Thing is, most all line powered devices are repeaters. So, if you want to do stuff, like switch electrical loads, you'll be adding repeaters.
Indeed. Ironically, adding repeaters should strengthen the mesh and make it more resilient. But if they are low quality devices, the exact opposite happens. That is partly why I went with the dedicated Mini USB repeaters.
Hopefully with this new driver we can gather some information on the relative strengths of different plugs and all make more informed choices.
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Probably white noise at this point, but Iāll share my experience.
I have three rules:
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No lightbulbs on a network with other end devices. Sengled are the only exception, but I donāt have any in use anymore. My smart bulbs are all Hue on their own Zigbee network running off of a Hue Bridge.
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I always test a repeater and see how it works out. I donāt just throw them in. If I experience reliability problems I try moving them, but if that doesnāt work theyāre gone.
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I donāt connect Xiaomi and IKEA devices on anything but my ConBee2 controller running on HA. I get it, some people have success with them on Hubitat. I didnāt, and Iāve tried many times over the years when someone came along and said Iāve now written the perfect driver and itās all going to work great now. It never has for me, and itās a lot of stress for me and the family when things are not functioning properly. The way I have it now works perfect, so Iāve no desire to change it.
Here are my two network maps for Hubitat and HA with the ConBee 2. All of the repeating on Hubitat youāll notice Is via my Sinope thermostats. Thatās just a nice side effect of a choice I made for my electrically heated home. One thing to note is that one of the devices on the Hubitat network map named Air Handler is an IKEA outlet and nothing on my Hubitat Zigbee network wants to use it as a repeater. Whereas the ConBee2 on HA is using one of them to repeat. The point being that you just donāt know exactly whatās going to work until you try, move things around if theyāre not working well, and switch them out to get the best combination. Iām very glad that the Sinope have turned out to be such good repeaters for Hubitat.
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C-8 Hub 2.3.6.146 with Z-Wave turned off. Zigbee on Channel 20 with Power Level 8.
45 Zigbee devices.
2 Unifi AP-AC-Pro Access Points with Channels set to Auto.
1 Unifi AP-BeaconHD with Channels set to Auto.
45 neighboring WiFi devices detected.
7 repeater devices (4 SmartThings/Centralite outlets, 3 Smartenit relays hard-wired to fans). 1 Smartenit relay (ceiiling fan) routes for 4 devices, 1 Smartenit relay (ceiling fan) routes for 8 devices, 1 Smartenit relay (attic exhaust fan) routes for 1 device. 2 of the outlets route for 4 devices each, 1 outlet routes for 3 devices and one routes for 1 device.
These routing devices are some of the oldest Zigbee devices I own.
Routing shifts a bit over time but about half of the devices are consistently directly connected.
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I have also found these to be excellent. With both Hubitat and zigbee2mqtt.
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With the new zigbee map app, i see that my leviton plug in dimmer is a beast. Link quality above 250 with almost all of my network despite some distance and obstacles. Everything else (Third reality, sonoff, sengled) hovers below 100.
I am growing suspect of these Sylvania Smart + outlets/plugs as some odd behavior, and problems rejoining the network after reboot have been appearing lately. I think these are the first outlets I bought way back.
I am wondering if HE upgrades of recent vintage and/or device age are causing some hiccups and if indeed a firmware upgrade would be the fix. Might there be some Zigbee compatibility issues similar to what eventually left some of the ole Iris stuff behind?
Two of these I've used pretty heavily so they aren't just in repeater duty.
- endpointId: 01
- application: 01
- firmwareMT: 1189-0025-00102101
- manufacturer: LEDVANCE
- model: PLUG
- powerCluster: none
- softwareBuild: 00102101
Can you remind us what model of HE hub these are on?
Iāve never had any problems with mine, but they arenāt strong repeaters. They currently donāt repeat for anything Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 dongles are the best ones I know of that can be readily purchased.
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Post is kinda OT but it touches on mesh reliability when it comes to energy monitoring outlet use.
C-5 was at .150 now on .153
Generic Zigbee Driver
But WAIT THERE'S MORE !
Holy smokes, I lost contact with this outlet back on the 7th and somebody's been using the button on the outlet to turn it on/off unbeknownst to me so I didn't realize it was not communicating. When I try to re-pair without taking it down to a factory reset it is not recognized. Might have to factory reset. But what derailed it in the first place. Like others have said, these have been pretty reliable.
Last Activity At 2024-06-07 12:28:51
I knew I was having some problems around the time I did a couple HE upgrades and added an INNR outlet.
Note the Zigbee radio going offline on the 7th just after restarting after the .147 update. Doesn't seem like a normal startup thing to me.
EDIT ADD: OK, did a factory reset and re-paired it. Was recognized and now works as it should. I have no idea if this was perpetrated by the HE upgrade or the INNR SP244 installation. OR, here's a thought....I am using this Sylvania outlet on an AC that's probably pulling almost 5 amps. That's 1/3 the outlet rating...but maybe there's some heat buildup that isn't being tolerated well with age.
I will say that is an Watt Metering outlet and this won't be the first time I have added such an outlet (Sinope was the other) where I had the Zigbee radio go down and back up. That was many HE upgrades ago tho, at least back on the .7 level maybe? Anyway, I was not using electricity on that INNR when it was installed so that I'd have time to adjust the Watt metering threshold before it had a chance to saturate the Zigbee mesh with data (that's another story, it reports single digits that probably ought to be x10).
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