Hello,
I’m new to zigbee so sorry for the blunt question.
I recently purchased a zigbee stick(ZHA) and 16 battery powered devices.
I was under the impression that zigbee would build a mesh network automatically, but apparently this is not the case for battery powered devices.
So now I need in extend the range of my zigbee network and I found some extenders. Now my question is, does this work the same as a mesh or should I look for something else?
Yes, extenders should build a mesh. Which ones did you find?
for now I was looking at this one
or are there any better solutions on the market?
I also thought about a power plug but I’m pretty happy with my shelly once(WiFi). So I actually want to stick with those.
I’ve not used those, but Aeotec is a good brand so it should work fine. The repeaters are also supported by ZHA. Depending of the size of your house, you’ll need a few of them to make a reliable mesh.
thnx,
I think I probably need 1 or 2 indeed,
I’ll first check 1 and if it’s not enough I’ll add another one. They are not cheap, so I’m not planning to buy more then I need.
Why not simply getting some of these cheap TRÅDFRI Signal repeaters (plugs) from the next IKEA around?
They work well as zigbee repeaters for a third of the price.
Yes. But a10 meter range vs 100meters(50 indoors)
So for me that was for me the reason not to go for ikea. Also officially there is no zigbee mention I. The details.
Ow and the closest ikea is 60km away.
It is correct, battery-powered devices don’t act as “Zigbee Router” devices (a.k.a. repeaters/extenders).
There are already several other long threads in this forum that specifically discusses range extending Zigbee so you might want to look at this for tips on specific “Zigbee Router” devices. See example:
I too can personally recommend IKEA Trådfri Signal Repeater as a product because that is very good and inexpensive enough so you can buy more of them. Suggest that you start by buying three of them.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ikea+tr%C3%A5dfri+signal+repeater
Alternatively buy a few of ITead Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB dongles and flash ith Zigbee Router firmware as then you can use them in USB-changer for power to get the best performance for the money you spend:
General advice for a stable Zigbee network mesh is that it is better to have many good “Zigbee Router” devices than it is to only have a couple of great ones, so for the same money, it will be much better to go with three or four IKEA Trådfri Signal Repeater devices than going with just one or two of any other Zigbee Router device for the same or less total cost of the investment.
Regardless, highly recommend reading and following these guidelines before buying anything specific:
thnx, really cool,
I already ordered the Aeotec after @Pippyn his 2nd post.
And didn’t know I could flash the sonoff dongle.
I now have this sonoff-P equivalent as ZB stick, but maybe once I have received my HA yellow, I hope in January, I can take a look at flashing this one.
FYI,
the [AEOTEC] works really well.
with wifi I can’t even go through one floor, probably because of the heating and concrete which is used.
But with this extender I receive signals from 2 floor levels away and with one I can cover my complete house.
So if anyone needs a powerful extender, this one is an option.
How did you get the Zi extender to pair? With mine it finds it but does not move past ‘starting interview’
I could just pair them like any other device.
Maybe your log shows something?
Marketing is one thing, real thing another. No repeater I know of has a 50 m range indoors
Probably. But for me this one is good enough.