I am currently running a C-5 hub with platform version 2.4.3.133. From a layout perspective, I live in a one bedroom apartment with a bedroom and living area as the two main rooms. My hub lives on the top shelf in the bedroom above my desk next to my router and Bond bridge. No device in use is more than 30 feet from my hub, probably less. Interior construction is all just wood and sheetrock, so nothing that should be impacting a signal.
Until recently, I had three IKEA Fyrtur shades. In the last year, the two in the living room consistently dropped off the network and had to be repaired. When the motor died on one of them, I decided it was finally time to upgrade. I replaced all three this week with brand new Smartwings Zigbee shades. I'm running the community driver because it was more compatible with existing rules I had in place rather than the built-in Smartwings driver. However, I don't believe this to be a driver issue.
All three shades paired fine initially, but within a few days, the two in the living room started falling off the network again. Now one will not re-pair at all, it won't even be detected, and the other will re-pair for a bit and then fall off again. They both sit literally on the other side of the wall from the hub, not more than a foot and six feet away, respectively. The bedroom shade, which sites only a few inches from the hub has been completely reliable.
I have 18 Zigbee devices currently installed, six are THIRDREALITY smart plugs which are pretty evenly distributed around the apartment and act as repeaters. The rest are window and water sensors and a couple of smart buttons. Again, given the short distances we're talking about, this should be a pretty strong mesh. I'm running on Zigbee channel 20 to avoid conflicts with my 2.4 Ghz wireless network which seems to prefer channels 6 and 11. No other Zigbee devices except these two shades seem to have any issues with reliability. I can't wrap my head around what about that specific location could be impacting a signal, especially with so many repeaters available.
Smartwings support hasn't been much help and quite frankly I can't blame them as the problem does seem to be mine. Trying to figure out reasonable next steps here for troubleshooting. I've performed factory resets on the shades, rebooted the hub with a database rebuild, all with no luck. Happy to share any additional data that might be useful.
The Zigbee Map App would probably be helpful in diagnosing the issue, which seems likely to be signal related. It may be that the shades won't route through the TR outlets. I have a couple TR outlets and nothing routes through them, but they otherwise have worked well. It could also be that your router is too close to the hub (recommendation is at least 6 feet away I believe) and causing signal interference. Also, wifi channel 11 still has some overlap with zigbee channel 20, especially if it's not locked down to 20MHz only mode. If you're stuck with 1 & 11, you could try Zigbee channel 18, but your battery devices might need rejoined, so that would probably be a last resort. With mesh wifi I have had good luck with channels 18 and 24 (Hue is on 20 & 25) and my Linksys Velop setup doesn't let me pick the channels it uses. If none of that works, you might try adding one or two dedicated repeaters like the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 dongle. I have been using them for years now and find that most of my devices attach to one of them and never drop off. You can find a nice write-up of how to flash them with router firmware if you search the forum.
The right repeaters make all the difference.
FWIW. C8. My access points are on 1, 6 and 11. ZigBee on channel 15. Power level 8. 70 ZigBee devices, 16 of which are Smartwings Zigbee shades. Nothing ever drops off. A variety of ZigBee smart plugs for repeaters. One is a Third Reality that does repeat for a couple of devices. Hue bridge on channel 20.
Put router on channel 6 or below and the hub on 25 and see how it works. (20 can be problematic sometimes)
Yes. for me, everything connects better to C-8 or C-8 Pro. When the C-8 was released, I migrated from C-5 and everything was better in Zigbee and Z-wave world. More reasonable interpretation of signal strength, etc with Zigbee 3.0 also probably helps inform end devices. With Zigbee 1.2, almost everything reported 255, now it’s much more granular.
Yes, I think I was too hung up on distances being OK, but interference seems like a more likely scenario.
I have to keep in mind as well it's not just MY wifi, but signals from nearby apartments and businesses as well all leaking into my apartment. It seems for some reason the specific location of these two shades must be at a point of high interference. Obviously not possible to move the windows, but maybe a new Zigbee channel will be the solution.
Admittedly, I have heard the C-8 / C-8 Pro have better performance and was considering an upgrade anyway, though I've seen mixed reviews on the ease of switching (i.e. the automated cloud backup/restore process).
I haven’t heard of any issues with Zigbee migration. It seems more like a z-wave thing. My network is mostly Zigbee and I had no issues.
Interesting. I have a mix of both, though my Z-Wave devices have all been rock solid to date. Mostly Inovelli bulbs and their dimmer switches.
I was able to get a scan of all the Wifi networks around me, and looks like I'm dealing with a lot more interference than expected from several routers and other devices (only one of those is even mine).
It's odd that only two devices in a very specific location are having issues staying connected, though I suppose it's possible by virtue of being shades near a window and external wall, they're suffering from the most interference?
Have you tried our recommendations? Router channel on 6 or below and hub on 25? (Stay off of 20)
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I did today. The mesh rebuilt pretty quickly, I had to poke a couple of devices to rejoin but otherwise fine.
However, the main issue of getting the problematic shade to re-pair is still unresolved. The hub just does not find it when it's in pairing mode.
