I’ve been working on integrating some ZigBee devices into my smart home setup, and I’ve encountered a bit of a puzzle. Let me share my experience and see if anyone has some insights or solutions to offer.
I have two ZigBee outlets that control a pool pump and chlorinator in my backyard. They’re a bit far from my main ZigBee coordinator, which is inside the house. To bridge the gap, I’ve set up several ZigBee routers throughout the house. The goal was to create a reliable mesh network so that these outdoor devices could communicate effectively with the rest of my system.
Here’s where things get interesting. Initially, I tried using some off-the-shelf ZigBee routers, but they didn’t seem to connect with my outdoor outlets. The outlets would show up in my system, but their signal quality (LQI) was really low, and they often dropped out of the network. It was frustrating because the devices were clearly within range, but the connection just wasn’t stable.
Then, I decided to experiment with a SonOff ZBDongle-E as a router. I flashed it with the appropriate firmware and placed it near the outlets. After a few minutes, the outlets connected, and the LQI improved significantly. I even moved the router further away to a spot near the pool, and the connection stayed strong. It was a promising start!
But here’s the hitch. If I restart my system, the outlets don’t reconnect with the ZBDongle-E router. Instead, they revert to connecting directly with the main coordinator, but the LQI drops back to zero, making the connection unreliable. It’s as if the devices forget their preferred router and default to the coordinator, which isn’t ideal for maintaining a stable network.
I’ve tried a few troubleshooting steps. I’ve reset both the outlets and the router, ensured that there are no other interfering devices on the same frequency, and even tried placing the router in different locations. Nothing seems to consistently solve the issue.
So, I’m reaching out to the community for help. Does anyone know of a way to force these ZigBee devices to connect with a specific router rather than the coordinator? Is there a configuration setting or a workaround that could make this happen? I’d love to leverage the better performance of the ZBDongle-E router without having to manually reconfigure everything each time the system restarts.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Let’s see if we can crack this puzzle together!