Updated C8 Pro to latest 2.3.9.196 platform and immediately got this new "Weak Zigbee channel found" warning. Current C8 Pro zigbee channel is 20 @ power 8:
This setting was present from day #1 after upgrading C8 to C8 Pro at a time when C8 Pro was announced. I am in a BIG apartment building with gazillions of WiFi networks around. Surprisingly Zigbee Mesh works just fine and seems to be very stable.
There is also a C7 with only 4 zigbee devices (these refused to connect directly to C8 Pro):
If your Zigbee mesh isn't broken/problematic, I wouldn't touch it. There should be an option on this warning to "Dismiss" it, so it does not bother you constantly.
I have my C8-Pro on Zigbee Channel 20 with power level 8, and it has been working extremely reliably.
Channel 26 in the USA is mandated by the FCC to use Low Power. I am not sure how low, though. I have always avoided Zigbee Ch 26 for this reason. I try to stick to channels 15, 20, and 25. I keep my 2.4GHz WiFi APs on channels 1, 6, and 11 with a 20Mhz channel width. This prevents conflicts between Zigbee 2.4GHz and WiFi 2.4GHz.
Then the warning is not for you, so you can ignore it. There are many folks who might experience Zigbee problems and could benefit from changing the channel to gain better experience. The message is for those users.
The hub can't precisely determine if you have problems or not, it just knows that there is a chance that you might, and if you do, it suggests a way to potentially resolve the problem.
@ogiewon@bobbyD Thank you for the comments.
Because zigbee mashes on both hubs are stable I am/was not planning to change anything but would like to hear a comments and opinions.
(The Dismiss button aready pressed.)
Actually I am really surprised, Zigbee works very well in my extremely rf-noisy environment.
I got the exact same thing this morning on my C-8 Pro. Was on .193 and now .196. I also got the infamous cloud backup did not complete which is the first time I've gotten that on my Pro hub. I got that regularly on my old C-8 hub and one reason why I bought a pro.
I have the same settings in the weak Zigbee as the op, channel 20 (ox14) and power level 8. I did change the channel and still the same. Rebooting doesn't clear it. I've never seen this alert before.
As a follow up I changed the channel to 26, power level 8 and reset the radio and the status changed to online and alert went away. Went back to channel 20 and got the weak alert again and status off line.
This is a brand new alert that came out in the latest release. You can click the dismiss option to suppress it. During beta I brought up the fact I have been on channel 20 for 10 years now while on ST for 4 years and HE for 6 with zero issues yet it popped up for me. The criteria for why it shows isn’t clear but was told it is more of a warning and that is why the dismiss button is there for those with no issues to suppress it.
Definitely don’t do this 26 is the weakest channel due to FCC regulations and many older devices won’t work on that frequency.
Thanks for that info. I moved it back to 20/8 and got the warning/alert back. I'll leave it there and hope an update will fix it. This time, however, the status is online with channel 20 and before it was offline.
not sure what your environment looks like, but I find it best to have lots of Wifi AP all TXing at low power, I set a minimal RSSI on my AP's to kick off clients that are too far away, to force them to roam to closer APs (go fish). I do the same with Zigbee. Low power Tx on the Hub and lots of routers. No need to have the Hub screaming over everyone and encourages zigbee devices to find the closest zigbee routers instead of having the hub talk over potential routers which may be closer. btw, the diagram of Wifi vs Zigbee overlap is not quite right. The only relatively clear channel is 26, however not all devices support it. 15, 20, and 25 are best but there still is Wifi spill over.
