I have been using ZigBee, Mosquitto and HA for a while and have run into an issue that I hope you guys can help me with. Any hint is valuable since I am not a pro.
I started out with a good USB dongle from slae.sh and later I have also used the LAN/PoE based SLZB-06, I was happy with both of them.
Now I wanted to expand my ZigBee network to cover all of my house and I saw that Smlight (the makers of slzb06) said that it is possible to use multiple SLZB-06’s. I got another one and tried to set it up. And here comes the problem: It seems to me that I need to have 2 instances of ZigBee2Mqtt running and hence I get 2 separate ZigBee networks. I have found a temporary way for this to work by running one coordinator with ZigBee2Mqtt, and the other coordinator connecting to the another instance of the edge version of ZigBee2Mqtt. In this way they can both fit into my Mosquitto and HA, but not in a very elegant way. And next I would like to add another SLZB-06 coordinator, what then.
So what do you guys suggest, perhaps keep the number of coordinators at 1 and use routers instead?
Or is there a more elegant way to have two coordinators cooperate in one network?
This is the way Zigbee is intended to work. Most coordinators easily handle 32 devices at the first hop and many more beyond. Yes some coordinators do better than others but unless you have a network with literally hundreds of devices there’s rarely a need for multiple networks. (which to avoid interference, each need to be on its own channel that also avoids your WiFi setup)
Unless the network is stressed im staying with one simplicity matters.
First of all thanks for coming back on this and sharing your knowledge.
I was suspecting that it is BY DESIGN that you have one coordinator. And I guess that in my situation (with sensors over a larger area) you suggest to add some routers to aggregate. I should also mention that I primarily have sensors that are battery-powered and no routers at the moment.
Exactly the mesh network is designed to strengthen as you deploy…
I use 25-30’ (~8-10m) planning distance between powered repeaters (for both zigbee and ZWave)
By default line powered devices are repeaters (notable exception Sengled bulbs, intentionally) so just get some switches and bulbs or pocket sockets and scatter the strategically through your build.
Some devices reroute themselves on thier own some don’t so you may have to rejoin some endpoints to ge the device to use the mesh.
Theres no need for a dedicated repeaters or odd multi coordinator setups except in the most extreme circumstances if the mesh is planned and deployed correctly. Yes there are times id do it but I’d exhaust every other option first
I’ll work along those lines for my setup.
If anyone has good suggestions for repeaters (230VAC) that don’t consume a lot of power, I am all ears.
Ikea Trådløs perhaps ?
Thanks for your help
/David
I run two coordinators (two Conbee II radios) by having both ZHA and deconz. I do this because I have a lot of Zigbee devices that often go offline when the wall switches are used, and this will completely disrupt the network. (E.g., all 14 track light bulbs disappear at once.) what I have done is to put all my remotes and wall plugs on one network and the bulbs that are controlled by wall switches on another network. This makes sure that the remotes do not lose their network,but the bulbs can. I’m fine with this since I only use the bulbs directly for color temperature and turn them on and off from the wall switches. This setup works fine. -David
But did anyone succesfully use the SLZB-06 as a router? I’m using one with ZHA and one with Z2M, tried to remove the ZHA one, flashed it as router, but it didn’t get picked up and nothing would reconnect. Even if they did it was a very weak signal and I couldn’t operate the devices. As if they would connect the other SLZB instead of the router one. So I ended up with putting everything back into ZHA and keep it the way it was. But I do notice my typical devices seem to work better on Z2M. But I don’t want to change over to still end up with 2 networks again.
Before the why comments: My garage is in my backyard, there’s a gate behind the garage. The way I used to do it was with an outlet in the middle of my yard. But boy, since I added the second antenna, the garage is MUCH more stable. I had already added an outlet to my house, to the garage and in the middle of the yard. I’m not turning my yard in a Zigbee jump field.