Will spanking my Zigbee sensors work?

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1

Hi everyone,

I'm having a devil of a time with several of my motion sensors (Iris V3 motion sensors from Alex_Sari on ebay) not trigger lights to go on like they should. I have four of these in my master bathroom. One is working fine. One, the one in the master closet, started working fine when I re-paired it with Hubitat. The other two, the sensor in the master bathroom commode and the main master bathroom, are both firing with motion (as evidenced by the green beeping light when I come in) but are 100% failing to trigger the lights they are linked to.

Here are my Rule Machine rules for the sensors in question... am I doing anything stupidly wrong? I could believe I was doing something stupid if only because it's easy to fix stupid things.

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2

Seems you need some repeaters in your Zigbee mesh.

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3

Bathrooms are notoriously difficult because of their construction - lots and lots of metal. There are a couple of things we can do to confirm @BiGs's diagnosis.

Take a look at this... and post a screen shot if you would. It will give you some information about the health of your zigbee network. http://[your hub's ip]/hub/zigbee/getChildAndRouteInfo

Do the devices look ok from the device menu or do they fail to register there as well? At the very least you should see regular battery reports.

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4

Look at the Events log for the sensors in question. Note times you have seen them trigger. Check the events log to see if there is a corresponding event recorded in the log. If so, then the problem is likely in the rule. If not, then there is likely a communication issue.

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5

So the thing is, I actually do have a Tuya repeater going into the Master bedroom and a chain of plug-in Zigbee smart plugs to serve as additional repeaters going into the Master bathroom. It's hard to imagine needing more repeaters, and yet, I still have this problem. In the past, it has been intermittent but lately it's been really bad, but only with 2/4 of the zigbee sensors in my master bathroom--- the others are working just fine, despite being in nearly the same location. Isn't that odd?

When I go home and I'm on my home network I'll carry out brad5's and StephenH's troubleshooting steps and report back.

6

Hmmm maybe in that case the issue is not coverage but something else... would be curious to see if the same device functions in another room, but moving them may be nontrivial.

7

Interesting question. When I took them near my Hubitat to re-pair them, I noticed that despite pairing successfully, they didn't trigger the respective lights in the bathroom when I was walking with them to put them back.

I know the problem isn't the bathroom light switches, because Alexa commands activate them flawlessly these days.

8

Maybe also try another brand of motion sensor :slight_smile:

9

Well, the only motion sensor I have is the IRIS V3 and they are great everywhere else... just these two that are causing issues.

10

If you paired them at the HE hub, maybe they need to re-route to have the Zigbee signal get back to the hub. Zigbee mesh sometimes need time to find the right route.

When I need to re-pair a device, I do so from its final location. That makes them immediately working.

From your diagnosis I would try to rule out any 2.4GHz noisy device you may have near. Heating devices, motors, fans, old transformers, …

1 Like
11

I have two Wi-Fi floor heaters, but why would they only interfere with two out of the 11 Iris V3 Zigbee sensors? Especially when I have two more in that same area of the Master Bathroom that work well?

I can try re-pairing from their final location... I've been given contradictory recommendations regarding that but it's something I haven't tried so far.

If it helps, I could try posting a floor plan of where everything is in case that might help with advice about repeater placement, etc.

12

2.4GHz wavelength sometimes makes important differences only moving inches or changing position. Specially indoors.

Zigbee only re-routes when the signal is lost, not when the signal has a better path or better repeater relay.

And yes, you are right, it is a bit of try and guess.

13

On a different thread I was advised to change the channel, of my Hubitat Zigbee network to avoid interference with Wi-Fi... just remembered that. Hopefully that would prevent this sort of problem?

14

If it is WiFi induced, yes it will.

15

OK, getting back to you all with some additional information.

My Hubitat Zigbee network is on channel 13 (which I believe is supposed to prevent interference from Wi-Fi)

Here is the Child & Route Info that @brad5 asked for:

Parent child parameters
EzspGetParentChildParametersResponse [childCount=3, parentEui64=0000000000000000, parentNodeId=65535]

Child Data
child:[Kids Bedroom Sensor, C33B, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Kids Bathroom Sensor, 70D2, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]
child:[Master Closet Sensor, 463C, type:EMBER_SLEEPY_END_DEVICE]

Neighbor Table Entry
[Holiday Lights Dining Room, 1C3F], LQI:253, age:4, inCost:3, outCost:5
[Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA], LQI:253, age:4, inCost:3, outCost:1
[Master Bedroom Diffuser, 5351], LQI:231, age:5, inCost:5, outCost:7
[Living Room Zigbee Outlet, 5597], LQI:231, age:7, inCost:5, outCost:0
[Foyer Zigbee Plug, 59A6], LQI:218, age:7, inCost:5, outCost:0
[Master Bathroom Diffuser, AAC4], LQI:68, age:7, inCost:7, outCost:0
[Theater Room Zigbee Plug, BDDB], LQI:254, age:7, inCost:1, outCost:0
[Game Room Table Light, C73B], LQI:251, age:4, inCost:3, outCost:3
[Holiday Lights Temple, CA89], LQI:22, age:7, inCost:7, outCost:0
[Holiday Lights Sun Room, F430], LQI:135, age:7, inCost:7, outCost:0

Route Table Entry
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Master Commode Sensor, AC60] via [Theater Room Zigbee Plug, BDDB]
status:Unused
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Theater Room Zigbee Plug, BDDB] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Master Bedroom Diffuser, 5351] via [Theater Room Zigbee Plug, BDDB]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Game Room Table Light, C73B] via [Theater Room Zigbee Plug, BDDB]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Living Room Zigbee Outlet, 5597] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Master Shower Sensor, 715A] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Holiday Lights Temple, CA89] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Holiday Lights Dining Room, 1C3F] via [Theater Room Zigbee Plug, BDDB]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Foyer Zigbee Plug, 59A6] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Master Bathroom Diffuser, AAC4] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Holiday Lights Sun Room, F430] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Play Room Sensor, 7C4E] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Garage Sensor, 4A46] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Kitchenette Sensor, C896] via [Theater Room Zigbee Plug, BDDB]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Study Room Blinds, D882] via [Tuya Zigbee Repeater, 3FDA]

16

Channel 13 is not a good choice. That is basically the center channel for wifi channel 1. Use 15, 20, or 25. Don't use 26.

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17

I could be mistaken, but I thought I previously determined that my Wi-Fi was using channel 11. Wouldn't that make Zigbee using channel 13 ok, based on that diagram? Because that was the one I was looking at some time ago when I was participating in a thread about Zigbee and my Philips Hue lights.

18

If you routinely do scans around you to verify your neighbors aren't using channel 1 wifi and you aren't using it then sure you should be ok, but you would better advised using one of the wifi side-lobed as a new wifi network won't kill your mesh. The default channel for wifi is channel 1 on most devices. Additionally routers have the ability to search for less congested channels so even if your neighbors aren't using channel 1 now, it doesn't mean they won't in the future. Channel 15 ZigBee has the same benefit of being out of the wifi channel 13 but not exposed to potential center channel interference which is often much worse than side lobe interference since the power is so much lower in the lobes.

19

I also see about 20 cars around me that have AP's and all their channels change randomly. I use wifi channel 1, 6, and 11 in my house and don't have any interference issues using channel 25.

20

I have the additional problem of four Philips Hue Bridges that I have to avoid clashing with each other and with Wi-Fi. They are set to use channels 11, 15, 20, and 25 and are locked into using only those channels. I could probably have two bridges use the same channel, like the fourth one use 20 to leave 25 open, but I don't even know what kind of other problems that might create.

I don't know if this matters, but the side of my house where the sensors aren't working is a side facing the street, so there ought to be more physical distance from an interfering neighbor's Wi-Fi network.