Understanding Zigbee mesh connectivity

Devices & Integrations
#1

I am installing the TP-Link Deco M9. I have reached out to their support to understand this, but haven’t had much luck. I have 2 questions:

  1. Will the Deco work as a generic Zigbee repeater for the sensors I currently have connected to my SmartThings hub? or will it only repeat the signal for sensors natively connected to the Deco mesh.
  2. Assuming it only repeats for native connections, then my question/example would be as follows…I have SmartThings water leak sensors I can connect directly to the Deco mesh. But I have a water shutoff valve that would not. Currently in SmartThings, if a leak is detected, then the valve closes…but if the sensors are connected in a different app than the valve, how would I connect these 2 actions?

Thanks in advance

#2

Zigbee Devices using the profile that the smartthings hub or the deco model use can only belong to one hub. So it’s the deco or smartthings, not both.

Similarly they can only repeat for devices which are connected to the same hub. Anything connected to your deco Zigbee Network will not repeat for your smartthings Zigbee network, and vice versa.

#3

ok, I can understand that - so then at the risk of exposing my ignorance, I will ask - can the SmartThings app talk to the Deco app such that SmartThings can trigger a response based off of something happening as recorded by Deco?

In other words - is there any way to get a water valve shutoff registered in SmartThings to close based on actions by the sensors registered in Deco?

#4

Unfortunately no, neither company has provided an integration method between their two apps.

The only thing you could do is have the deco create a physical event that could be perceived by a device on the smartthings Network. Such as turning on a light with deco and having an a lux sensor on smartthings recognize that it came on.

Or it is possible to add a single hue bridge to both the deco account and the smartthings account at the same time. Then you could use a bulb connected to that bulb to communicate between the two accounts since they will both see it either go on or go off. :thinking:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/1778/

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#5

bummer…thanks for that helpful info. This is a hard problem to google for because every combination of ‘tp link’ and ‘smartthings’ ends up referring to their list of compatible devices.

pretty lame there’s no cross-app support…not much good to be notified of a water leak if I can’t actually respond to it automatically.

My water sensors constantly go offline when connected to smart-things, so my hope was that the zigbee mesh from the tp-link would be a lot better (as opposed to having to buy a bunch of the Ikea zigbee repeaters)

#6

Don’t buy those. Unless you meant the ikea tradfri smart plugs to act as repeaters, in which case, OK.

The IKEA “repeaters“ are only intended to work with their own smart shades in the same room and they are really really low power. Practically useless as general repeaters.

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#7

yeah I meant tradfri…wasn’t even aware of the other kind, that’s good to know.

#8

Hopefully the new matter initiative will improve this for a lot of devices starting in 2022. But we will have to wait to see.

Matter - smart home connectivity standard (formerly Project CHIP)

#9

They are both Tradfri.

Mostly useless “signal repeater”

Mostly useful smart plug which also acts as a Zigbee repeater

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#10

super helpful exchange and info, thank you very much

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#11

As to the drops, honestly id troubleshoot the zigbee mesh and fix it rather than move everything to YAZN: yet another zigbee network. Zigbee issues can be as simple as radio interference from Wifi, another zigbee network, a USB3 hub… Or not enough repeaters… If you need repeaters to keep devices from dropping on one zigbee system, chances are extremely high that the same thing happens moving to the other. (the devices didnt magically get weaker or stronger, and they still communicate using the same underlying protocol) If you find the new system doesn’t need (as many) repeaters you likely are on a different channel that communicates better. And you might have better luck swapping channels. If you want to go down that path theres plenty of people here willing to help.

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#12

Thank you very much for that info. The main offender in my case is the water leak sensors I have spread throughout the home. I’ve never looked into changing the channel on my existing SmartThings hub to help improve the signal strength. Is there a basic resource you can point me to that would help me down that path?

#13

Ok well changing ZigBee channels isn’t a task to be undertaken lightly - some devices dont handle the channel change well. THat said, how many sensors- and starting at the hub - how far out are they and what kind of repeating devices do you have between the hub and the sensor. What channel is your 2.4Ghz wifi using? What channel is your ST Hub Zigbee using (htttps://account.smartthings.com > My Hubs > Zigbee should be somewhere on that page including the channel controls, but I don’t have my hub anymore so I don’t have that option. Finally what zigbee devices do you have that are NOT those sensors?

(edit Zigbee, not Zwave - ZWave doesnt have 'channels :slight_smile: )

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