I have been on my Zigbee journey for a short while, and so far everything has been going well.
I’ve hit a bit of a weird issue and believe it is probably related to the ZigBee layout in our house, and most likely there’s isn’t enough signal getting to some devices.
Here’s my house plan with ZigBee devices identified…
Most devices are working, but the LQI seems to be low on some devices.
The Aqara Door & Window sensor in my workshop appears not to be connected? I am using Zigbee2MQTT in Home Assistant and the LQI on this device is N/A which I assume means not connected?
Open to thoughts, suggestions, ideas on how I could better improve my ZigBee topology.
Somethings to check, Zigbee runs on the 2.4Mhz freqs, and I would imagine you have a wireless router, so you want to make sure your wireless router channel/freq is far from your Zigbee channel/freq. Here is a link that can help with that:
Also if you have close neighbors, this also applies to the freqs that they are leaking out of their house. Next I would add a Zigbee plug closer to your workshop. Plugs act as repeaters in the Zigbee world. Good Luck.
With z2m the Channel is in the configuration, rotor you can see it in the console on settings and advanced.
The door sensor. I had same problem. Delete it and set it up again, then it will show LQI.
Best way to figure out if devices are connected is looking at the “last seen”, if it goes many hours, then it is probably not reporting in.
Hi Mark, Think there is something else wrong. First your setup. A RPi? Which Zigbee coordinator? And do you have it on a long USB extender (if USB). Remember to use a USB2 port. Make sure your wifi is not on a channel not close to the Zigbee channel.
The only “mains” device (no battery) you have is the plug. Is this one always powered on? It should be. If you have more “mains” try and setup some of them to strengthen the mesh.
Last seen should always have a time, some can be several hours, however they should all show a time since last seen.
Availability is not actual availability, but something else. Most of mine is “disabled”
Mark, @khvej8 has made a good point if your usb Zigbee Dongle is plugged directly into your rpi, the rpi generates interference, so using an extension solves this problem. Also mostly anything in the Zigbee world that use mains power will work as a repeater, plug light bulb, and anything else that might fit in there, but they do have to have power, all the time.
Are you actually functional issues? Don’t get too hung up on the LQI stats (or lack of). They mean less than most people think IMO. If it all works, I wouldn’t worry much about it.
Still, planning for interference issues now will be easier than waiting. Unless you actively changed from the default, Z2M will be on zigbee channel 11, which falls within the main 20mhz block for wifi channel 1. It seems a less than prime location to me. I don’t understand why Z2M chose that as the default other than it being the first zigbee channel.
You have so few devices, it might be a good time to change the zigbee channel if you desire (you have to re-pair the devices), otherwise use wifi channels 6 or 11.
If you really are having issues, as @TinyDoT suggested, a couple extra mains powered devices as repeaters strategically placed in the workshop and along the walls nearest the workshop would be most likely solution.
Have spent most of the day troubleshooting the situation, and have found that any ZigBee device in the workshop wont talk to the ZigBee network in the house.
Tried a number of plugs in locations as close to the workshop as possible. The plugs all seem to mesh which is great, but any ZigBee device in the workshop doesn’t connect to the mesh or the coordinator?
So I am not sure what else to do? I do have an access point in the workshop, and it is on channel 1 and the ZigBee is on channel 26, so they should be far enough apart?
I am wondering if I need to purchase another ZigBee coordinator or router, and place it in the workshop? Not sure what else to do?
Hi Mark, Strange that your devices do not have a “last seen”, i think all devices should have that. Have never tried a Ethernet attached zigbee coordinator, maybe related to the setup. Earlier you also mentioned the LQI was N/A, this is also not right, always a number, even a low number, but a number. Do you have other entities showing n/a?
Can see you have changed channel on zigbee. During my change from ZHA to Z2M I tried channel 25, however a number of devices did not work on 25, maybe 26 is also bad.
So I changed to channel 13, as my Philips Hue is on channel 11 and ZHA was on channel 15. This works with 2 Wi-Fi access points using channel 6 and channel 11 (remember the wifi channels are different).
Before moving on, I think the N/ A values should be solved. Otherwise, is the mesh actually working?
I found it relatively easy to change the channel on my WiFi access points, so have manually set them to be on channel 11. I will see how things go with that change and if there’s no improvement then I will investigate changing the ZigBee to channel 13 as suggested by @khvej8 and see if that helps.
I suspect it is an interference thing more than anything else, so I will keep tweaking things until I find a good balance. Everything outside my workshop seems to work reasonably well, so it could be the AP in the workshop that is the issue, which is why I changed the WiFi channel to 11 in the workshop first.
Thanks for all the advice, it is very much appreciated.
If you haven’t already, I would test with the shop AP turned off.
Also try re-pairing the sensor directly with the nearest mains/router device. The Z2M “permit join” button is a drop down allowing selection of the router device to initially join with.
Have you tried a mains/router device in the shop in addition to the main structure?
WIFI Channel 11 is probably the worst choice for zigbee channel 26. Look at he coexistence link in post #2.
Im still puzzled on how the devices are working, when they do not have a “last seen” and have N/A in other entities. Of course it is good they work, however it might come back later as a problem. Personally I would start all over with only 1 mains and make it work fully, then all some other devices afterwards.
I use channel 13, however that was to avoid the already running setup, where I have 11 and 15 used. The official documentation point to channel, 11, 15, 20 and 25 as the preferred, as some older devices might not be fully compliant with the other channels. Something in relation to ZLL protocol for older bulbs. I would chose the default channel of Z2M if I was to start from scratch, as this would leave out questions in relation to this.
Remember to change the network key (security) initially. I did not know (did not read the documentation:-)), hence had to repair all devices later to change it.
I believe I am close, as it appears to possibly be related to either the distance of the workshop to the house, the construction of the workshop (mostly corrugated iron), or the AP in the workshop. I added a plug unit in an area close to the glass door, and it meshes with the other plug units, and the Aqara door sensor connected to the plug in the workshop.
I also moved the AP’s I have to channel 1, which hopefully is away from ZigBee channel 26. I am thinking @khvej8 advice regarding changing the ZigBee channels makes sense, so I may even try moving the ZigBee channel to 13 and see what happens.
I believe this is the place where I change the channel in the Zigbee2MQTT GUI…
As @khvej8 said above, outside of his particular needs, there’s nothing special about zigbee channel 13. It would be a bad choice with WIFI channel 1.
Again, look at the coexistence link and see where the zigbee and wifi channels overlap. Assuming a 20mhz wifi channel width, then zigbee 15, 20, 25, 26 should experience the least wifi interference in most environments.
If the shop walls are corrugated metal, it’s essentially a faraday cage and explains the issues.
I am going to leave the ZigBee on channel 26, and the WiFi on channel 1. I have managed to get a plug in the workshop connected to one of the plugs in the house, and next I will remove and add the Aqara door sensor, which hopefully will link to the plug in the workshop.
After I get that working I will look at next steps. I’ve learnt so much about ZigBee over the last week, and appreciate the advice and guidance provided here.
After some investigation, it seems the culprit is the Aqara door sensor, as it seems to be dropping connection to the plug unit. The plug units meshed connection remains solid, so I am wondering if channel 26 for ZigBee could be an issue with Aqara?
I will attempt to change the ZigBee channel to perhaps 25 and see what happens. I remember channel 25 being listed as one of the ‘safe’ channels to use. Be interesting to see what happens from here.
So after days of analysis I have come to the conclusion the Sercomm SZ-ESW01-AU units appear to be the reason the Aqara door sensor in the workshop wont connect to the ZigBee network.
I’ve changed the ZigBee channel, and WiFi channels, which had no affect on the situation.
The Aqara door sensors will join to the ZigBee coordinator and are reliable - see map below with Test-Door.
See the ZigBee map below, and notice that nothing is linked to the Sercomm SZ-ESW01-AU, and if it does connect it eventually loses connection over time.
The Test-Door sensor has been connected to the ZigBee coordinator for days without any issues.
