Zigbee device (Halo+) falling off network

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1

I have 2x Halo smoke detectors. Recently I have added a bunch of Zigbee motion and contact sensor, so added a few additional repeater outlets. To see how everything was talking I have been keeping an eye on the stuff at....

{Hub IP}/hub/zigbee/getChildAndRouteInfo

One of the two Halo devices will appear on the list under 'Neighbor Table Entry'. Then 5 minutes later when I do a refresh on that page it is gone. Sometime later it will come back. My guess is that cannot be good for the health of my Zigbee network.

Is there a way to repair/reset the Zigbee radio in the Halo unit. Given this is a smoke alarm, it has battery backup so not sure an unplug/re-plug will help (unless battery is removed too maybe).

I have not played with it yet, and figured I would reach out to see if anyone here had experience before jumping in.

2

First - it sounds like your mesh is dancing all over
please list what you have for repeaters.

3

Kitchen and Master Bedroom are Moes Outlets

Garage is an Iris outlet

Kennel is a SmartThings outlet

Alarm Upstairs is the 1 Halo

and I have one more Halo but it doesn't want to talk right now. It's on the main floor right in the center of it all.

[Kitchen - Exhaust - ZigBee Outlet, 6FBB], LQI:254, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Upstairs - Master Bedroom - Zigbee Repeater Outlet, 9C94], LQI:44, age:7, inCost:7, outCost:0
[Garage - Dimming Outlet, 9D88], LQI:79, age:7, inCost:7, outCost:0
[Office - Kennel - Zigbee Outlet, A17B], LQI:220, age:3, inCost:5, outCost:3
[Alarms - Upstairs Hallway Alarm, D7D4], LQI:51, age:7, inCost:7, outCost:0

4

I just refreshed that page and got this guy "In Discovery" which I can only guess means it is a device that was going thru the "main Alarm" and now is rerouting?

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5

That is pretty awful. 255 is the best, so you are WAY down in signal strength.

Interference or not enough repeaters?

6

I don't have a zigbee down in the basement, and I have one outlet left. Let me put one down there near the hub and see how it reacts. I just started building out the Zigbee side of things.

7

what channel is your zigbee set to?

8
  1. forget which device I needed to change it for, been a while.
9

how long have you been beating on your network with this? After you place your repeater, turn your hub safely off. Yes OFF. for 30 minutes. Then power it on and leave it alone. Dont look at signal, don't look at routing. Give it 24 hours. Then check on it. Then see where it is. Let it build and stabilize. In the meantime, maybe look at a wifi analyzer and see where the interference is on the 2.4ghz networks.

[EDIT]
Powering off your hub for that amount of time forces your mesh to repair.

Ok maybe not 24 hours - but give it some time

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10

Your zigbee mesh will dance around a bit when you're adding devices to it. If you've been adding a bunch of devices to trouibleshoot this, you've sent your mesh into a shitstorm. It's tough to do, but give it some time and see if it stabilizes and works itself out.

11

Ok the 30 minutes of back pushing buttons have begun.

I wouldn't say I have added a bunch of devices to fix this. I knew I was going to be adding a bunch of device so I added the repeaters, added a bunch of sensors, and started watching things. Before that I didn't think I was 'beating on the network' because I never had any devices other than the smoke detectors, and one ST motion (next to the smoke alarm). Since they are "repeaters", stacked one on top of the other (upstairs, main floor) I figured they would be good. I only use the smoke detectors as night lights at this point, and they always came on so again I had no reason to doubt them. I only discovered that page recently as I started to look deeper into building out the Zigbee mesh, and I knew it would need boosting.

12

I will back up most of what April said to do, but I would sneak a peek at the child and route table after you get things back up and running.

In my experience, (which is probably flawed or incorrect in some way), when I see the "high ram" and the weird routing jumps, I suspect that particular device is causing issues. My Peanut plugs did exactly that, and the jumping around stopped almost immediately after removing them and a reboot of the hub.

My iris are rock solid, but for some they are not. They do not show either low ram or high ram in the concentrator type.

13

My WAP inside is on channel 2 and outdoor WAP is on 6. I have neighbors on 11. I do not see the Zigbee network on my wifi analyzer but I didn't much expect to.

EDIT: I'll certainly give it time (I have no real other choice logically, time will have its way). But...

[Kitchen - Exhaust - ZigBee Outlet, 6FBB], LQI:255, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Upstairs - Master Bedroom - Zigbee Repeater Outlet, 9C94], LQI:253, age:3, inCost:3, outCost:1
[Garage - Dimming Outlet, 9D88], LQI:52, age:6, inCost:7, outCost:5
[1 Basement Zigbee Outlet , A007], LQI:255, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Office - Kennel - Zigbee Outlet, A17B], LQI:255, age:3, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Alarm - Main Floor, C673], LQI:205, age:3, inCost:5, outCost:1
[Alarms - Upstairs Hallway Alarm, D7D4], LQI:50, age:4, inCost:7, outCost:1

So my Main floor alarm is the 'suspect device'. I wanted to grab his values while he was around. Numbers look better except those two.

waiting...... only looking at routes with one :eye:

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14

Maybe I am wrong, but I think April was referring to the overlap between 2.4G wifi and Zigbee channels?

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15

so by those reading we should be good there at 2 and 6 for my WAPs.

16

That is the way I understand it. I think you can also change the width of the bands to also help prevent lots of overlap. (20MHz vs 40Mhz).

17

Looks like the panic reset worked. I should have known to try that before posting, I did read about it. It should only get better from here, as we don't look. :wink:

Neighbor Table Entry
[Kitchen - Exhaust - ZigBee Outlet, 6FBB], LQI:251, age:4, inCost:3, outCost:1
[Upstairs - Master Bedroom - Zigbee Repeater Outlet, 9C94], LQI:252, age:4, inCost:3, outCost:1
[Garage - Dimming Outlet, 9D88], LQI:118, age:6, inCost:7, outCost:3
[1 Basement Zigbee Outlet , A007], LQI:255, age:5, inCost:1, outCost:1
[Office - Kennel - Zigbee Outlet, A17B], LQI:253, age:4, inCost:3, outCost:1
[Alarm - Main Floor, C673], LQI:236, age:3, inCost:5, outCost:1
[Alarms - Upstairs Hallway Alarm, D7D4], LQI:126, age:4, inCost:7, outCost:1

Thanks @april.brandt @neonturbo for the reminder and the update to my knowledge base.

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18

Garage and Alarms still look a bit weak, but much improved from before.

Did you add that second repeater? Maybe near or in the garage?

19

It could be, or it's just finding a good route. If it's doing that later (much later) then the device has issues and resetting it might be in order, but
Also keep in mind that the routing table is not the whole picture. It only shows some of what is going on, so the data can be skewed. So it's good for telling some things but not everything. So don't bet the farm on it.
glad it's calming down

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20

I put the second repeater in the basement but looking back at the numbers (now that I know what they mean) the kitchen exhaust vent was 254, so I am not sure it is need near the hub. My exhaust vent outlet is below the stove top just above the hub. That repeater might be better severed in the garage, but I don't think I have another outlet between the downdraft vent and where it is now. There is a freezer between point a and b that could be the issue, not sure it can be fixed.

@neonturbo I owe you a floor plan form another thread. I will layout the new zigbee network on it as well.

Either way think that fixed the main floor alarm it has not dropped since. :+1:

still waiting....

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