I’ve got about twenty devices on a zigbee2mqtt mesh and have just added a new one that’s quite far from the main hub. When I paired the device (Boiler Switch in the image) I did so right next to the hub and so it paired direct to the hub with a high LQI. Now it is positioned in my garage quite far away and is showing -1 on the network map for the link to the hub. But it has a reasonable LQI to other devices which I thought would mean it would work, but it is showing up as offline and will not respond.
Because I paired it originally to the main hub, does it now need to remain in range of that? I thought the Zigbee mesh was adaptable and would overcome this.
I’ve read many a thread on this topic (and I don’t see a simple answer). While it is adaptable, I think its a case of how well the routing algorithms work, and how long it takes to settle out. If your Boiler Switch is a router, then as a best practice, you should let it join at the location it will be operating at. In your case, since you joined it near the Coordinator and then moved it, your Boiler Switch (and the Coordinator) may figure out over time (perhaps many hours) what the best route is. If the Boiler Switch is an end-device, it is recommended again to let it join at the location it will be operating at but Join it to the nearest router (if possible).
