Tube's ZB Coordinators and Routers (was Zigbee router on steroids?)

Sometimes cranking the TX power can actually make things worse unless you are pairing with other devices of the same power and antenna gain. Definitely be mindful of things.

Hi everyone,

First of all, I will like to give credits where due. Like many people I have been using cc2531 and at first it was ok but as the number of devices increased it started crashing. I got the CC2652P2 Based Zigbee to Ethernet Serial Coordinator, shipping was fast and installation was smooth and I have been running for 4 days straight with no crash. So to @tube0013, thanks for the excellent work with the coordinators you built.

I have a couple of questions:
How can I determine the firmware version on my coordinator?
What is the recommended power rating for the CC2652P2 Based Zigbee to Ethernet Serial Coordinator? I could not find any information on the website - right now I am using a 5V 2.4A adapter but I just want to be sure that the coordinator is receiving adequate power

Thanks in advance

Hi!

Firmware is the last stable release. The newest z-stack was only moved out of dev within the last few weeks so I was giving it time before installing it on new units going out.

I have update instructions on my GitHub < https://github.com/tube0013/tube_gateways>

Be sure to grab the right fw, it should be specified in the chart at the z-stack repo, but it is the launchpad variant

As far as power it uses less than 1 amp so anything over is adequate, and it will only pull what it needs. I usually recommend 1-2 amp 5v

Finally this is buried in this comment but Iā€™m away the rest of the week (was up at 3:30 am and drove ~450 miles to the coast of Maine where my family has a summer cottage) so any orders from this week will ship until next (if anything is even left in inventory). And I may be harder to get a hold of, but Iā€™ll be checking on things when Iā€™m not doing other things :wink:

Enjoy your break.

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Any way to do an energy scan w/ silicon labs EFR32 chipset?

with the bellows commandline:

bellows -d [DEVICE PATH] scan --energy --duration 500

DEVICE PATH is /dev/... for USB devices or socket://IP:Port for network connected devices

you have to disable ZHA in order to run.

there is a docker container with bellows installed you can runā€¦ here are instuctions (also included details on how to change the channel (devices would need to be repaired.

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/2gQnXXwnJZ/

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Any chance I can order 3 of the routers when you get some time? Thank you :pray:t3:

Hi, Iā€™ve started a waiting list, itā€™s linked from the main page of the store. Best if you sign up there, and Iā€™ll be in touch when they are ready.

Thanks!

Hi guys, I have a Tubes ZB Coordinator and 3 Tubes ZB routers, with about 180 zigbee devices. I wanted to ask if anyone has some documentation or a video tutorial on how to assign the zigbee devices as direct children to a specific router or coordinator. Or does it just do that automatically?? I am connecting it via ZHA on HA. I assigned it channel 25 to avoid WiFi conflicts. WHat are the best practices on setting this up. Also can I use these right out of the box or do I need to flash them? Is it ok flash them OTA since I can ping them and see them on ESPHome via the web? Thank you.

generally the mesh will do what it wants.

Best practice is to pair in place, start by paring the routers closest to the coordinator, working your way out. For the routers I wouldnā€™t worry about pairing to a specific one.

once all the routers/mains devices that route/repeat are paired, then start pairing the end device sensors etc. these you can use try the router closest or just open the whole mesh for joins and the device should find/drift to the strongest parent.

specific to your question here is how to permit joins on a specific router in ZHA:

Does z2m have ability to pair to a specific router ?

yes, but I believe you need to update the FW on to the most recent version on the CC2652.

there is also a caveat to that as wellā€¦ Iā€™d read through this issue.

https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/issues/8430

That thread made my head hurt. Too early, need more coffee. Thanks.

Wow as usual, this is super helpful. Thank you.

Any thoughts on these settings? Specifically ā€œEnable identify effectā€¦ā€

The other issue I am dealing with is that the coordinator appears to be offline and the router is online. Yet when I go to the IP address of the coordinator the ESPHome page loads and it does ping correctly. Is there a way to bring the coordinator back online?

the ā€œofflineā€ coordinator is just a bug in the visualization.

The other setting are just global defaults I think for transitions. The identity effect will blink a light on joining of the light supports it.

Also donā€™t go crazy looking at the lqi/line colors in the visualization, devices all report them differently, key is does the device work or not.

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Great thank you. That helps. :+1:t3:

Is there any way to make the ZHA visualisation a cool layout with a floorplan for example?

No, it is a schematic of the mesh network connections. Not physical location.

You could create your own floorplan with a picture entities card and put the link quality and battery sensors in the locations of the sensors, but you would have no next hop connection shown.