I was having a lot of false leave/arrive with my tags… especially when it was raining. I did two things that have made them nearly rock solid:
1.) Added a Zigbee repeating device near the tags in the garage.
2.) Moved my hub about 10 feet away from my router.
Not sure which made the biggest difference or what, but it went from getting regular false reports nearly nightly… sometimes dozens of times a night… to getting one false report a month at most.
I get the distinct feeling that Zigbee vs. Z-wave may end up a Mac vs. PC or Ford vs. Chevy sort of thing much more than a Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD or BetaMax vs. VHS thing.
Who knows… I’ve never been known as one who can accurately predict the future (well, other than that my beloved Lions will find yet another new and interesting way to lose), but I guess I don’t see either one as necessarily pushing the other out of the market anytime real soon.
And because things like ST have successfully shown that the two standards can play nice together in one hub, there really isn’t an over powering reason that one standard HAS to supplant the other.
I’m not so sure it will since the two can be married together rather seamlessly under the same roof. I don’t see any real reason for a person to choose one over the other 100%. Just use both!
I checked couple of GE Zigbee switches. They are much more expensive than Zwave version (almost double in price). Does anyone know if GE link bulb (http://www.amazon.com/GE-Wireless-Connected-60-Watt-Equivalent/dp/B00NOL16K0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443622041&sr=8-1&keywords=GE+link+bulb) repeating Zigbee signals even if they are not turned on? I can buy couple of them and plug in around the house to build up the Zigbee network.
I found the answer here: https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/203598304-What-is-a-GE-Link-light-bulb-
It actually repeats the Zigbee signal. It’s much cheaper using this.
But why leave all your sensors and smart stuff?
Yeah, I use these as Zigbee repeaters. You’re right about the GE Zigbee switches, they are way too expensive. Maybe once they become available on Amazon they will be more affordable, but right now it doesn’t make any sense to buy them really. They are like $50/ea whereas the Zwave ones are regularly $30/ea.
Personally, I’ve never been a fan of smart bulbs for a few reasons…
I like to have local control if the automation goes down. My wife isn’t a geeky person… she’s not a luddite at all, but she’s also not patient. If the lights aren’t turning off when they are supposed to, she’s not going to wait for it or investigate why… she’s going to flip the switch. That of course means the bulbs won’t go on again until the switch is physically turned back on.
I’m always worried about a burnt out bulb. Granted, the LEDs should last a long, long time. But if a bulb burns out or fails early, then you have to replace with another more expensive bulb with the radio built in.
Price… I have a few areas with multiple bulbs per fixture… like 4 in the den… 4 in the computer room. 3 in the dining room, 4 in the upstairs hallway. Even if a SmartBulb is cheaper than a RegularBulb + SmartSwitch, I’m pretty sure 3xSmartBulb will be more expensive than 3xRegularBulb + SmartSwitch.
Obviously just my opinion…
You may consider checking out my SmartApp “Off as Toggle”, which allows you to co-purpose the “off” button on your wall switch to toggle other devices/switches when the main switch is off. In other words, if my living room switch (track lights) is already off, pressing off again will work as a toggle for a GE Link bulb I have in a corner lamp. It’s very wife friendly and 100% reliable (unlike Double Tap). I have it posted in the SmartApp forum.
Since the bulbs default to “on” when powered off then on, they do give you local control in case the hub goes down. They are better than smart outlets for this reason. And, also, with the v2 hub, you do get local processing of off/on so turning them on/off is very responsive.
I do agree with you though as well. I wouldn’t personally use them in clusters. I only like them for a single bulb here, single bulb there.
Not really, unless you have 6+ bulbs all go out at once. GE and Cree connected bulbs are routinely $12-$15 each . Even cheapest plain old dumb LED bulbs are still in the $8-$10 each range . So less than $5 more for the connected bulbs.
Smart dimmer switches are going to run you in the range of $40-$50 each , and require that your house has the proper wiring ( or you are comfortable rewiring it yourself and not pay an electrician $100 a piece to install your switches) . Switches have their place, like for my overhead cans where 1 switch controls all 6 cans, and until recently you couldn’t even get smart can bulbs.
Now when you are talking about lamps a $15 bulb is cheaper than a $30-$40 plug in light module , or smart outlet no matter how you look at it.
Okay, okay, okay… 
So I’m off a bit on my maths. However, I’ll counter with two things:
1.) If you’re lucky enough to get access to an building that was going to be demo’d and remove a a few dozen of their dumb LED bulbs, then your LED bulb price of $8-10 is off.
2.) Bulbs still don’t have local control and with a wife who doesn’t have patience with the bleeding edge of tech, that can be a problem at times. I don’t need her calling me at work saying she can’t turn off the Living Room lights 
I re-bulbed my whole house to LED for about $2.50 per bulb, via Ikea’s amazing half price sale that they do every once in a while. The only ones I haven’t replaced yet are my BR30s (I need about 29 of them), but I’m also torn on whether to change those to LED since LEDs simply don’t give you that nice warm dimming that an old fashioned incandescent does.
Also, you have to consider that most switches drive several bulbs. A $30 switch isn’t all that much when you’re driving 6+ bulbs, which is common. And a switch is permanent and provides both a physical and virtual interface for your lights.
No the ge link’s are not zigbee repeaters.
Yes, they are 
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/203598304-What-is-a-GE-Link-light-bulb-
When receiving power, this bulb will act as a signal repeater to extend the range of your ZigBee mesh network.
Well, you can believe a 3rd party writing or the manufacturer who states, they are a ZLL repeater not a ZHA repeater.
Meaning they will only repeat ZLL commands when paired to other ZLL bulbs.
They will NOT repeat ZHA commands. They act as endpoints only.
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.
But things like the ST Smart Outlet work as proper Zigbee repeaters (ZHA commands), correct? I’m wondering what other options there are out there that work as repeaters other than the GE switches, which are absurdly priced, the ST outlet (which is also $$$) and the 1st gen motion senor?
I have spoken with the manufacturer, they did state they had the option in firmware to enable repeating ZHA per the spec, however at launch they did not enable it.
It is possible in later batches this was enabled, but I have not confirmed this.
Still, using any device as a repeater that does not have constant power is asking for problems in a zigbee mesh. Pluggable outlet switches and light switch / dimmers make the best repeaters, IMO.
Wish the ZHA standard gave us options as to which devices could be repeaters and to allow that to be turned on/off.
I also wish ST gave us device health and config details on the devices to know if they are sleepy endpoints or active devices, if they haven’t responded in awhile, etc.
Hopefully ST zigbee implementation will improve soon.
Well, theoretically, these bulbs should be used in such a manner that they have constant power. That’s certainly the only way I use them.
Thanks for checking with the manufacturer, that’s good to know. Is there any way we can test whether or not that feature is enabled?
Not with ST. Zigbee status allows devices to report if they are endpoints or repeaters. Hopefully soon ST will allow more robust status and reporting of device types that use zigbee.
Other than trial and error…
Set up a hub on the farthest end of a house. Move the bulb as far away but still remains controllable via ST.
Add another zigbee device, like a presence sensor and move past the bulb with it on. See if you can get 2x the distance from hub as the bulb and still have it report in.
Then turn power to bulb and see if the zigbee device remains on the network.
Of course, do all this in a vacuum without any other RF interference
In my experience the GE bulbs only work as repeater when you first wake them up. I have 1 bulb ( call it C ) in the corner of the basement that I could never get to turn on/off reliably. Through experience I learned that if I turned on/off bulb B first , then bulb C would respond as commanded. So if I was going into the basement I learned to turn on light A, then light B , then light C in order. Once C was on I could turn lights A+B back off. In order to turn light C off though I had turn turn light B back on, shut off light C, then turn B back off.
A Peanut in the basement solved that problem though.