Zigbee questions - What is the difference from a Zigbee Router and a Repeater?

Configuration Zigbee
21

No @WallyR you want to find a way why this is should be acceptable. But this is not acceptable. Be honest.
I know and I understand that guys around z2m project gave their best to make it best as possible, but this is again not acceptable. From a point of view of end user there is a zigbee repeater than you can buy. Period .

22

Sorry, but there is a standard for ZigBee.
A repeater is not a part of that standard, so it is therefore not a ZigBee device.
You can also call a whale for a fish if you like, but that does not make it a fish, even though it swims in water and have fins and a tail.

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23

I agree with you. But this is not the problem.

24

What is the problem?
The OP asked for the difference between Zigbee repeaters and Zigbee routers, so the answer is that there is no such thing as a Zigbee repeater.

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25

The vendor describes it as a repeater. That is all that is being said by Z2M.

@ddaniel As for “acceptable” - acceptable to whom? The paying customers?

Instead of moaning, why not

  1. Complain to the idiot vendors, and/or
  2. Correct the Z2M docs, which are on github.
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26

It is called repeater because that is what it is sold as. if they sold it as ‘DingyDingy’ then where in your screenshot stands ‘repeater’ there would stand ‘DingyDingy’

afbeelding
afbeelding471×709 29.4 KB

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27

Using the z2m devices page, searching on “repeater” gets 6 hits, searching for “router” gets 18 hits, so three times as many manufacturers are getting it right rather than wrong.

28

ZHA documentation has it correct too → https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#introduction

It also somewhat tries to clarify it further under this other section → https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#using-router-devices-to-add-more-devices

"Most mains-powered devices, e.g., many always-powered wall plugs or light bulbs in your Zigbee network will automatically act as a Zigbee router device (sometimes also referred to as a Zigbee “signal repeater” or “range extender”).

Because Zigbee should use a wireless mesh network to be effective, you will need to add Zigbee router devices to increase the number of Zigbee devices that can be used in your Zigbee network, both in the total number of devices that can be added as well as the total range and coverage of the network. Some Zigbee router devices do a much better job at routing and repeating Zigbee signals and messages than some other devices. You should not have a setup where Zigbee router devices (e.g. light bulbs) are often powered-off. Zigbee router devices are meant to be always available."

Warning! That specific Tuya Zigbee USB Range Extender / USB Dongle Signal Repeater (Tuya SKU: “RP280” / Zigbee ID: “TS0207”) is a Zigbee Router device but it has extremely crippled/buggy firmware that has been proven by several community developers and users to cause network stability issues because it does not pass along Zigbee messages from non-Tuya devices under certain circumstances. There is is more discussion about that terrible device here → Tuya Zigbee USB Range Extender / USB Dongle Signal Repeater (Tuya SKU: "RP280" / Zigbee ID: "TS0207") · zigpy/zigpy · Discussion #736 · GitHub

That is not a device type classification, that is just what Tuya wrote in the product description and not actually a Zigbee protocol function, that is just what the manufacturer has written into a string in the firmware. The description is just a free-form field. They could have just as well written in that description that it is a banana or a giraffe, but that does not make it so :stuck_out_tongue:

Again, those are just vendor marketing terms that manufacturers use in the product name or description and that does not stop them from also using the wrong terminology in the firmware description.

That however does not mean that there are functions/features or commands called “Zigbee repeater” or “Zigbee extender” in the official Zigbee specifications from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (a.k.a. “CSA-IOT”, formerly “Zigbee Alliance”). In the Zigbee specifications is it called a “Zigbee Router” (or “ZR” for short) and that is it is called in the code and commands.