I’ve been having issues with my ZigBee network for the past few months and have tried rejoining everything, taking certain device offline (light bulbs), resetting, and finally even just got a new coordinator to try that but still having all lag and joining issues. Finally looked up more on the network map a few weeks ago and noticed most of my lines are red or gray (so the lowest connection strength I think). I even positioned a few of the routers as close as possible to the coordinator (5 - 10ft) and that didn’t make really any different other than maybe 10 more score.
Coordinator I’ve had for years:
One I just got to try but it made minimal difference:
Tried different positions of the coordinator to try avoid electrical and metals as well as closer to routers but again, nothing really makes a difference. Checked for wifi channel interferance with android phone app and nothing really was overlapping (did try to change it later on in troubleshooting to just try it but it did nothing). I can’t figure out why it’s getting such terrible signal! Any recommendations to troubleshoot or hopefully a fix??
You haven’t got enough routers (only three by the look of it, serving nine end devices). How many you need will depend on the layout and structure of your home, but basically you should keep adding routers until it works.
It’s not the distance from the coordinator that counts, it’s the density of the mesh. There will be a single changing connection to each sensor, but ideally each of the routers should potentially be able to connect to any of the others.
As RedKing states, it’s not the distance from device to the coordinator that counts, so much as the individual links. Having plenty of routers (some can also be end devices) means there should always be a link from a device to a router with good signal strength - even if it isn’t the closest or most obvious. And the general rule is that more routers mean shorter distances for each link, which directly translates to better performance. Of course the real world (walls, lack of power points, etc) often gets in the way
Your map doesn’t look too bad to me - i’ve seen much worse. I believe that the grey and red links are active, but just lower quality than the yellow or green. I personally have spent many hours with “Enable Physics” turned off rearranging my map to better model by apartment’s physical layout, and thereby to evaluate where improvements can be made.
I will point out that the map isn’t the best diagnostic tool - even since it was updated sometime last year. In particular you will find that it takes a while to update and respond to changes you make. A year ago (before the update) mine showed an active link to a device that had been powered off for over 6 months!
Yes, simply ignore the map and judge by the responsiveness of your devices.
I’ve found that focusing on the theoretical (vs real world) connection speed/stability is a sure way to dig deeper into a rabbit hole which might not lead to anywhere.
Distance is certainly a factor (and it’s the easiest for us humans to see) because zigbee signals have lower power than wi-fi (to reduce battery drain) - but the same things that interfere with wi-fi (eg solid walls, fish tanks, metal sheets, wi-fi routers on a close channel) also have a more pronounced effect on zigbee.
The map is a useful tool, but don’t get too hung up on it. I think it looks at a history of the LQI values when determining the colours, so you will probably have to wait a while before seeing the effect from your changes. I don’t know how long
My own map today includes red lines between 3 routers and the coordinator - but because of the layout of my apartment and position of power points there’s not a lot I can do to improve that. The point is that my network still works, despite some sub-optimal links. That’s what mesh is designed to do.
The key point is that wi-fi is designed to connect each end-device directly to the wi-fi router - but a mesh system is designed to find the best path through multiple steps between device and coordinator, and the best path can change from one message to the next.
I agree with ShadowFist … focus on which devices are least responsive, rather than colours on the map.
