired to a separate dedicated hub. Not a main hub. There are several people out there to talk to about this. I can think of one right away. Tagging @aaiyar

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@iecus @april.brandt

If you have Xiaomi devices, then you should definitely read these two threads, especially the second (keeping them connected):

I have 30+ Xiaomi devices on a separate hubitat with 10 zigbee repeaters. Five of them are Ikea Tradfri control outlets, and the other five are Ikea USB repeaters.

Xiaomi devices will fall off line and are difficult to keep paired if there are any non-Xiaomi compatible zigbee repeaters on the same zigbee network. Also, once they start routing through a particular repeaters, the devices keep routing through it all the time. This becomes an issue if you move Tradfri outlets around etc. Best to place them in their permanent spots before pairing any Xiaomi sensors.

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