Apologies if these are stupid questions, i am a bit of a novice with Zigbee.
I wanted to monitor the temps around the house to see which rooms were colder / hotter and try and balance the radiator outputs better.
I have installed a SONOFF Zigbee Dongle Plus v2 and the required number of SONOFF SNZB-02 sensors.
They appeared to be working OK at the start, but one or two just dropped off the network. I moved them closer the dongle, re-sync’d them and then put them back in place. They worked for a day then failed again.
Tried new batteries, but that didnt help.
Bought replacements for these two affected units and golden again.
Then all the others slowly started to fail.
I have tried to move the dongle away from the HA server with a USB extension cable. Changed the Zigbee channel and resync’d each sensor several times.
Now they seem to connect OK, but the temp and humidity reading just flat lines from the point it connects.
Any suggests please, or are these sensors just not very good?
If the later, what would people suggest please?
You don’t mention mains-powered routers - a network without any is going to struggle.
Zigbee has a very low-powered signal. It works by bouncing messages around the mesh until they reach their destination and the battery-powered sensors don’t contribute to this. You need routers (light bulbs, sockets) scattered around the place. The Dongle shouldn’t need to connect directly with sensors.
No, i dont have any mains powered devices at the moment to be honest.
I did look into them originally, but was getting confused between bridges, routers, repeaters and coordinators.
Temperature is the only thing i wanted to measure or control at the moment, so wasnt looking to install any smart bulbs.
I have some Tapo plugs, but they are Wifi not Zigbee
The nearest sensor is just three feet from the dongle, so not sure why it wont pick that one up anymore.
With the link you sent above, i have looked into the mains powered devices, but still not sure what to get that would be off benefit to me (i control my lights with a light switch, so they’d be turned off when i’m not in the room)
I looked at the Sonoff S60 plug, but like the Tapo ones i have, i think its Wifi only
Sonoff also do a bridge (looked at these before), but cant tell the difference between a ZB-Bridge and a ZB-Bridge P.
Also, if the Zigbee signal is so weak, how far can the bridge be from the Coordinator to extend the mesh?
You mean the router? “Bridge” usually refers to a manufacturer’s proprietary box, used instead of a coordinator - the Philips Hue bridge, for example.
In Zigbee terms there are only three kinds of device:
Coordinator - eg your Sonoff dongle. Only one per network.
Router - eg light or socket. Mains powered device that also passes messages from sensors to the coordinator. There are a few main-powered devices that don’t act as routers, but most do.
End device - eg temperature sensor. Battery-powered, does not pass on messages.
A “repeater” is a router that doesn’t do anything else. They can be quite small (and cheap) and they often plug into a USB socket. Manufacturers call them “repeaters” in their adverts, but it just causes confusion.
You might try adding a few “repeaters” if you don’t need any lights or sockets. One advantage they have is that they’re easy to move around, so you can experiment. Check on the forum before you buy - some are better than others.
It isn’t really a question of distance between router and coordinator - that will depend entirely on the construction and layout of your home; also on environmental factors like interference from wi-fi. A healthy mesh will provide lots of different routes for messages to take and Zigbee will automagically select the best one.
I would get three or four and try them out, all in the same room as the coordinator to start with, then if that works, moving them a little further away until you get a good compromise between reliability and range.
You should always pair end devices in the location where they are going to be used.
This is very important. It has already been mentioned, but since you don’t have any routers, make sure to place at least one USB repeater. As a test, position all Zigbee sensors close to the coordinator and monitor their performance for at least 24 hours. They will likely work fine, which will confirm that there are no issues with the Zigbee devices themselves.
