So, being a Zigbee user for almost an year now I’m still confused about the interconnecting of Zigbee devices.
Until yesterday I was using CC2531 stick as coordinator and some sensors, bulbs and plugs in zigbee2mqtt. The signal from coordinator was quite poor, but plugs and bulbs acting like routers did their job. Only one sensor was connected directly to the stick, all other were connected to the plugs and bulbs.
Today I installed the new CC2652R and I must say, that I don’t see so much improvement, as it was advertised. LQI is a bit better, but not significantly. However, I had to recconect all Zigbee devices and they are now connected directly to the coordinator, even if some of the routers are closer and providing stronger signal.
Now, what confuses me is - do the devices remain connected to the coordinator (or router) which they joined the very first time or is it possible, that they “switch” to one of the closer and stronger signal routers later on? Or do I have to manually re-join them to force the connection to the router?
Yes. The way Zigbee is designed the network is continuously optimizing itself. Devices will recalculate routes over time to improve stability and performance of the network.
Generally the rule of thumb I’ve followed (although I forget where I read it now, probably somewhere on this forum) is give it 24-48 hours after hooking everything up. The initial map it draws when you hook everything up isn’t optimized. 24-48 hours should give it enough time to figure out how to optimize the network and redraw routes accordingly.
If you want to try and make it to recalculate new routes faster, unplugging the coordinator for like 10 minutes can kind of force the issue. But that just forces a recalc, time is really the only way to get an optimal map since continuous improvement is a key part of Zigbee.