Favorite or best smart switches

Hardware
21

I currently have 27 in an ASUS RT-AX68U, spread over on 2 floor-plan, concrete basement, some weak signals, but never any serious issue, 5 WiFi cams , and plugs, and 2 motion sensors(usb powered) , but a handful is currently stashed away.(think it was 31 at a time, but i just got 4 new also)
Don’t know your Router, but i guess you’ll notice when it’s hits the limit, depends on various factors ( i.e how much they are “talking” )
My Set-Manual-IP-Settings in the DHCP-Scope is 65max, but i wonder how it goes with i.e the Memory, but i guess it has it’s smart ways to handle that as well , we’ll see , or i will :smile:

PS: I also have 2 wired Zigbee coordinators, on 2 different Zigbee channels ( and 2 different brands, so yes obviously devices of same brands, build basically to plug and play ) so no tingle tangle with strange “zigbee” problems or weird names , and settings for communication what so ever, And there are tons of Issues in here daily weekly, im just glad i don’t have to read them, and same time wonder how come ?

22

I don’t want to bother folks with my network issues. I’m sure for most of you it’s a real turnoff. And, I get that. :slight_smile: I’ll get this figured out without pestering you folks.

So far, everything seems happy, again.

23

Hey Don’t misunderstand people here, i just responded to your post, meaning i.e no i don’t think 26 devices is too many, an average modern Router should be able to handle atleast 30 Wifi-Devices
And if you have 2 Netgear Routers, you could just use one of them as an AP, AccessPoint, instead of Router, so all devices is on same network

It Should not be any problems with 26+ wifi devices, and you can even expand with a zigbee-network without disturbing the WIFI Channels ( as mentioned i have 2 zigbee networks on the 2.4ghz frequence, plus ca 30 wifi-device (most of the time) on 1 Router
Thou first change to another localtuya

24

Just curious, why two separate Zigbee networks? It goes a bit against the idea of a mesh network doesn’t it?

25

ZWave or zigbee turns out to be much more reliable for me than Wifi. I am using Fibaro Zwave switches now for many years. Zwave is quite expensive but operates in another frequency band than Wifi. Therefore I don’t have issues with interfering devices. Zigbee is a lot cheaper ans also uses the mesh network technology, but operates in the same bandwith as Wifi.

1 Like
26

Circumstances ! , Before HA i had Ikea Devices, and bought their hub so i easily could connect them to HA, through the Ikea Integration. It’s basically for Lights, Plugs, and few motion sensors, in a fairly designated area, covering 4 rooms, a toilet an stariway, And it has worked with no issues, Spite the slight “scaring/annoying” fact that both Ikeas phone-APP, and their Hub(trådlös) , is unbelievable simple, and hardly any options, they even removed device details etc which they previously had in the app.

  1. This setup, using Ikea Integration to automations etc, had worked with no interference, No issues when other had / still have, and constantly seems to get, during various HA / Integrations updates. It Just Work !, if HA goes down, i can turn on my Android device and use the App, And i Can alway you the direct paired Device

2.Aqara sensors temp, motion, door Had this also before HA, and now installed through Homekit
Also here no issues, when people struggling with MQTT, ZHA, NODE-RED , you name it ( And i don’t wanna discuss this ), the topics in here says it all, and people make their own choice )

Yes , nowhere i have “spoken for” a mesh network ( well beside suggested OP to use one of his routers as an AP)
I some scenarios a mesh could be a good / preferred way, in other situation there might be a better solution, it all comes to the circumstances, and the person

I don’t have some strange preference in regard to which brand a´or which solution / technique /protocol etc. If it works together it’s fine , more over if it works stable with just a plug-in-and run, it’s great , and don’t break , just because something else break

Tell me the latest major issue or Topic, release, in regards to Ikea-Zigbee-devices in Ikea-hub, in the Ikea integration ( Running Ikea Zigbee devices through Ikea-integration, is a no brainer, it works when all the other solutions constantly breaks )

Same goes for Aqara through Homekit-Controller

So, i hope my answer shows that , why not two separate networks ?

27

If it ain’t broke no reason to fix it!
I would not recommend it in general though. There are a lot of topics about poor Zigbee network quality, and using separated networks will make it harder for devices to have a router nearby. It’s also more difficult to find space for two networks in the crowded 2.4G band especially if you have multiple access points for wifi.
I am using ten different brands of Zigbee devices all in the same network and it works very well. If I would use ten separate networks there would definitely be trouble! I’ve had one case with an Ikea Styrbar remote that stopped working because it received an Ota update which altered the ZHA events, and pairing Ikea battery powered devices can sometimes take a number of efforts, but once integrated they have been stable for me.
So yes, sure, there can be situations where two networks work well. But usually Zigbee networks perform better if there are more devices in them (if a reasonable proportion of them are mains powered and can function as routers)

28

ok, not sure if that was the case, nor how, but mainly Ikea Remote is build to either communicate direct to an Ikea Device or the Ikea-hub ( Zigbee-Controller ) , And it’s build to work seamlessly and flawless in such cases.

You just mentioned a weak point in ZHA, which apparently an update in a device was able to break(alter) ( Maybe that specific update was build to “adapt” to an update in the Ikea Hub ) , just like all brands making product-line specific updates

PS: Yes i have seen several issues with Ikea Devices, All with the common factor, they are not used through the ikea integration ( Not only Ikea has a very “protectionistic” business model )

29

What Ikea does sometimes, is change the messages that the device sends when you press a certain button. If you then have automatioms that couple a specific action to a specific message, the automation no longer does what it is supposed to. I have seen something similar with a Hue remote.
Ikea of course updates their hub and app at the same time. We tinkerers have to fix that ourselves, and of course first find out that it’s going wrong.
One nice thing about the new blueprint update notifications is that if you use blueprints, and they are actively maintained, there is a good chance stuff like this is quickly fixed for you.

But I think we are drifting off topic a bit…

30

Thanks you for clarifying that. It’s all good. I am very grateful for the continued replies and support.

I’ve read good and bad things about APs and mesh networks. I think I can make my upstairs router an AP. I will tell you, my modem/router on the first floor is supplying the DHCP.

The additional questions and comments that are unrelated to localtuya are helping me learn about other things.

I’ll get on the localtuya change over in the next few days.

31

Drift away. The discussion is educating me. Honestly, I don’t think you guys have drifted off topic.

My original post was inquiring about other brands of switches. Even though a specific brand has not been specified, you guys are all offering interesting ideas. So, please feel free to carry on.

I have managed to get the forked localtuya installed. Not sure how I managed to do it. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: But, it’s done. All switches that were working with the previous version of localtuya are still working. So, that part is all good.

Since I’ve been screwing around with things prior to posting here, I think I broke all of the local keys when I re-added the offline switches to the Smart Life app. :laughing:

I’ll be working through the local key issue and report back.

32

If you are lucky you can make them future proof just by installing esphome :rocket:

And if you are even more lucky you can do this without touching your smart switches thank’s to cloudcutter :hocho::cloud:

33

I ended up in a rabbit hole. I’ll spare the boring details. It looks like I’m back in business. Because of some user error, I’ll need to add many of the switches back. The workflow is a bit different, but it is easier than it was before.

Thanks to all that helped me through this.

34

Did yo end up in the new Fork of LocalTuya ?