Well checked the 45856GE and all the Xiaomi devices fell off. Definitely doesn’t work as a router/repeater.
Not sure why the Orvibo outlet works but will reconnect to it and see if there are any longer term drop offs.
Also when I changed Zigbee channels it says it may take 24 hours for Zigbee devices to rejoin but none of the Xiaomi (that were connected directly to the hub), my SmartThing Arrival V3 sensors or the Orvibo outlet reconnected.
The only device that did change over were my SmartThings water/leak sensors.
My temp/humidity sensor has also “fallen off” a couple times. I’m not sure if it’s something odd about my setup (I’m using it just outside my house, so it’s probably the furthest from my hub, and it might be going through a repeater, though the only one I have is very close to my hub). Putting the hub in pairing mode and pressing the button a few times (not holding it to reset) has brought it back on. I remember needing to do this with ST once, but it stayed connected after that. Hopefully this was just a fluke on Hubitat too, but I’m nervous that it’s happened twice already and also seems to be happening to you. We’ll see!
In related news, if anyone knows any outdoor temperature sensors that work with Hubitat, I’d love to know! The SmartThings Temperature/Humidity sensor is hard to find (maybe discontinued?), and I’m not sure if the ST MultiSensor—which I have an extra one of—would work well outdoors, even if it’s mostly protected (I’m really not sure any of these would, but the Xiaomi one is cheap enough that I don’t care). I’m contemplating using a Monoprice 15271 Z-Wave Plus PIR motion sensor, since it’s pretty bad as a motion sensor but does report temperature, albeit not very often (wonder if the amount it needs to change by to report is a configurable parameter). I’m mostly interested in weather—my temperature can vary a few degrees compared to what is reported by online sources—but if I can find one that’s reliable enough, I might try fridge or freezer monitoring, too.
I just checked and found out my Hubiat hub dropped connections with two of my Xiaomi devices:
an Aqara leak sensor (paired February 24, dropped on March 19) and
a original Door/Window sensor (paired February 24, dropped March 17)
My other 23 Xiaomi devices art still active and have been connected since February 24.
The dropped Door/Window sensor is the most distant device from my hub, so that could be the reason, but the leak sensor is only about 9-10ft (3 meters) from the hub.
As far as I'm concerned, if there's a way for me to receive a notification if a device's status goes to "INACTIVE" then I think I can accept a sensor's connection being dropped now and then, but not every day or every week.
@cuboy29 - Do you have any Zigbee repeating devices connected to your Hubitat? And how far away from the hub are those Temp/Humidity sensors?
I don't know of any good outdoor sensors, but since I've bought a bunch of the Xioami Temp/Humidity sensors quite cheaply from a couple people who didn't want them anymore, I plan to mount one outside in a place where it's relatively protected from direct exposure to sun / rain. If it stops working, no great loss. But I live in the Pacific Northwest, and we don't have real extremes in the weather, so hopefully it will do the trick.
My pair of Xiaomi round buttons are still paired (since Feb. 25th or so) and have remained so. I did verify they were child devices of the hub when paired; I’ve noticed they seem to prefer to attach themselves to Iris repeaters even if those repeaters are located considerably further away than the Hubitat.
The Hub is sitting on top of my kitchen cabinets and I have Iris plus 10 feet away from the HUB. The two Xiaomi sensors are sitting 15 feet away from the HUB and also right next to another Iris Plug. How do I tell if the sensors are connected to the HUB via the Iris plug? Do you guys use mapping software to tell?
I mapped my mesh (XCTU program along with the Digi XStick) but you should be able to verify that they are/are not going through the Iris repeaters by unplugging the repeaters and see if a button press no longer registers. You want to do this fairly quickly before any route re-building is attempted (assuming the Xiaomi is even capable of this). If it still works with all repeaters unplugged, its routed directly through the hub.
Edit: I see you have sensors; depending on how quickly they react you’ll have to try to get them to send input to the hub within several minutes of unplugging the repeater.
Just one anecdotal report: I had an original (round) motion detector that always paired to ST and then always lost it within a couple of hours (maybe a dozen times). It connected on the first try to Hubitat and has been solid for about 10 days.
What zigbee channel are you using?
I have noticed some devices work better with different channels . My Xiaomi seem to work very well with channel 21 but then my GE switch didn’t work with channel 21. It worked great with channel 25 but then I couldn’t get any Xiaomi to work on channel 25.
SmartThings seemed to find devices better so I checked SmartThings and it was using channel 20.
I then changed Hubitat to channel 20 and I was able to get both devices work. (not long enough yet determine if channel 20 stays connected)
beware changing zigbee channels in Hubitat can cause the zigbee option to mess up and you may have to disable status and then re-enable the zigbee status . You may even have to reset the Zigbee stick.
just back up your hub before you start playing with the Zigbee channels so you can fail back.
That is very interesting. Currently my Hubitat Zigbee channel is set to 26 and SmartThings to 15. I don't know what my SmartThings' Zigbee channel was previously when I had 100% success with Xiaomi devices remaining connected because I've power cycled it several times since installing my Hubitat, and as I understand it the ST hub will choose a different channel from any used by other nearby Zigbee coordinators (hubs).
When you changed your Hubitat to channel 20, did you power cycle your SmartThings hub so it would select a different channel, or are they now both on the same channel?
My Hubitat is on channel 12. So what’s the procedure for changing the channel? Just change it in hubitat and wait for the the devices to find the hub again?
I just found out one of my Ubiquiti AP that is not too far away from the Hubitat is using channel 1. Just moved it to channel 11 now to see if that will help.
I haven’t messed around with Zigbee channels at all. Still on 26, but devices that were a breeze to pair last week from 20ft away, are now not pairing 1-inch from the stick. Either they don’t get found or they get stuck in initializing for 30 minutes before I give up.
What was a cakewalk is now turning into the walking dead. Me walking “dead” Xiaomi devices to the hub to no avail.
Also from part two of that same article by Joel Crane, the "sideband lobes" of each WiFi channel need to be considered if your WiFi and Zigbee radios are in close proximity. And... if you are using multiple 2.4GHz WiFi access points in your home on different channels, then the Zigbee channel preferably should be outside the channels used by the APs - which is only possible if you're using two neighboring non-overlapping 2.4GHz WiFi channels (1&6 or 6&11).
Based on all of this, I'm going to need to move away from Zigbee channel 26 for my Hubitat, because I'll be moving more non-Xiaomi Zigbee devices over soon. I only have one WiFi router, centrally located in the same room with my ST and Hubitat hubs in my relatively home. So after checking what channels my neighbors seem to be using I will either set my WiFi router's 2.4GHz WiFi radio to permanently use channel 1 and make sure my ST and Hubitat hubs are on a Zigbee channel between 19-24 or set my 2.4GHz WiFi to channel 11 and Zigbee channels between 11-16.
Great info. I have 3 Ubiquiti APs now all running on channel 11 and Hubitat is on 12 so they should be far enough apart that interference shouldn’t be an issue (I hope). I still have the ST HUB on channel 20. Ultimately, I would like to turn off the zigbee radio for the ST HUB too but I can’t for now. Still have my Spruce sprinkler system that I can’t port over to Hubitat yet.
Interesting info. My Xiaomi leak sensor has been staying connected, no problem. I’m using Zigbee channel 13 which was chosen for me when I setup Hubitat. I love the irony that channel 13 is working perfectly. I’m going to go knock on some unfinished wood now!
So my WiFi router is a NETGEAR dual-band R6400, but if the 2.4GHz WiFi radio is set for its high speed mode (up to 450Mbps) then it actually needs two 20MHz bands, which requires two channels - primary and secondary. For my NETGEAR router there are preset primary and secondary channel pairs that can’t be changed. So for example, if I set the 2.4GHz WiFi radio channel to 11, then the secondary channel is 7. Luckily I don’t have any additional APs, so after checking the channels used by neighbors, here’s what I am going to try:
2.4GHz WiFi radio set to primary channel 11 (and secondary channel 7) because my nearest neighbors are using channel 6 and more distant neighbors using channel 1.
SmartThings Hub Zigbee set to channel 15 (leaving as is because I’m moving all Zigbee off anyhow)
Hubitat Zigbee set to channel 13 (which should be totally clear of my 2.4GHz WiFi radio channels 11 & 7, and also neighbors using channel 6, but with no idea whether their secondary channels - if used - were shown in the utility I used)
So it seems I’m going to go with @SmartHomePrimer’s “lucky” channel 13 and will report back next week as to how it goes.
no both Hubitat and SmartThings are now on the same channel (20) I believe to get SmartThings to change channel you have to to do a full hard reset (little red push button on hub) but I have not done that.
I believe both hubs simply choose which ever channel they see as having the least noise at the time when you first setup the hub. They do not auto change after.
but that doesn’t mean all different devices will work with that channel from what I am seeing.
on a side note I am having some luck with another repeater (with the Xiaomi) the SYLVANIA plug or north of the wall (Canada) sylvania plug for a much cheaper and easier way to add a repeater. But it has only been 2 days so far with out issues. and no doubt about the UL certificatrion.
I also am noticing some devices will not re-pair to a different repeater or back to the hub if the original repeater it paired through fails or drops the device . Running a test with my SmartThings Arrival zigbee sensor to confirm.
So basically depending on the device just throwing up more repeaters will not extend the range of a device you have to make sure you pair through the repeater at the outer most range that you want to use.
again I do have devices that do re pair like the SmartThings door sensors but Arrival sensors do not appear to (will confirm in a couple of days) nor does Xiaomi .
note: if changing zigbee channels save a back up of your hub first as it can mess up your zigbee option and cause you to do a full zigbee reset and have to re-pair all of your zigbee devices. But instead if it does just fail back over to your saved backup and then you do not have to re-pair all your zigbee device.
I have not tested all the channels to see which work better so far only 20,21,25,26 but maybe 13 is the lucky one it all really depends on what devices you have
