flooding issue

Stoner

Forst of all I understand that I have different bandwidths at play.

I had an issue many months ago involving the following

Philips hue
HKC alarm
Lightwave
Smartrhings

Zero impact

SONOFF
Nest protect
Ring
Nest Camera
Canary
WiFi Google Onhub


I discussed it with BK at the time who advised that I post about it, however i didn't have the energy for all the "that can't happen " posts

Stoner

In December my hkc alarm went nuts

7 different wireless devices went went on multiple "low battery alert" over a period of a week

A smartthings sensors did similar

A Philips hue pir and lamp stopped working in the hall.

Every lightwaverf TRV lost connection

Lightwaverf commands stopped working bar local switching a ad remotes

Stoner

The alarm was difficult, changing batteries etc, expensive but no way they all want out at the same time. ( When fixed the old batteries were put back in, no issues) required a lot of attention

Lightwaverf was terrible, no automated heating. Multiple calls to support, history lost, devices wiped, from scratch set up required 3 times, lots of battery charging

Philips was not that bad as I still have switches, lost some connection to lights, a PIR stopped working

Smartrhings lost it's devices too, no huge impact

Stoner

Note

I was setting up my automated Christmas lighting at the time. As it happens this put me of finding a solution,. distraction

Stoner

So I'd a mixture of RF amd zigbee mesh devices with issues


One way RF switching (lightwaverf and SONOFF) worked

Purely WiFi devices worked (SONOFF, Nest, Canary,Ring)

Stoner

Solution

After multiple devices setups I decided to remove devices on a last on first off basis. Followed by a check

I narrowed it down to a Philips hue PIR in the hall (back to back with a hkc door sensors, the first alarm devices to give low battery alerts)

I removed the battery from the device and I could now set the alarm and pair lightwaverf devices.

Note this was a new device added on 21 December, I'd forgotten about it but checked all the logs and found it.

The hue app tells you when devices are added, HKC logs, lightwaverf has similar

Lightwaverf heating ,HKC alarm and smartthings all started on 21/22 of December


The battery in the PIR is fine (it's running another one)

The Philips lamps added that day are fine.

The hue device even unpaired is an issue

bk

Yikes, what a pain!

It sounds like that Hue PIR might be damaged and putting out bad interference on different frequencies!

AFAIK HKC Sensors use 868Mhz while Hue uses Zigbee on 2.4GHz. So strictly speaking they shouldn't interfere, but it sounds like they are, it is always possible.

I just took down one of my Hue motion sensors and based on the model number and FCC ID on the back it is using 2.4GHZ:
https://fccid.io/2AGBW9290012607X

But it turns out Zigbee can also operate at 868MHz in Europe! So maybe your Hue sensor is a different model from mine and operating at 868MHz, perhaps google the model number on the back of yours. If it is operating at 868MHz it might explain the interference.

SmartThings operates both Zigbee at 2.4GHz and Z-Wave at 868Mhz. Lightwave Gen 2 is 868Mhz and Gen 1 434Mhz

It makes sense that your wifi stuff is ok. Wifi uses 2.4GHz but wifi routers can be a bit more robust about frequency hoping around bands to avoid interference. And of course some of those devices can be using 5GHZ wifi too.

I'd say, first thing to do is Google the Hue motion sensor model number against the FCC to see what it is supposed to be doing.

It may just be bad hardware putting out interference, in which case I'd say RMA it back to Philips. Only way to tell about the interference is to have Ham operator type gear that can show what is happening on different frequencies.

bk

Stoner wrote: »

So I'd a mixture of RF amd zigbee mesh devices with issues

One way RF switching (lightwaverf and SONOFF) worked

Purely WiFi devices worked (SONOFF, Nest, Canary,Ring)

So the Gen 1 lwrf one way RF stuff and SONOFF RF operate at 433 - 434MHz

All wifi either 2.4GHz or 5GHz.

The LightwaveRF Gen 2 works at 868Mhz, as does HKC, and Smartthings Z-wave.

Sounds like the Hue sensor is definitely doing something odd around 868MHz.