Why are 4 lights (2 zigbee, 2 wifi) becoming unavailable at different times during the night. Usually between 11pm - 6am.
These are all smart bulbs. They all get power from the same wall switch (that has a zwave switch on it). The Zwave switch never shows an error.
No log shows an error during the time a light becomes unavailable.
The lights never go unavailable during the day, which to me, rules out a fluke with the zwave light switch that is sending power to all the lights (but I am not opposed to hard wiring the light switch wires for time being to take the zwave switch out of the equation completely.)
No other zigbee devices have an issue during that time so I cant imagine its a zigbee controller issue. And even if it was, that doesnt explain the 2 wifi lights becoming unavailable.
If I kill power to the lights by turning off the zwave switch and then turning it back on, al 4 lights reconnect.
I cant find any automation that runs during those times and even if I had one, I have no clue how, through automations, I can make a device become unavailable.
You probably have to look at electromagnetic noise, so what other electrical equipment might be running at night?
Charging an electrical vehicle doing laundry or a dishwasher is running?
When I have my 3D printer running it will kill 2 of my WiFi switches in the other end of the house, Even though the 3D printer is on the opposite side of the AP, but because the noise around the AP in the center of the house is intensified then the other devices lose connection.
I have similar problems, just down to the fact too many things using the 2.4Ghz band!
I am sat about 2 feet away from my WAP but only showing 60% signal, looking around me i can see about 18 devices wifi,zigbee etc. somtimes things drop out !!
I can sometimes hear the ESP chip in a wall switch next to me “squeeling” Those ESP wifi chips can have quite powerful RF signal, that swamps everything in close proximity. People use them as wifi blockers !!
Just to clarify a point - you say that the zigbee switch never shows an “error” - but are you sure that it never goes into a power off state? This wouldn’t show as an error - but rather a state change. And of course if the switch went “off” then the devices would become unavailable.
During the period when the devices are unavailable - are they still “on” (ie is the bulb giving off light) thus proving that power to them is still flowing?
When they are unavailable - are all 4 all unavailable at exactly the same time?
So it happened much earlier tonight. See pictures below.
Here is just an overall view of the Zwave wall switch that powers all of them (Wall switch), and then the two zigbee bulbs (Jim, Christina) and the two wifi bulbs (Porch 1, Porch 2). This is even weirder. Christina turned off, porch1 and porch2 are unavailable, but Jim is normal. The 3 that messed up all show a log at 6:23 PM.
zigbee, zwave and wifi all use the same 4G bandwidth. Have you set the bands for each of these to minimize the chance they stop on each other. If you haven’t fixed you 4G wifi channel then it could be shifting in the middle of the night because someone else around you also uses Wifi and forces you’re wifi router to change channels, stepping on the zigbee devices. How many other wifi networks can you see from your location. If you’re in an apartment building this can be a major issue. Anway you should fix for wifi and zigbee channels if haven’t already done that. I stop using zwave for a couple of nights to verify it isn’t causing the issue.
@WallyR Only thing that happens overnight that doesnt happen during day is dishwasher running. But now seeing it happened much earlier, can rule that out.
@Chaos1 If it was JUST the wifi lights or JUST the zigbee lights, I’d buy that. But given the fact its both of them and ONLY them, make that hard to believe.
@kenwiens
Do you mean the zwave wall switch? Based on logs, the wall switch (that sends power to all 4 smart bulbs) never has an issue. I am going to take this out of equation though and just directly connect the power wire
They do NOT all go unavailable at the same time, always. Sometimes they do, sometimes they dont.
@bkprath
I live in a house. Looking at wifi networks on my phone, I can see about 8 others, though most have weak signal. How do I set the channels? I’ve never done that before.
First I said 4G band when I should have said 2.4G frequency band. This link gives some information on channel overlap in this band. I believe the zigbee defaults to channel 15. So I leave that there and then set the 2.4G band in wifi router to channel 4, which gives the desired separation.
Zigbee is on 15. Unfortunately I cant change my wifi channel, but my computer which is connected to wifi says it is on channel 6. I did just run “Wifi interference” check on my mesh router and it says its optimized it. So I cant say I was on channel 6 before or not…
You want to fix the wifi channel, else you’re at the mercy of your neighbors. A number of cordless phone systems run on 2.4ghz band. I had wifi issue at on point because of my neighbors home phone system. When they got a call my wifi would drop out.
