Dealing with networks larger than 100/150

General support
1

I’m currently running two hue hubs and a CC1352P-2 for zigbeetomqtt. I have the two hue hubs because the whole house is pretty much running hue, but I’ve added tons of aqare sensors and a few innr plugs and innr bulbs using zigbeetomqtt - all plumbed into Home Assistant.

I bought the CC1352P-2 because it supports “100’s of devices” but, I sat down to move my hue bulbs across to z2m and when I hit 100 devices, it started dropping (well, losing comms with) devices I had added before. So I think the max children it can support is 100. So I took a load of devices back out to try joining them via routers…

I tried the new “permit join” via specific devices, trying hue bulbs as the connection device (router) and innr plugs. I tried connecting a hue bulb and an aqara battery powered switch both via both. None of the four combinations worked so I’ve not been able to add more than 100 devices to my network.

I’m really keen to get this to work because the z2m network is SO stable, whereas the hue hubs connections drop all the time.

My question is really for advice/help - has anyone managed to extend their network passed the max direct children? I’m be extremely grateful for suggestions and help.

2

I don’t have so many devices but my actual network is composed of:
1 “Coordinator” (CC1352P-2 firmware source routing)
55 “EndDevice” (xiaomi aqara temperature, leak, contact and presence sensors)
22 “Router” (19 hue bulbs, 2 plugs sockets and one relay)

Initially I was using a CC1531 coordinator with source routing firmware but I reached its limit (surely because of lack of ram for source routes). the CC1352P-2 works perfectly in my setup.
I think HUE bulbs work good as router between them but not so much with end devices. The key is to find the good router to assist the coordinator to manage many devices. My plug sockets are osram ones and are definitivelly bad zigbee routers but I’ve finally find the best router ever: it can handle easily more than 20 childs, it is rock stable and really cheap. It’s a simple zigbee relay: eWeLink SA-003-Zigbee. I bought it on amazon for 10€ and I think you can find it declined on many different brandt:

So if you flash your coordinator with the source routing software and you add two or three of these relay in strategic location, you can achieve your goal to manage more than 100 devices.