Interesting! I didn’t know I could check that. I will check it and verify.
My zigbee channel is set to 14. I have my 2.4Ghz wifi set to channel 1. Not sure if they would be interference.
You’ll want to use ch11 if there isn’t too much else around you on that channel. Use an app like Wifi Analyzer to see what’s in your neighborhood. And remember that most people keep their routers set to defaults, so if you use 11 and your neighbor is currently on 11, theirs may roam to another channel after yours has been sitting there for a bit.
Zigbee ch14 is in the prime interference area of ch1 on WiFi so that could easily be causing issues. My router was on ch11 when I first got my hub and man, nothing worked right, moved it to ch1 and have had 1/100th of the problems I did back then.
Is there an ios app that will scan wifi on both the 2.4 and 5Ghz? I can’t seem to find an app that even does just the 2.4ghz. I can put one on my laptop but I wouldn’t mind getting one on my phone as well. Can’t seem to find one that scans wifi connections around me.
Maybe this, I don’t have any iOS devices:
My experience has been the opposite. My zigbee stuff has been rock solid after adding many Iris smart plugs around the house compared to past experiences with zwave. I do have to say though that the last few months have been pretty darn good for both my zigbee and zwave devices.
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So the smart plugs are just to help extend the zigbee mesh? Can the zigbee channel be changed?
Network Analyzer Lite just scans your local network devices.
Yes, and it makes a big difference. I know it’s probably overkill, but I added one of those devices in every single room, with most of them not having anything plugged into them and hidden behind a set of drawers or a cabinet.
Interesting! So I checked my wifi channels around me with Airport Utility and I am showing as the only one on channel 6 for 2.4Ghz. Is this going to cause a problem with zigbee channel 14? If i move to channel 11, my neighbour is using that channel as well.
Move it to 11 and see if after a day your neighbor has moved off. Also what’s the level? If the signal from your neighbor is under -80dbm or so, there will be little to no effect on your network.
Looking at this:
if your Zigbee channel is in any of the three wifi peaks, problems could occur. The “lobes” off the sides are still susceptible but not as badly. Avoiding the blue, green, or yellow entirely is your best bet, and blue which is where your Zigbee channel is, goes al the way to channel 17, green covers ch14 as well, thus leaving only 11 as free and clear. Mostly.
2.4ghz is a crazy populated band unfortunately, and it sucks that Zigbee is used in that space, but it is what it is. You can’t change that channel on the hub either, it’s hard coded into each unit as it’s produced.
Here is a screen capture of the surrounding wifi networks. It looks like my neighbour (bobcat) on 11 has a signal strength of -85 to -65. I will try changing my channel to 11 and see if it bumps him off of that channel. Right now the iris sensors seem to be having no trouble. Maybe I should just see what happens on channel 6.
That’s a marginal signal coming off bobcat, you could probably get a link to it, but it wouldn’t be very good. You should be fine using 11.
BTW, any of the SSID’s that show Width of 40 are using a wider spectrum and will intrude on the next non-overlapping channel, essentially overlapping it to a degree. So football-EXT for example is using channel 1 and also intruding on channel 6. That one could be adding interference to your Zigbee mesh, but it’s not a super high strength so hopefully not causing too much concern.
I ordered a set of these to replace some ecolink sensors. With ecolink I could put it in test mode so it could check for motion again 5 seconds after being triggered. What’s the time with these sensors?
I just got one of these sensors. Motion detection seems solid. It seems the sensor will switch to inactive after ~40 seconds of inactivity. Can anyone confirm that? ST motion sensor seems to switch to inactive ~15 seconds of inactivity.
Not a problem but curious if everyone has the same experience.
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iris reliably switches after 32-33 seconds, ST (2015) - 13.
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Thank you both for your feedback. I’ve gotten used to ecolink’s 5 seconds but half a minute ain’t so bad.
Set up 3 of these today and I love them. They are tiny and very sensitive and most importantly they trigger almost instantaneously. Compared to the ecolink z-wave these are much faster. Time will tell how well the batteries stand up to the test of time but for now I’m very happy with them.
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Nothing but good things to say here too. I do have one that goes offline frequently but I believe it’s the location it’s in. The others are solid.
I have four of them. Two of them work beautifully. The other two work very well, but chew up batteries in about 3-4 WEEKS. Both have been replaced by Amazon, so I am assuming it is just the location they are in (about 20 feet from hub each).