FAQ: 32 Zigbee direct connection device limit?

[JDRoberts]

@farlicimo

Yikes. . . didn’t know about this. I would also think the proliferation of the Visonic open/close sensors will be an issue as they have been cheap enough I think people are buying by the fistful. I just did a count of Zigbee IDs in my IDE and I have 29 and the majority are battery powered. Several of the ones that are not are Sengled end points. I think I might have 3-4 routers. Looks like I may be in for a rude surprise soon. Is there any way to figure out how Zigbee capacity you have left in the hub? Not sure how I can tell which ones have a direct connection.

I suppose you could ask support to check for you. Unfortunately, smart things doesn’t give us any mapping tools.

If it’s really important to you there’s a way to do it, but you need to buy an additional device and it’s pretty technical:

FAQ: Mapping your ZigBee network with Digi's XCTU

I have had several request about how I map my ZigBee network with Digi’s XCTU software so I thought I would share a quick how to: Caution: This is not a Digi supported procedure if something goes wrong during the firmware upgrade you could brick your Digi USB xStick and have to send it back to Digi to be recovered. What is this and why would you want to do it? ZigBee mesh networks are self configuring and self healing and in larger networks it helps to know what nodes are routing who’s information. You can’t really control the network configuration but it helps to see the relationship between your nodes if your troubleshooting a connection problem. The screen capture below is how my SmartThings ZigBee network looks when it is mapped out by the XCTU software. The SmartThings hub is th…

I would also add that most people who are following “best practices” guidelines for laying out the network backbone are not likely to run into this issue. But that means putting two zigbee repeaters in every room. I know a lot of people don’t do that.

Even one zigbee repeater in every room would probably be enough to avoid this problem even with sensors on every window—Unless you are also adding six or eight Sengled bulbs in every room.

So I don’t think it’s surprising that there haven’t been many reports of this previously. I honestly do think it’s the Sengled bulbs which are most likely to be involved.