Plenty of devices, 2nd zigbee2mqtt instance?

1

I run a pretty large zigbee network with zigbee2mqtt. Pretty large is 40+ devices, 15-20 routers, cc2531 coordinator, cc2531 router, plenty of Osram Smart plugs. End devices are mostly Xiaomi Aqara & Ikea Remotes. I read somewhere about a 48 device limit for the cc2531, is that true?

Lately i’ve been running into problems when adding new devices. I’ve got the feeling, whenever i add a new one an old one looses connection. But this may be a coincidence.

Would it be helpful to split my network into two parts (4 floors altogether), each using a coordinator? I have at least one RaspberryPi in each floor running Kodi, so i could easily add another zigbe2mqtt instance. Would that be helpful? Or would another zigbee network do more harm than helping?

Thanks for any hint.

2

Adding new devices such as plugs/bulbs that act as a router will increase the maximum number of devices that can be connected to Zigbee network. Simple example of this can be found from https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/information/FAQ.html

Personally I would stick with one network if there is no connection problems to get everything would be handled from one location and to keep channel frequencies from disturbing each other.

3

Hi,
I experience something similar, my network in total has ~40 devices, half are ikea lights with router function and the other half are xiaomi sensors (temp/hum/baro and motion/light). In my network often devices loose connection to the coordinator, but then another device gains connection. It seems like the total of devices that can be reached is limited and that when a devices gains connection to the coordinator some other device drops from the list or so.
I’m currently running the source-routing firmware since I had hoped this would improve the stability of my network, but sadly that isn’t the case.
Regards,
Herman

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4

I’m buying more Xiaomi and IKEA too… So I’ll face the same problem too… Soon…

I guess that adding adviser dongle is the only solution effectively having two networks…

Correct?

5

It looks like that, but I didn’t try yet. Adding routers did not help in my case.

6

I did try to add an IKEA bulb to act as a router so that a far away aqara temp sensor could reach the dongle… but it didn’t work… so I guess that not all the devices are good for creating the mesh…

7

This is the same issue that’s happening to me. Did you find any kind of solution? Thank you.

8

Hi,
I did not really find a solution, but currently I don’t suffer from the issue anymore.
I did split my zigbee network:

  1. one network connected to ikea-hub, controlling most of the ikea lamps in my house
  2. other connected to the zigbee2mqtt hub, with a few routers (ikea lamps and wall outlets) and all the aqara sensors

Now each of these two networks has ~20 devices and I haven’t noticed the issue since (running for several weeks now).

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