Homey Zigbee - limit of 20 battery powered devices

Do you have any proper routers? Such as an Ikea or hue light bulb connected directly to Homey? Or a Zigbee smart wall plug connected directly to Homey? The bridges from Hue (for example) are intended to be used as a coördinator, the same as Homey, not as a router. The mesh-network should only have one coördinator, but can have multiple routers. Each router (and the coördinator) can hold up to 20 devices (give or take).

I recognize that I did not think of pairing the HUE bulbs directly to Homey, they are always connected to the HUE bridge. (the functionality and ergonomics are the same?)
The only devices I can use as a router are the IKEA TRADFRI signal repeaters (answer tonight after work;))

OK, I’m curious to see if that has any effect. A good way to test how your zigbee mesh is set up, is checking https://developer.athom.com/
You’ll have to wait a minute, as the mesh-network needs to load in order to show on your screen. You’ll see something like this. This is a screenshot of (a part of) my zigbee mesh.


The developer site shows which devices are a router or an endpoint. It also shows the route, based on the little coloured blocks with the number inside.

Result: it works but only for new devices added :cry: i have to appair again all my Xiaomi devices

edit: I have:

  • reset zigbee - restarted homey
  • add 3 ikea repeaters
    -re-paired my xiaomi devices

and guess what? it works !!!

Thank you very much for the insights as I am planning to deploy ZigBee sensors in combination with Heimdall, this is very useful material here.
However because I am new to the community, I would have some questions to raise and I am sorry if it was already addressed in some groups of discussion.
1- Did anyone test what happens when you have a power cut ? Because I guess using extenders you couldn’t really control throughout the mesh network could be an issue. Does it reconfigure correctly ? Any possibility to say the device should act as router or not ?
2- Using devices such as Lamps or sockets acting as extenders is also an issue if you cannot control their functions isn’t it ?
3- What could be recommended as best practice to deal with this type issue, for instance using UPS also for the ZigBee extenders ? Disconnecting the lamps and sockets in a flow activating the surveillance mode ?, etc.
Please could we list somewhere all recommendations to make it more secured ?
Many thanks in advance for your feedbacks :wink:

Hi Arvlux,

1- if the power of homey is cut then you can no longer control the devices that are paired on it. However, when the power returns, all devices are operational again (with some exceptions)

2- Indeed it is the risk but point number 3 answers

3- I think of your need: connect homey to a UPS in case of power failure. However, if you have a lot of very distant zigbee devices, you should also plan to redundant the power of your zigbee repeaters otherwise there is a risk that they will no longer communicate with homey during the power outage.

1- if the power of homey is cut then you can no longer control the devices that are paired on it. However, when the power returns, all devices are operational again (with some exceptions)
2- Indeed it is the risk but point number 3 answers I think of your need: connect homey to a UPS in case of power failure. However, if you have a lot of very distant zigbee devices, you should also plan to redundant the power of your zigbee repeaters otherwise there is a risk that they will no longer communicate with homey during the power outage.

Le ven. 24 janv. 2020 à 09:28, Hervé via Homey Community Forum athom@discoursemail.com a écrit :

Hi Guy56,
Many thanks for the confirmation for the way to go, sounds logical :wink: Did you implement it ? What about removing a device playing role of extender like a lamp or power socket, could we remove it from the Zigbee mesch by command in a workflow ?

Then it is a generic zigbee issue when it’s in a specific hardware setup (SoC/Memory/etc) as described…

Thats not the mesh layout, thats the routing list.
Look at the post made earlier: )

Something cannot be both generic and specific :stuck_out_tongue:

To clarify: it’s not a generic Zigbee issue because the limit isn’t imposed by the Zigbee standard.

Ye i know both the meaning of that word and the sentence as a whole. and the insights of this “issue”. and again, read my post, never said it was a generic flaw across the board. Just a common limitation in specific hardware environments. (As earlier stated).
If its easier for you just put in “hardware environment” in the specific-part if the sentence. And generic you can change to general/common, then perhaps the sentence get simplified when someone isnt used to eng.

in dutch ill guess its same as algemeen / gemeenschappelijk…
Iam not Dutch, used google for that part.

2 Likes

Don’t be patronizing.

No worries i wasnt, just explained, to prevent misunderstandings.

Then it’s a good thing I never said it’s the mesh lay-out. However, it’s my understanding that, based on the routes, you can work out how your mesh is set-up. So in my post, the ikea light bulb is used to pass on the messages between the aqara motion sensor and homey. Are you telling me that’s false?

1 Like

Nope, i never said that. I just said it’snot the mesh you see under the “dev’s page”, its the routing table on active nodes. I linked the other guy’s post down below.
And yes, you said mesh. I was just saying the same as the guy before you, so you dont mix the 2 things up. Especially when you are troubleshooting it, your Zigbee network.

Your post.

The guy’s post: post

It would be very good though, if it would generate the mesh-layout. So you both have the active routes (routing table) and mesh with the alternatively routes/jumps.
So you can have a complete overview on the topology of your Zigbee network.

I still cant understand, why such an expensive device can only handle max. 20 direct zigbee Connections. Is it the same for the Pro model?

  • Hue Hub allows 50 direct connections
  • Hubitat allows 32
  • SmartThings I think is at 64

If you are good in DIY, maybe you can extract a Zigbee chip from an ST and put it on the Homey motherboard?

  1. That was not my question.
  2. According to this it‘s an SoC issue and DIY work wouldn’t help…
  3. It isn‘t really clear if the threshold is only for battery powered devices or for all devices. Can somebody help?

3: What is it u don’t understand at Roberts comment?

2 Likes

Ok.

1.) Yes, it’s the same for the Pro
3.) 20(-ish) in total, for ALL devices