Zigbee network architecture for Z2M (regarding map)

I’ve just set up a new zigbee network via my SkyConnect stick. I’ve always chosen that all devices accept connections at the time of new devices joining. I thought this would make the most sense, so that each device chooses the next device with the best reception?!
I’ve added all “router” devices first and then the battery driven sensors.

Can you please explain why most of the end devices (sensors) are connected directly to the coordinator? Shouldn’t they be connected to the next available routing device?
And do these devices change their “parent” device constantly or would I have to do that manually?

Thanks in advance.

The short answer: Zigbee does what Zigbee will do. You have no control other then where you place your devices on how they will connect.

And the devices will choose their own parent and look for a new one when it lost his one. (Just like the real word :rofl:)

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Have you tried ‘adding via’ one specific router some of your end devices? In your picture, one of your end devices is connected via a router, did that happen by itself or did you do a ‘add via’ or is is a distance thing?

Unfortunately, where a device (often specifically end devices) connect can be a bit of a black hole. From my experience, mostly with zigbee2mqtt of late, depending on the router device and the end device, I can get end devices to ‘stick’ to a specific router. Have I figured out a solid formula for getting this to work? … no.

I would experiment around with the ‘add via’ function and see if you can get some of your end devices to ‘stay’. Make sure you do do a proper remove of each end device in the course of your testing. This can be difficult as end devices only ‘wake up’ on their own accord. So just removing the device from the coordinator without the end device being awake and acknowledging the removal does not allow for a ‘clean’ re addition of the end device from my experience. Doing a hard reset of the end device, including removing it’s battery is important (at least if the device is not awake during the removal, but maybe a good idea in general) for the end device to not have any prior history of connections from my experience.

My experience is mostly with the TI 25xx and 26xx chips in the coordinators. The chips in my routers are all over the map of vendors. IMHO, I would run not walk from the whole ‘SkyConnect’ device for your coordinator, just 2nd hand info from me, however from my reading on the various forums, it does seem to add if not more ‘head scratching’ to the equation, more instability with Zigbee2MQTT.

Good hunting and home automation success in 2024!

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