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My network seems stable with 3 plugs... all within 6 feet of eathother and the stick

My network seems to be stable for the last few months 55 plugs in larger building Swiyching speeds have improved with new software

Well, adding five plugs did help. The network was okay. Untill now. Yesterday i used zhealth to optimize my zwave network during the night. This morning half of the plugs dissapear.

Dont know if zhealth caused thuis, but nothing else changed.

Or might it be the change of weather?

After a week of dissapearing plugs in the network yesterday my circle+ couldn't be found. I start to think my circle+ is broken and is losing network range? Or is it really the weather?

I've contacted plugwise and pointed them to thuis thread.

An update. Since I removed an USB Bluetooth dongle and the jeelabs jeestick from my server (i dont use them very often) the network and the plugwise software is stable for around a week. I had a stable network before, so I am not happy yet. But we're getting there.

Phaeton wrote:An update. Since I removed an USB Bluetooth dongle and the jeelabs jeestick from my server (i dont use them very often) the network and the plugwise software is stable for around a week. I had a stable network before, so I am not happy yet. But we're getting there.

usb bluetooth dongle wasn't one of the items I had, I do now. The jeelabs stick, does it have a transmitter attached to it and does it operate on the bandwidth and modulation of the plugwise devices?

Contact with Plugwise mentioned that zhealth (Z-Wave optimalisation from Homeseer) could be a cause. I didn't use zhealth before, so was a little sceptical about that. But it triggered me to disconnect the Jeelabs Stick. Because it uses the same Bandwith. It works on 868mhz. I wanted to use it for DIY sensors. based in Jeenodes.

Don't know anything about modulation, so cannot answer that question. I still run Z-Health, but no problems with that.

JeeNode operates @ 868 MHZ; Plugwise operates @ 2.4GHz. Right?
So I don't get it. It's unlikely those 2 will interfere, or am I missing something else?

probably not, I think I'm mistaken

Bluetooth though does use 2.4GHz like Plugwise. Do you use bluetooth intensively?

No, barely. But when it's plugged in, it was 'allways on' so that might be the issue. I'll plug it in this weekend to see what happens

I do experience similar problems when I plug my Bluetooth USB stick into the machine which holds my Plugwise stick.
The moment I insert the Bluetooth stick my Plugwise network (15 circles) gets deregulated. It often takes several hours
to several days for the Plugwise network to return to the stable state again.

My guess is, since ZigBee (Plugwise) and Bluetooth (and WiFi) are similar technologies which all operate on the same radio-frequency band (2.4GHz), they can (and will?) affect each other’s behavior.

Ronald

The 'sometimes works / sometimes doesn't' is a very difficult issue to troubleshoot. Plugwise use a proprietary protocol layer on ZigBee which means you can't use standard network tools for diagnostics, and then they fail to provide you with alternatives. A network topology and node path analysis utility is a fundamental requirement for ZigBee installs. If you choose to stop people using standard tools by using a proprietary layer then you really must provide your own alternatives, especially as Plugwise target the commercial market where such tools are pre-requisites I would have thought.

Even when you have large numbers of circles some segments can be dependent on one fragile path that can drop out. Worse still depending on the way the mesh builds you can have circles that are well within range but are inaccessible because the hop count becomes too large. It is a glaring product deficiency that you can't analyse this through a provided utility as you have no way of being aware of such critical points of failure, and where to place repeater circles. If the hop count is the issue even repeaters won't provide a resolution. I have 40+ circles but still suffer from 'works most times but not always'. Once it stops working it's a right pain to get it all stable again. Nothing needs moving and their are no obvious large distance spans - it just seems to be the way (order?) the mesh builds.

Plugwise indicated over two years ago that they would be looking to provide such a topology analysis utility but it still isn't available.... but then their software development is one of the slowest I have ever experienced. It's a shame because when it does work it's great. I don't regret buying Plugwise - it could just be so much better with a little more software resource investment by Plugwise.

K

Here we are again... Since my last post everything went fine, untill yesterday. Suddenly my networkrange went down the drain. I didnt install any new hardware or change settings. It looks like the communication between the stick and circle+ is off. When i go into the configuration program it takes a long time after recognition of the stick. Sometimes the circle+ get recognised sometimes it doesnt. When the circle+ gets recognised it takes a very long time before the next window (where modules are shown) shows. When i move the circle+ closer to the stick it gets better, but the the rest of the network doesn't show.

Anyone a idea of more external things that could cause this, or could it be that my stick or circle+ are broken?

With all things radio based there are potential things that impact a stable system. A loss of a fragile mesh path, RF interference (possibly even from WiFi) or a neighbour etc and even mains interference that might lockup a node. At a really flippant level we do have severe sunspot activity these last few days , although that is very tongue in cheek Curiously on my network I find things work well during daylight but fail at night. I've long suspected that the circles being on (lighting) de-sensitises the receiver in some way.

What I would say is that the path between the software and the stick (a hardwired/software path), the path between the stick and Circle+, and then the Circle+ onwards are all critical paths of failure as they are all single paths rather than meshed. Actually the latter could be meshed but the way you describe losing all Circles if you move the Circle+ nearer the stick indicates it's a fragile, probably single path. If Plugwise pulled their finger out and offered a toplogy utility it would be so much easier to diagnose. Do concentrate on getting the path between the stick and Circle+ solid and the Circle+ to prefererably several other Circles solid as well, the mesh should do the rest to assist the rest of the modules into reliable communication.

I always remember proudly demonstrating my system to a technophobe and lost a light and couldn't control it ....and being told - ' my cheap 1 € switch seems to be far more effective than your 100 € alternative - does it draw pretty graphs of how often it fails too ? Maybe if you tried pressing it harder ?' So I do sympathise.

K