Zigbee - erratic behavior adding & maintaining connection

[tporada]

Using EISY, v5.84 with Insteon (still my favorite), ZWave & Zigbee devices. Generally they all integrate well.

 

Issue 1

I am using Zigbee and ZWave motion detectors, more Zigbee than ZWave. The Zigbee detectors seem to be disconnecting and not functioning. These are simple applications of turning on a light. 

I have re-added the Zigbees with interviews previously but now EISY does not even allow me to do that function. When I try to add a Zigbee device I do not even get a secondary windows talking about the interview. Nothing happens.

Yes, I reboot often to see if the problem gets corrected.

Yes, I have new batteries in the detectors

These detectors are within 15' of the EISY and all work well when they are recognized.

I use a ZWave on/off plugin socket that is solid, same with Zigbee sockets and Insteon (many switches, duplex sockets and plugin sockets)

Issue 2

I have noticed that both the Zigbee and ZWave pulldowns in the admin control panel sometimes show an explanation point (I forget the wording along with that) but nothing else in the submenu. I then reboot and mostly get the submenus back. On occasion I get one and not the other (ZWave or Zigbee). I suspect this to be a mechanical design problem with the weight of the dongle not connecting well at the USB contact points within the connector. I may try using a short USB cable rather than plugging the dongle into the EISY.

 

Comments/recommendations welcomed.

[paulbates]

This sounds pretty specific yet unusual. I would open a ticket with a link to this post

[IndyMike]

@tporada, if you are using Zwave and Zigbee dongles, conventional wisdom is to use a USB extender to put some distance between the dongle and the Hub.  My experience is with a Raspberry PI, but I would think the same would apply to the EISY unless it's shielded.

A second comment in regard to Zigbee - it can be challenging to use in a WIFI environment.  Zigbee frequencies overlap many of the WIFI 2.4 GHz channels.  There are a number of sites that give instructions on how to change the Zigbee channel to avoid crowded WIFI channels.  I do not know how to do this with the EISY.  There are also apps that you can download to your phone to identify what channels are in use in your vicinity (I use WIFI analyzer).  Best advice is to move as many things to 5Ghz as possible to avoid interference, then change 2.4GHz zigbee/WIFI channels as necessary.

 

 

[larryllix]

54 minutes ago, IndyMike said:

@tporada, if you are using Zwave and Zigbee dongles, conventional wisdom is to use a USB extender to put some distance between the dongle and the Hub.  My experience is with a Raspberry PI, but I would think the same would apply to the EISY unless it's shielded.

A second comment in regard to Zigbee - it can be challenging to use in a WIFI environment.  Zigbee frequencies overlap many of the WIFI 2.4 GHz channels.  There are a number of sites that give instructions on how to change the Zigbee channel to avoid crowded WIFI channels.  I do not know how to do this with the EISY.  There are also apps that you can download to your phone to identify what channels are in use in your vicinity (I use WIFI analyzer).  Best advice is to move as many things to 5Ghz as possible to avoid interference, then change 2.4GHz zigbee/WIFI channels as necessary.

 

 

Also should be noted that part of the WiFi spec for 5GHz is that it shares frequencies with aeronautical radar and anytime a 5GHz router sees any radar usage it is required to shut down immediately and change frequencies. This only applies to the middle half-dozen channels or so (IIRC). This can cause you hiccoughs in data streaming. Most devices will never show this up to the user but some are sensitive to it.
If you are near any airport or in a flight path, choose your 5GHz band channels carefully and possibly consider disabling auto-selection by locking your router onto one the unshared channels.