Zigbee repeater (europe)?

Hi JDRoberts,

Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately the Samsung UK Plug is out of stock and I can’t find it in an online shop with delivery to my country (Denmark).

Do anyone know if buying the Orvibo Mini Smart Hub would work?
It is Zigbee HA, and it is powered - well, it is a hub. But can I pair it with Smartthings and use it as a Zigbee repeater?

R[quote=“SLKDK, post:6, topic:57328, full:true”]
Do anyone know if buying the Orvibo Mini Smart Hub would work?
It is Zigbee HA, and it is powered - well, it is a hub. But can I pair it with Smartthings and use it as a Zigbee repeater?
[/quote]

Unfortunately not. Zigbee doesn’t allow for more than one coordinator on the same network unless they’re using proprietary encoding, in which case it wouldn’t be the zigbee home automation profile. (CONTROL 4 can have multiple coordinators but they’re the only ones I know of, and of course that’s a very expensive system. )

But the Orvibo relay sounds like a good idea. Based on the ZHA certification, it definitely should be a repeater but I don’t know if that’s been verified with SmartThings.

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I’ve just pinged the guys at Orvibo an email (support@orvibo.com) asking them is the appliance relay and the RGB relay act as repeaters. They normally reply within 24 hours, I’ll post the response when I receive it.

If anyone can tell me how to confirm it’s a repeater (which I think will be far from straightforward) then I can investigate!

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Thank you very much Paul. Looking forward to hear from you :slight_smile:

You cannot do it just with the tools that smartthings provides. I think smartthings support can tell from their side. Some people get a separate device and use the mapping tool that comes with that and then they can see what the repeaters are on their network, but I wouldn’t do it just to answer this question.

The other way to do it is just with a range results test. Take a battery powered zigbee sensor and place it about 3 m away from the relay on the side away from the hub. Do a network heal so that the sensor is probably using the relay as a repeater. Pick up the sensor and start walking, checking the mobile app every 15 m to see if the sensor activity is still being detected. When you’ve moved out of range, note the location.

Walk back to your starting location and leave the sensor there. Take the relay off power (not just turned to off status, but actually off power all together). Now walk the same path that you did the first time. If the sensor had been using the relay as A repeater, the range should be significantly shorter.

Obviously this test can be affected by the other devices on your network, so it’s not always a certain diagnostic, but it usually works pretty well.

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Thanks @JDRoberts. Let’s see if the Orvibo support guys respond before I devote my time to that instead of a much needed increase in SAF :wink:

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Might be worth dropping a note to SmartThings support and asking them. It may be something they can answer very quickly without your doing anything at all.

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Good point. Email sent.

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Response from ST (fast huh)!

Hi Paul,

Unfortunately, there isn’t a way for us to confirm this through our back end. if it is a device that’s on our compatibility list, found here, we will likely mention if it acts as a repeater. If it is a device off this list, it may be worth checking out the devices product page to see if it mentions for definite if it is.

Kind regards,

They did also say this:

Hi Paul,

Thanks for getting in touch.

We normally find that any device that is mains operated, such as an Outlet etc, will generally act as a repeater. This is also something you should be able to find confirmation of in the devices manual.

If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to get back in touch.

Kind regards,

I’ll update the thread when the Orvibo guys respond.

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@SLKDK quick as you can:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-SmartThings-Power-Outlet-Plug-Control-lights-and-small-electronic-device-/121888438652?hash=item1c611df97c:g:fZcAAOSwsB9WCrHn

2 available from Currys, they are therefore supported under warranty by ST!

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Bummer :frowning: Won’t ship to Denmark

I really appreciate all the effort.

Shame, let’s see what the Orvibo boys come back with.

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Hi, anything new here? :smiley:

Anyone experience with this as a repeater?

Yeah any (good) news? :slight_smile:

I’ve just realised I never had a response. I’ve sent another email.

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Some good and bad news.

Here’s the good news:

The not so good news:

All of that said if you want a relatively inexpensive repeater this certainly looks like an option.

Hmm, still looking further for a good zigbee repeater. I need a few for covering my house.
So far i haven’t found any, other than the ST ones from the UK, which are not in stock via Amazon (which can ship to the NL)

I am currently using an Osram EU plug as zigbee repeater, but is VERY unreliable, the plug itself is fantastic, but relaying the sensor messages is horrible. Still in doubt to buy an Osram Hub to update the firmware. But this still might not fix it in the end…
What to do…
Maybe i should forget about the whole zigbee platform and go for zwave (replacing the el-cheapo Orvibo sensors), which is much more common here in EU.

Confirmed! The Orvibo RGB relay works extending my Zigbee mesh - I have now no problems with Zigbee devices (farest away from ST hub) loosing their signal.

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