Question

I'd love to see a zigbee network management system added to ST. At the very least a signal strength meter & fault diagnosis. The last thing to try I haven't yet is deleting every device & adding one at a time. Turning hub off for half an hour does nothing to fix my problems. I repeatedly have st buttons do nothing & show a green light, a few seconds later it'll work again, but is no fun trying to visit the bathroom at night without lights working instantly. I have to ask Alexa instead  Adding devices one at a time from scratch - do I set them all up in a chain by distance from the hub? or do I connect all mains powered zigbee first, then battery zigbee buttons and sensors?  

Answer 1

They’re working on it

Comments

@crabstick4604 Doesn't mean anything to me that. Can you elaborate?  

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@homemade @crabstick4604 is pointing out, “next hop” is the repeating device the current device is connected to.  

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@homemade next hop and meshinfo data. Mesh info shows which device(s) it connects through, how many messages were sent, how many failed, and signal strength

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Thanks guys :) Improvements soon hopefully then

Answer 2

If you don’t mind some effort you can add a zigbee radio like xbee, to a raspberry pi. Then use the free xctu tool to manage map the zigbee mesh

Answer 3

Digi XBee. Shows signal strength and routing map.  

Comments

@hokkaido which xbee radio did you use?  

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@gramineous470 you can use any of them that support Zigbee. I have 2, XB3-24Z8ST set up as repeaters, and 1, XB3-24Z8PT-J with PCB antenna as endpoint for mapping only. The XB3-24Z8ST are supposed have up to a 2 mile range. They do seem to be strong. Within 10 minutes of hooking them into the system, they grab 8-10 devices to repeat. The only downfall I have found, is the XBee2 (Previous model gen) were more Xiaomi friendly but no longer available. The XBee 3 don’t seem to hold on to Xiaomi’s that well.  

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Thanks cliff! Im gonna go grab some and try this out. Luckily, i dont have any connectivity problems, but sniffing the network would be a fun.  

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@gramineous470 yea I kinda did the same thing. Was just fun to do. If you need any help let me know. I have all the parameter settings in order to get it to work with SmartThings. You can also google the ST forums. Search for “Flakey to Stable”.  

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Thanks again Cliff!  

Answer 4

As far as zigbee setup, there’s nothing you can do to control mesh. It’s going to do what it wants. It’s all about placement and how many routers you have. You cannot physically dictate it. Device mapping is ever changing. I have devices that change routing all the time. One day they may connect to this router, tomorrow connect through that router, regardless of “unplugging” the hub. The more routers you have the happier your system will be. I have devices 300ft away from hub in another steel building that work with 100% reliability. I have 65+ zigbee devices, and 20+ of them are some type of router. If you’re having zigbee device issues, I would first start by looking at interference issues such as router channel, by making sure your router isn’t broadcasting Wi-Fi on same channel as your hubs zigbee channel. That’s probably the #1 cause of Zigbee device issues.  

Comments

@hokkaido I have a static wifi channel etc. Other than my smarthings hub I have innr plug sockets & two Sengled bulbs recently added. Samsung themselves told me innr would act as repeaters & forums indicated Sengled bulbs were ok whilst some others were not. What do you use as zigbee routers? I'm thinking of moving over to hubitat. would that improve things you reckon?  

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@homemade so have you actually looked at what your router channel is, and what you hub channel is? Everyone has a static Wi-Fi channel, unless you select auto-channel.  

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@hokkaido Yes, I did all that via talking to Samsung help, but I'm still having trouble unfortunately.  

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@homemade can you tell me what that is? ST support isn’t all that.  

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My routers, consist of Sylvania and Cree bulbs, CC2531 USB boards, xbee3 modules, and ST outlets. The newest version of Smartthings outlets work real well. Probably the best routers in my system.  

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@hokkaido I was told my hub was on 25 and that 11 might interfere, so I chose ch6 on my Netgear router. Minimal interference from neighbours as I haven't got many in close range.  

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@homemade yes, that is correct, channel 1 would be even better. I would look at IDE and confirm myself the hub channel. But channel 6 is ok. In my experience, most hubs are on channel 20.  

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@homemade sengled bulbs don't repeat. I specifically chose them for my setup because of this. They work great but it allowed me to ensure I know where my repeaters are. (use peanut plugs as zigbee repeaters and just dropped one in a nondescript location in each room.  

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@hokkaido I'm on cable at present so I can't use ch1, 2, 3 Oh right, hmm, I've read about people flashing new firmware to Sengled bulbs. but that's for Home Assistant I don't use. Is there some smartthings device handler or something to make them work better?  

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@anatolia7046 good to know on the Sengled. I have a few I just bought, and haven’t implemented yet. I will verify that through my mapping. That will confirm router or endpoint.  

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I've 4 innr plugs in all & samsung said they'd work as repeaters. I'd like to avoid buying more tech of possible not even knowing the problem for sure. I'm only in a small one bed flat

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@homemade I am new to sengled, so I’m not sure on device handler.  

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I hit reply to the wrong person not realising there  

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@anatolia7046 any way to make Sengled work better on ST do you know? a device handler perhaps?  

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@hokkaido yeah it worked out in my particular setup. The only zigbee I use is smart bulbs and battery op sensors. By making sure the wifi doesn't uverlap and plastering the house with peanuts I know what the backbone looks like and it's very solid. I've never had just one device drop since. Now. I had the whole zigbee net drop for three days once for no good reason but it eventually fixed itself.  

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@homemade no, what's not working I personally prefer them to any other smart bulb (that does not use its own hub and cost 3x what they should)

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@homemade have you tried the generic, Zigbee device handler?  

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Is it important to keep st hub far away from router regardless of them being on a different channel? they're 5 - 6ft apart. but via ethernet wall sockets I could move it to the other end of the property if needs be

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@hokkaido what is the generic zigbee dh?  

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@homemade my router sits arm’s length from hub. Was only an issue when I had channel interference.  

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@hokkaido Good to know that part shouldn't matter. Thanks. I'll try a full factory reset of absolutely everything lacking better ideas. But I'd like to be able to diagnose & know exactly what's going wrong. Events list in IDE doesn't seem to show enough detail. but I'm a noob to using the ide

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@homemade I surely wouldn’t resort to reset. I don’t think that will change anything. It will just create more work.  

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@hokkaido Ok. I'll avoid it for now. What was the "generic zigbee dh" you mentioned?  

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@anatolia7046 does Sengled bulbs have a their “own” device handler? Or do they use the generic ST ones in the list?  

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I'm not using the Sengled hub BTW. I linked it straight to st, Sengled is listed among the rest, but I'm clueless about the nature of the interface

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@hokkaido generic Zigbee DTH. And even if they had one I'd only use it for specific bulb settings then switch back to generic for normal ops because of local processing.  

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Well have to run, let us know how you make out. Always good to share your “fix”.  

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Sengled are working ok anyway. but good to know they aren't repeaters - I installed them hoping they were because I already had some. My current setup is 8x ST buttons, 5 Lifx lights, 4x innr sockets. St buttons are only connected to lifx lights. I had trouble with lifx at one stage. but not anymore after changing some router settings. so when st buttons fail. alexa can still operate lifx, I couldn't to begin with. The router changes were static dchp for the lights, static wifi channel (which suits avoiding zigbee anyway), turning off WMM, IPv6 & mimo & Qos stuff. Would any of that negatively affect smarthings?  

Answer 5

Try adding some AC powered zigbee switches or plugs. You need them as routers for your Zigbee network. Same goes for zwave. I have a combination of zwave and zigbee GE wall switches throughout my house along with a few plugs.  

Answer 6

The mesh rebuilds when you leave the hub unpowered for a while, if that does not fix it then rebuilding the system from scratch most likely will not as the mesh will still rebuild itself. How many powered zigbee devices? Does the button drop off if move closer to a repeater? Also I'm to lazy to use a button so use a motion sensor and contact sensor the the bathroom lights. :)

Comments

@sammy I have the st hub & 4x innr sockets that are powered. I haven't noticed a pattern to buttons dropping off unfortunately. I'm waiting on some pir sensors as it happens and own door sensors to use in conjunction when I get them. But I still want a ST button per light which would let me have some defaults that never change mixed with some automations for time of the day. so in the middle of the night lights are really dim, but if I want them brighter. a single click of the button. brighter still a double click, 100% brightness by toggling the wall switch twice, push & hold for off. That way I'd have the best of both worlds. I notice pirs only react each minute to motion or lack of it. So just let lights stay on a minute after leaving rooms then

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@homemade FYI I have 100% and fan when motion is triggered or door closed, then after no motion for 3 minutes or door opens turn off. After 11pm-5am light turns on 2% and no fan with same triggers. Works pretty well.