I spent last evening searching and reading many posts about Zigbee repeaters - battery powered vs mains power, bulbs that work/don’t work, how to use a repeater, Zigbee heal, and so on.
While I don’t think I’m more confused, it was a lot to take in (for me, at this stage of my smartthings game) …
I have a greenhouse on the other side of the yard, about 60 feet from the repeater.
I want to monitor the temp in the summer so that a smart plug can turn on some exhaust fans, or in the spring months to turn on a heater at night to keep the temp above freezing.
The plugs, a couple of Gosund, connect fine - not an issue.
The temp sensor, a Zigbee Sonoff SNZB-02P doesn’t reach the hub from the greenhouse, I’m not surprised.
I want a light on the back porch anyway, so I am hoping that these will extend the Zigbee network for me (IKEA is over 100 miles away, otherwise I sure would have bought their highly rated bulbs). One of these bulbs will be right about halfway between the hub and temp sensor. They are Innr bulbs, reviews that mention repeater say they work…
If I understand how a repeater works, pair up a bulb, remove and add back the temp sensor and it should detect the repeater and start using it? At worst, heal the Zigbee network?
That pretty much covers it. Just be aware that there’s nothing In the Zigbee mesh network That necessarily makes mains powered repeating devices more powerful transmitters than the battery powered devices. So it’s a relay race set up: you get the message to one device, which then passes it on to the next device, which passes it on to the next device, and so on.
So typically you put a Zigbee repeater about 15 m from the previous message source (hub or another repeater), and then it can broadcast the messages on for another 15 m or so. If that fits your halfway position, great.
All of which is to say, if your network can get the messages to the light, that should definitely help getting it to the sensor inside the greenhouse. But if the light itself is too far away, then the repeater can’t help. Or if there’s an issue getting signal from the light into the greenhouse (leaded glass is a particular problem, for example, and colored glass can be depending on what materials are used to get the color.)
So sometimes it’s just trial and error until you find a way to get the messages through.
For example, it’s quite common when trying to reach an outbuilding that you will put a repeating device near a window on the upper floor of the main building that has clear line of sight to the outbuilding so it can get signal out through that window to the outbuilding. That way, at least you’re not trying to get through the exterior walls of the main building. But again, it’s just trial and error.
I have to say, I had my doubts that it was going to make a difference. Sure enough though, turned off the hub, waited about 25 minutes (just to be sure it was going to be long enough), and put the temp sensor halfway between the new bulb and the greenhouse. Once I turned the hub back on, everything came back on line within a few minutes and there was a reading for the greenhouse temp. The temp sensor has been back in the greenhouse for about an hour now, working fine!
