I'm confused by the results of a Zigbee channel scan. Zigbee is active on my hub with just two devices and it is set to channel 20. My Hue Hub is also set to channel 20. I've ran a channel scan and I get three entries:
Channel 11 -46
Channel 20 -72
Channel 24 -57
None of the Pan ID's or Extended ID's match the Hubitat or the Hue hub (I've looked at the Hue Hub device ID and the ID in the Hue Bridge settings)
So my question is I suppose what should I see there - should I be able to identify Both my C-8 and Hue? Everything is working, I'm just curious.
I hadn't realised. I powered up the Hue to try out a few days ago and having read a few posts bumped the channel to 20. Only this morning I've realised that the C-8 was already running 20. What would you recommend to change one of the hubs to? (keeping in mind I have WiFi channels 1, 6 and 11 in use by my Unifi APs)
Thanks. I think it was on 11 when I powered up the other day but it's been sat in a box since 2020. This is what I see currently with the channel scan and as mentioned those IDs don't match the Hubitat or Hue from what I can see:
And this is a WiFi channel scan showing my APs on 1, 6 and 11 along with my bandwidth hogging neighbour who has obviously set his 2.4 at 40MHz thinking it'll give him a better connection (and his 5 GHz network at 80MHz):
I'd read or watched somewhere (possibly Crosstalk Solutions on YouTube) to keep 2.4 to 20 and 5.8 to 40 so I did that. That said it's still not possible to get three non overlapping 5.8 channels for 3 APs without one being DFS (in the UK/EU).
I switched my Hue across to Channel 25 and did the channel scan again and I now see a device on channel 25. The Hue app is not much use for getting the PAN ID as it still doesn't match what Hubitat displays but no matter...
I saw that video. He was being overly conservative on the 5GHz side. He was too worried about interfering with neighbors. I want the performance/speed. You can go to 80 without issue.
General rule of thumb on C8 is if Zigbee devices are working reliably on 20, you can leave it there. If you're having Zigbee issues, try moving to Zigbee another channel like 25 (which should also get you father away from 2.4ghz Wi-Fi). HE has seen pattern of potential issues using channel 20 on some users C8 hubs.
I've left the C-8 on channel 20 as it always was and moved Hue to 25 so they don't clash. Zigbee on my C-8 is limited to a single Zemismart blind and a Hue outlet (that's not needed). Devices connected to the Hue hub are limited but will soon rise as I migrate across from Z Wave dimmers. If I could find a bead chain motor for my blind that ran on EU Z Wave frequency to replace the Zemismart one I'd replace it and turn off Zigbee on the C-8 all together.
With three APs though would it not still be best practice to ensure they don't overlap? Running a speed test on my phone or laptop I'll see about 400Mbps usually (1150Mbps connection to ISP). The only time it would be handy to have faster speeds is when I'm transferring large downloaded files form my MacBook to a NAS drive and then I'll usually plug into a network point (I'm not actually sure how fast the file could be written to the NAS anyway)
You can prevent channel overlap by running your APs on the 3 different channels you have them on. If you are happy with keeping 5GHz channel width at 40, that is fine. I was just pointing out that you can go to 80 without issue. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, you will never be able to fully avoid overlap.
What is even more annoying is that Alexa devices cannot be tweaked, at all.
In other words, you can't change the channel that they are on - even if they conflict with your own Zigbee channels.
