Hello. I recently setup a Zigbee network with nine devices to include four ThirdReality smart plugs, three Aqara temperature/humidity sensors, one Aqara leak sensor, and one Aqara door/window sensor. They’re connected to HA via the SkyConnect. My topology looks like the attached with the center being the SkyConnect, the circles being the Aqara sensors, and the ovals being the smart plugs.
I started seeing the “Zigbee channel 20 utilization” warning in the logs. Not sure what to do about that although everything seems to be working.
I also noticed that the Aqara temp/humidity sensors don’t seem to connect through the ThirdReality smart plugs (with built-in router/repeater), but thought they would. Is there a way to force them to connect or are they just not compatible? All the devices are Zigbee 3.0.
You only have four routers. Depending on the physical layout of your home, connecting directly with the coordinator may be the most efficient option for the sensors. Try moving the smart plugs around to see if it makes any difference. (Also bear in mind that connections change all the time - your image is just a snapshot.)
Also check the signal strength of neighbours who are using wi-fi channels which overlap with zigbee channel 20 (ie wi-fi channels 8, 9, 7,10). We are talking physical radio frequencies that don’t honor legal property boundaries.
It can be hard to find a channel without much interference, especially with apartment living, and salespeople who think wi-fi is unlimited magic
There are several Wi-fi analyser phone apps which are great to help you see what is going on.
Not for iOS, rather for MacOS. However, if a Mac user, I have found this app to yield a pretty good set of information. Will cost you a USD Franklin, however, IMHO both from the information it provides and the fact you can be more confident that it is not malware/adware infected (no ads).
the message from ZHA about utilization is total BS. Zero facts to support this information as being any amount useful.
Based on my experience with both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT, I highly recommend you reset your zigbee devices, uninstall ZHA and install Zigbee2MQTT and MQTT broker. Ideally both running outside of Home Assistant, in separate Docker containers is probably the best. I would re-flash your Skyconnect coordinator device with just the zigbee only firmware if available for your coordinator device.
This does appear to be true (he said, much more politely ).
Anecdotal evidence is that it starts appearing when “utilization” is at 75%. In my case, it was 85% and the message appeared once after every restart. Then it went away.
Zigbee is Zigbee, though, whatever integration you’re using. If there really is a network issue it will still be there with Z2M - you’ll just get different error messages.
I’ve read far too many posts from folks here on this forum seeing those messages and at best wasting hours moving their zigbee network channels only to still find that they still have a problem or worse making their system be in worse shape.
If the folks that added that message to ZHA think it is useful, they should document how it will help a user of ZHA, if they cannot, they should remove the function.
From my understanding of 802.15.4 and Zigbee, there are no inexpensive tools or function in zigbee to accurately show network utilization (especially network utilization over a useful period of time), that is why you do not see such messages in other implementations such as Zigbee2MQTT, Hue, SmartThings, Tuya, Ikea (ones I have first hand experience with). I’m not saying it is impossible to have network interference in a specific spectrum or 2.4 GHz, just that it is very far down the list of causes of issues, should be labeled the ‘Chicken Little’ message…
My current wifi control channels are 9 (2.4 GHz) and 40 (5 GHz).
I have no idea how often the smart plugs are reporting power measurements but think it’s every 30 seconds based on what I can see in the History view.
Yes, SkyConnect is on a USB extension lead. I wonder though if I need some additional hub though, as my devices are spread over three floors of the house (basement, 1st, and 2nd) and the SkyConnect is in on the 1st floor in the front room. I’m not sure how to read the topology view but thinking that red is not that great.
I reconnected SkyConnect to a non-USB3 port on my Raspberry Pi today. But still getting the high utilization warning, and here’s an updated topology view if it helps.
Apologies for the novice question, but why?
Also, I believe my wifi router (ASUS RT-AX86U) is set to auto-select channels. Should I manually override this with a specific channel? How do I know which is best to use?
Thanks again.
I was somehow able to get one of the sensors to connect through the plug (router) today. I guess that happened automatically after I reconfigured ZHA and/or restarted.
That’s a lot of info, @dproffer. Interesting #1. I guess I put too much faith in HS
Also interesting about Zigbee2MQTT. I will research this further.
Thank you.
Look at @tom_l’s first response above. Zigbee 20 is pretty much in the center of WiFi 9’s frequency range. They are directly competing, and WiFi will always win.
Yes, if you want to prevent future problems.
I’d rather my wifi be competing with my neighbor than my zigbee.
Ultimately, you don’t have any control of the neighbor’s channel selection, but at least keep your immediate environment’s WiFi and Zigbee separated.
Also Ideally you and your neighbours should be using wifi channels 1, 6 and 11 as they overlap with each other the least. If you are on good terms with them it might be worth telling them. It will benefit you all.
Good idea. However, that would work only with 3 access points. Typically the neighborhood saturation will be much higher.
Since most consumer AP’s perform dynamic switching, what I do is stick to a channel and increase the transmit power (not too much). In a few hours all surrounding APs learn that that channel is very busy and start avoiding it, leaving mostly for me.
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