Hi there,
Is there a way to increase the Transmit power on the dongle? .. Its currently set to 5dbm and I would like to change it to 8dbm
Any pointers?
#Increasing TX Power for Zigbee/Thread - SIlabs Multiprotocol
slender cargo
toxic mauve
You can usually through the firmware. But why? What problem are you trying to solve?
slender cargo
marginal coverage - I have some Zigbee devices that are falling in and out of range. An analyser shows HA signal being poor
light merlin
All that does is make the coordinator louder, doesn't help the coordinator hear the devices
Add more (Zigbee) routers
slender cargo
you are right, but its my devices not hearing .. not the HA instance not hearing. My ZB devices are set at TX of 8dbm
8dbm is the default on most implementations .. dont know why HA changed it to 5... the chipset is capable of 20!
toxic mauve
you are right, but its my devices not hearing .. not the HA instance not hearing...
Which devices are at 8dbm? Are they custom built? No standard end devices support much over 5dbm that I have ever seen.
toxic mauve
8dbm is the default on most implementations .. dont know why HA changed it to 5....
It’s not a HA limitation. It’s the firmware on your coordinator.
slender cargo
Which devices are at 8dbm? Are they custom built? No standard end devices suppor...
Nordic Semiconductor's reference code puts 8dbm as a basline ... but yes - I have made my own devices
besides, 8dbm on a mains powered Hub isnt an outrageous idea 😄
toxic mauve
Ok. How many are routing devices? (Mains powered)?
It actually is considering Zigbee, BT and WiFi all share the same spectrum.
When you increase the coordinator power, you’re adding interference into what is supposed to be a low power protocol. But, considering you have custom devices, you can increase/decrease power as you want.
slender cargo
I agree that spectrum is shared .. my focus is Zigbee. I have HA with a coordinator ... and and one CCxxxx router. The CCxxxx was placed as the range from HA was poor.
toxic mauve
That’s the issue then. Not the trans power. You need more routing devices. Zigbee is a mesh protocol and the coordinator isn’t meant to act like an AP. It coordinates messages to routing devices which then routes to end devices.
slender cargo
The HA instance and end device are literally 20 metres apart!
(through walls though! .. thats not helping)
toxic mauve
That’s fine. But, again, that’s not the spec.
slender cargo
I dont get 'buy in' from the Wife who does not want to see electronic devices plugged in messing up the room asthetics 🙂 (yes, #firstworldproblems)
toxic mauve
You could have the end devices and coordinator a meter from each other. But eventually that end device will usually fall off the mesh because the coordinator isn’t meant to be a routing device.
slender cargo
as to my request though - as an experiment I would like the increase power .. if it doesnt help, I will have to make a steath-router
toxic mauve
lol I get that. Get a few Zigbee bulbs. Those are routing devices and can be “hidden”.
slender cargo
All my bulbs are in ceiling GU-10 !
slender cargo
unfortunately not .... they are controlled by Rako lighting system
toxic mauve
Ahhhh, those don’t count then. lol
BUT, If you replace a couple of them with Zigbee bulbs, you won’t need to increase power.
slender cargo
nope .. and I cant replace them 😄 (been there.. got that T-shirt)
toxic mauve
Hmmmmm. What about another CC device running router firmware?
slender cargo
thats one of the resorts ... have to try just hide in the ceiling - but I dont like home-made/cheap things in the roof on the risk of fires
toxic mauve
I agree with that. BUT, that is how you’ll solve your issue. It’s written into the Zigbee spec of how this works.
slender cargo
Zigbee allows up to 20dbm!
toxic mauve
Yes, it allows for it, but ALL the devices need to support that and again, a coordinator is not a router.
It’s a mesh networking protocol. The 20dbm is meant mostly for commercial applications where you are trying to overcome machine introduced interference.
There’s a reason why the consumer market settled on 3-5dbm.
slender cargo
20 is madness .. agreed... but that is in the spec
toxic mauve
Take a look at your visualization map and see where your devices are actually connecting.
slender cargo
they are connecting to a TI router - that is 3 metres from the Co-oridinator.... The end devices cant reach the Co-oridinator. (LQI goes to 17) - through the router, LQI is 250 (although LQI is crappy metric.. its one of the only metrics I have - besides a Zigbee protocol analyser)
(edit... corrected)
My HA install is wired ... (No Wifi or BT) - so Zigbee is the only protocol it uses
hence why I am not too concened about contention on 2.4
toxic mauve
And the end devices are still dropping off the mesh? How many end devices are there?
slender cargo
the 2 devices that are furthest away (through 2 walls) . other 4 stay online
toxic mauve
So you need a router between the TI router and the end devices. Increasing the power is only going to boost between the TI router and the coordinator.
It’s still not going to do anything between the end devices and router. The end devices should not be talking directly to the coordinator in any circumstance.
slender cargo
Why should the end devices not talk directly to the coordinator ?
(first I am hearing this... curious :D)
I see many installs where that is the case
toxic mauve
It’s written into the spec. Coordinator coordinates, router route messages and end devices connect to the routers.
And many of those installs have issues where devices drop from there mesh (or other issues).
slender cargo
It’s written into the spec. Coordinator coordinates, router route messages and e...
I disagree with that statement .. from SI Labs
In ZigBee, there are three different types of devices: end device, router, and coordinator. The key difference between these is that an end device can not route traffic, routers can route traffic, and the coordinator, in addition to routing traffic, is responsible for forming the network in the first place. Every network must have one and only one coordinator. These differences dictate the different features of each type of device.
--- a Coordinator can route - and is designed to do the task too
toxic mauve
It can route, yes. BUT... from years upon years of experience with a LOT of different coordinators and firmwares, they do no do not route well, if at all.
I've only been doing this 10+ years. You do what you want to do, but I can tell you from my own experience: End devices connecting directly to a coordinataor eventually fails.
slender cargo
I would not swap 'Badly behaved' to 'Not in specifications' to do the task. The TI chips are awful at coordinator .. but OK as routers.
toxic mauve
lol yeah, I have a few TI routers myself that I love.
knotty jewel
Hi there,
Is there a way to increase the Transmit power on the dongle? .. Its c...
Where are you seeing 5? It's hardcoded to 8dBm when forming a network.
That being said, Multiprotocol isn't a recommended configuration and the firmware for it has more bugs than features. Try migrating back to normal Zigbee firmware before messing with anything else.
slender cargo
That being said, Multiprotocol isn't a recommended configuration and the firmwar...
I do read the notice... but I am yet to find a problem with Multitprotocol Thread/Zigbee. On another install I have about 20 thread devices and 50 Zigbee ones... running multiprotocol
