Recently, well for the last few months, having trouble with zigbee plugs, working one day, and then not the next. Multiple brands, so not specific to one make. I am running two Hubitat hubs, one at both ends of home, so signal should be strong, in room I am having issues with. Any ideas?
Are the two hubs on different Zigbee channels? It sounds like you're thinking they form one giant Zigbee mesh, but they actually just form two separate Zigbee networks. Keeping them on different channels (and avoiding ones that overlap with Wi-Fi or other interference that may be present in your environment) is generally best, as good as Zigbee is supposed to be about avoiding this on its own regardless.
Also, what else is on these Zigbee networks? In particular, do you have any smart bulbs?
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I will check that when I get home, I was thinking that the two hubs would sync with each other, so thank you. So I should set them different channels? I use Hue lights only, so I don’t think this would effect them, do not know.
Different channels is probably better. ("Hub Mesh" just shares devices over your LAN--no relation to any underlying protocols like Zigbee or Z-Wave in case that is a point of confusion.)
Hue bulbs should be fine if they are on a different network, like the Hue Bridge (again, avoiding this channel would likely be better, though I think the Hue Bridge only works on one of the four primary ZLL channels, so it might be difficult to keep all three away from each other and 2.4 GHz Wi-FI). If they are on the same hub, I'd be curious if they are part of the problem. People have definitely noticed oddities with the older Hue bulbs. Not so much with recent ones as far as I've seen, though I don't know that anyone has objectively observed this with a Zigbee sniffer either way like staff did back then...
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Might want to check power settings also.
I use 8 but might try 12 or even 4
I finally disconnected the 2nd Hubitat Hub last night, as nothing was working. Will see what happens in 24 hours. Frustrating, as I thought zigbee devices were great, or they have been pretty consistent for electrical switches.
I have also been running HUE lights, (72) for as long as I have had the Hubitat, with no issues, up till a few months ago.
I use two hubs. One holds most of my more modern devices and the few Z-Wave devices that I have. The second is dedicated to my Iris V1 devices. They operate on different Zigbee channels. The main hub is on channel 20 and my second hub is on channel 25. I have my house WiFi set up to use channel 1, which keeps the WiFi as far as possible from the Zigbee channels.
I have several devices that act as repeaters also, including three GE/Jasco switches/dimmers, and other devices that act as repeaters. My Zigbee mesh is solid and reliable. About the only time a device drops off is when one of the batteries gets low. I had that happen last night with my keyfob. I replaced the battery and all is back to full operation again.
Thank you for the information. I am not very swift on electronics, so learning, never knew about setting WiFi channels, or even that you could. My zigbee is on channel 12 with a 8 or 12 power, whatever that means. I will see if I can change my ASUS pro 12 to use Channel 1, and then set my zigbee to the highest channels, and whatever strength.
Check your wifi and zigbee channels ..
set wifi to chan 1 and use only 20 MHz wide.< zigbee to chan 20 OR 25 ONLY at power 8
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Ok thank you, I will try this. As of right now no zigbees are working, frustrating
after you change all these settings .. you will need to power off the hub for 30-60 min.,
and it can / may / will take 24hrs for everything to re-find the hub.
Unless you have a really large home, you might not need two hubs. Zigbee uses the same 2.4 gHz band as WiFi, so the transmission speed is fast. Zigbee takes advantage of that speed by allowing multiple Zigbee repeaters to extend the range of connections with the hubs.
Most Zigbee plugs (and any other Zigbee devices powered by mains rather than battery power) will serve as repeaters. If you have a lot of Zigbee plugs (I have around 20 of them), your Zigbee mesh will be robust over long distances. Just try to make sure you have a plug within about 30 feet of the hub or another plug indoors. Outdoors, the signal can travel over much longer distances, but indoors, the signals are impeded by walls, appliances, furniture, electrical wiring, water piping, etc.
Ok thanks, I am now trying to update hub with new software version, and it cannot even do that. So slow, and then says failed
Ok thank you, as of right now I cannot even update my hub with new software version, something is going on
Thank you, update worked. Still, no Zigbee Devices are working. My latest backup was last year, stupid yes. Disconnected Hubitat Hub #2, so back to the newest hub only. Factory reset two zigbee plugs, and then they attached to Hubitat hub. They work through app, but won’t work through Alexa app. After 24 hours, no other zigbee switches have joined. Do I have to do this all again, for every zigbee switch?
I would try .. resetting your Alexa app .. make sure the devices are in the app .. and press done
Then power off hub for using the shut down command ..
in settings .. shut down .. and when it says : its safe to un-plug > do that.
and let hub be off for 5-15 min then plug back in ..
I have some zigbee devices that never reconnect if I change the zigbee channel.
All you need to do is put the hub into zigbee pairing mode, go to the device and follow the manufacturers instructions to re-pair the device. DO NOT delete the device from your hub first.
The device will be found as an existing device and slot right in to any automations you have for the device.
Personally I find it quicker to just go round all my zigbee devices and re-pair them if I change the hub ZB channel. It's just quicker. (This is just my view of course!!)
Good luck.
Since you are not good about making manual backups of your hub, you might want to consider the Hubitat Hub Protect subscription plan. Not only will it extend the warranty of your hub to provide a free replacement in the even of hardware failure, but also provides automatic backups of the software to protect against software issues.
If you decide to keep both of your hubs operational, you will need to have a separate subscription for each hub, but there is a reduced price for each additional hub.
https://shop.hubitat.com/hub-protect/
At a cost of only $29.95 per year for the 1st hub, you do not have to spend much time dealing with a failure to justify having the protection. Even though there are automatic backups, I still make a manual backup every few weeks....just in case.
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