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Devices Going Offline


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What causes devices to fall out of the mesh? When I woke up this morning I couldn't turn on some things, so I checked the ZigBee mesh. 11 out of 16 Wireless Outlet Switches where offline. Nothing else. No Dimmers, Locks, Keypads, Remotes, Motion Detectors or Thermostats. Just Outlet Switches. 

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No they aren't. I have a 40 foot by 40 foot (1600 sq. foot) home, with 63 ZigBee devices. Something is always close to something. Later that day all the Wireless Switches came back up (and have stayed online) but I lost a Thermostat and a Wireless Music Bridge. The Thermostat I understand falling out of the mesh but the Wireless Music Bridge is connected by Ethernet. Can someone tell me why or how it loses it connection? Has anyone had one go bad?

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So I woke up this morning and most of the Wireless Switches were offline again but this time a few Dimmers as well. I changed the way I turn on my home in the morning so I'm thinking that's why I missed this yesterday. Part of shutting my house down for the night is disconnecting the Wi-Fi and internet. When I wake up, the internet and Wi-Fi are restored. Shortly after turning the Wi-Fi and internet back on this morning everything came back to the mesh. I assume the same thing happened yesterday but I just didn't check the network soon enough to notice. Why would any devices leave the mesh when these services are down? I thought all Dimmers, Switches and other wireless devices connected and communicated by Bluetooth? Could someone please help me understand how these devices work?

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1 hour ago, Baubas Cat said:

Why would any devices leave the mesh when these services are down?

do you have more then 1 controller on your setup? do you have your ZAP and on a different controller? Do you have switches in your setup? Is your Wifi a router or do you have a seperate router?

 

1 hour ago, Baubas Cat said:

I thought all Dimmers, Switches and other wireless devices connected and communicated by Bluetooth?

no! Zigbee Pro.  Which is bluetooth-esque, but not BT.

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I have 2 controllers. Both of them are HC-800s. One of them is in the house and one is in the barn. The barn is 400 feet from the house and connected to the network with a wireless bridge. The barn is a Zap but nothing in the barn has been out of the mesh when checked. The modem/router is Uverse but everything else, antennas, switches and wireless bridges are Ubiquity. The Wi-Fi is shut off at night with everything else because the wife is afraid of the signals and I figured, if we're sleeping, what does it matter if the internet is on or not. Like I stated above I have over 60 devices and only the Wireless Switches and now a couple Dimmers are falling off the mesh. If it is Wi-Fi related, why isn't everything falling off the mesh? 

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I have 2 controllers. Both of them are HC-800s. One of them is in the house and one is in the barn. The barn is 400 feet from the house and connected to the network with a wireless bridge. The barn is a Zap but nothing in the barn has been out of the mesh when checked. The modem/router is Uverse but everything else, antennas, switches and wireless bridges are Ubiquity. The Wi-Fi is shut off at night with everything else because the wife is afraid of the signals and I figured, if we're sleeping, what does it matter if the internet is on or not. Like I stated above I have over 60 devices and only the Wireless Switches and now a couple Dimmers are falling off the mesh. If it is Wi-Fi related, why isn't everything falling off the mesh? 

It shouldn't be wifi related. Just trying to understand you network design and layout

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So what do you think it could be? If its not Wi-Fi related, then why do they seem to fall off every night after the house is shut down for the night and in the morning, shortly after the network is back up and running, all devices come back into the mesh? And why, for the most part, just the Wireless Outlet Switches? If the mesh is strong, why do devices fall off?

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No. I know the wireless outlets are off the mesh in the morning because I am using a three button press on the bathroom dimmer to restart the house. I had a relay with all the programming for turning on the house connected to a wireless outlet switch connected to a coffee maker. Wake up, go to the bathroom, press the dimmer and the house and coffee machine turn on. When this stopped working (because the relay was connected to the out of mesh outlet switch) I moved the relay from the outlet switch to the controller and now there are no more issues turning on the house but the wireless outlets still don't work until the house is on for a short time. If it was the Wi-Fi coming back online, then before the Wi-Fi was turned on, the outlet switch would still be in the mesh to accept the turn on command before the Wi-Fi "swamped" it out. ZigBee is on channel 24. 

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17 minutes ago, Baubas Cat said:

ZigBee is on channel 24. 

set it to 25 and I bet your problems go away.  Sounds like you have WiFi interference and your mesh is having to rebuild to power thru the interference.

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So a huge improvement this morning. Almost perfect but for one device. I have one Wireless Outlet Switch in the barn and it was the only device that was off the mesh when I checked. So moving to ZigBee channel 25 has seemed to help but there is a new problem. Usually when all the switches were disconnected, after the network was back up for a short time (15-20 min), they would all rejoin the mesh. I waited over 2 hours and it hadn't rejoined the mesh so I went to the barn to check what channel the Wireless Outlet was on. It is showing me its on channel 26. I checked it several times and also checked other devices. All other devices clearly show 25. That one is definitely blinking 26 times. It was online all day yesterday so I'm assuming it must have been on channel 25. So how did it move to channel 26? I don't even see a channel 26 in Composer. Is there a channel 26 and is there a way to manually set it back to 25?

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So a huge improvement this morning. Almost perfect but for one device. I have one Wireless Outlet Switch in the barn and it was the only device that was off the mesh when I checked. So moving to ZigBee channel 25 has seemed to help but there is a new problem. Usually when all the switches were disconnected, after the network was back up for a short time (15-20 min), they would all rejoin the mesh. I waited over 2 hours and it hadn't rejoined the mesh so I went to the barn to check what channel the Wireless Outlet was on. It is showing me its on channel 26. I checked it several times and also checked other devices. All other devices clearly show 25. That one is definitely blinking 26 times. It was online all day yesterday so I'm assuming it must have been on channel 25. So how did it move to channel 26? I don't even see a channel 26 in Composer. Is there a channel 26 and is there a way to manually set it back to 25?

Yeah. That is odd. I would reset it and rejoin the mesh. Sounds like it just went crazy

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

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So a huge improvement this morning. Almost perfect but for one device. I have one Wireless Outlet Switch in the barn and it was the only device that was off the mesh when I checked. Is there a channel 26 and is there a way to manually set it back to 25?

Bring it into the main home close to the controller so it can communicate 1:1 with the controller, not through the mesh.

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2 minutes ago, SMHarman said:

Bring it into the main home close to the controller so it can communicate 1:1 with the controller, not through the mesh.

not sure that makes sense.  There is a ZAP in the barn, so you would want it communicating with that.

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not sure that makes sense.  There is a ZAP in the barn, so you would want it communicating with that.

It may shake it to its senses, then you can move it back and it can renegotiate back into a new mesh location.

That said with the zap in the barn it should be unnecessary.

It's just a suggestion that is less intense than starting over (reset / rejoin)

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So, this morning the house wouldn't fully turn on so immediately I knew I had some Wireless Outlet Switches out of the mesh. I plugged the network in by hand, went to the computer and wait for a link to the Controller. When I checked the mesh 15 out of 16 Wireless Outlet Switches were out, 3 out of 4 6 Buttons and 16 out of 26 Wall Dimmers. The only things not out where the Door Locks, Motion Sensors, Remotes and Thermostats. Within 3 minutes of plugging the network in all the Dimmers were back in the mesh and 15 minutes after that, the 6 Buttons and Wireless Outlet Switches rejoined (even the barn). Could you please explain how the ZigBee Pro mesh works? Because its hard to believe its not somehow connected through the network, when everything is falling out when the network is disconnected at night and everything is rejoining when its plugged back in in the morning.

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Let's start from basics here.

Describe the network wired and wireless from the cable modem to any home controller and wireless access point.

Next, what powers down at night.

Also you run that during the day and leave it down 20-30 min do you get the same effect?

Finally uinstall WiFianalyser and find on your smartphone. Post screenshots of the results.

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In the house: Uverse router/modem port 1 to Ubiquiti Tough Switch. This switch has all my Control4 equipment. 1 HC-800, 1 IOX-B, 1 C4-16AMP, 4 Wireless Music Bridges and 1 Receiver. Port 2 to Ubiquiti Tough Switch. This switch has 3 Ubiquiti Cameras, 1 Ubiquity NVR, 1 Ubiquiti Wireless Bridge and 3 Ubiquiti Wireless APs. Port 3 to Ubiquiti Tough Switch. This switch has 3 game consoles, AppleTV and the Television. Port 4 is empty. In the Barn: Ubiquiti Wireless Bridge to Ubiquiti Tough Switch. This switch has 1 HC-800, 1 Receiver, 3 Ubiquiti Cameras and 1 Ubiquiti AP. When the system shuts down, the house Wireless Bridge is disconnected, along with all 3 Wireless APs and the router/modem.

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