Zigbee/Z-wave general communication questions

Hardware
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Hello,

I’m used to work with RFLink integration and 433 devices: i know that communication is only done when command is sent or received (a switch on/off or a sensor that sends its value). So, most of the time for switches, nothing communicate frequently except for example for weather sensor to receive values or when i send a switch command myself or by automation.

I plan to move to Zigbee or Z-wave devices for more reliability and for other devices like irrigation system or detectors that are not 433.

My question is more general about these protocols. In fact i want to know the frequency of communication that is done when devices are “standby”/not used.

I know that a switch/cover for example can return its state with these protocols. But is HA polling frequently the device to get its state? If so, what is the frequency?
Or the state is only retrieved when HA start?
Or device push states only when used ?
If I don’t send any switch/cover command from HA, does it send on its own background pings to devices ?
Is is the same for Zigbee or z-wave ?

Sorry for these (maybe) noob questions, I am not electrosensitive, but i like to have control on what is communicating inside the house and when it is necessary, and i like to understand the “under the hood”.

Thanks for your answers and explanations.

2

Zigbee seems to be polling, Z-wave push

afbeelding

afbeelding

1 Like
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Interestingly, there’s a GitHub issue open for clarity: Is the ZHA integration only "Local Polling" or also "Local Push" depending on the device? · Issue #26125 · home-assistant/home-assistant.io · GitHub

I’m wondering the same thing because there are definitely some extremely chatty ZigBee devices out there that appear to constantly push updates, but I’m hardly an expert.

4

Indeed interesting. I know Zigbee2MQTT only polls Zigbee devices if they don’t push the information themselves, e.g. for Blitzwolf SHP-13 energy monitoring. But how the Zigbee side is implemented in ZHA I don’t know.

5

@Skuair - What are you trying to achieve, by asking these questions? What’s the angle / what’s the concern?

6

Just to understand if using ZigBee/Z-wave is the same as RF 433 in term of communication frequency: to know if I will be permanently surrounded by ZigBee or Z-wave radio all day or just twice a day when I switch on and off a switch for example.

7

Both a Zigbee and Z-Wave network behave a lot like a Wi-Fi network : permanent communications between the devices and the Zigbee coordinator/ Z-Wave dongle.

8

Devices are not transmitting non-stop, but they do check in routinely. A battery device likely only pings the coordinator once an hour or so if it doesn’t have anything to report. Wired devices are all over the map, some can be very quiet, some are very chatty. I have one that reports every second, others every 5-10 minutes.

9

Ok, and how do you know the interval you are talking about for your devices ? You use the HA logs ?

10

For Zigbee, if you use Zigbee2MQTT it is easy to see in the front-end on the logs tab.

11

Like @francisp, I use z2m. I would expect enabling ZHA debug logging would provide equivalent data.

The last seen attribute in ZHA should be a pretty good indicator without going to the logs.