SLZB Router Mode - Extend Your Zigbee Network

“Now, this is the SMLIGHT SLZB-MR3, which we'll be using as the Zigbee repeater.” “Now, the MR3 we'll be using as the Zigbee repeater or Zigbee router.” “As you can see it's now flashing firmware.” “As you can see now we've got the link quality. So we've got LQI 255 as it's right next to the original Zigbee coordinator at the moment.” “So you can of course add more than one Zigbee router to your network.”.

Transcript

Title: SLZB Router Mode - Extend Your Zigbee Network. Channel: MrTimTech.Hi, I'm Tim, and thanks for watching the MrTimTech YouTube channel. In this video, I'm going to show you how to add one of these into your Zigbee network to extend the range of your devices so that, hopefully, it improves the signal quality of those devices at the end of your Zigbee network.Now, this is the SMLIGHT SLZB-MR3, which we'll be using as the Zigbee repeater. So we'll be putting this into Zigbee router mode (or router mode), whichever you like to refer to it as. And for the original coordinator, I'm using an SMLIGHT SLZB-Ultima.So what we'll be doing is connecting this via Ethernet so we can get into the web interface and change the mode of the device. And then what we'll do is adopt it into the Zigbee network. So we'll place the device where we need it, between the end device in our network and the next device up in the network, so that it hopefully improves the signal range.Now, we can connect it via Ethernet. So if you've got an available Ethernet port near the end device, then you can leave it connected via Ethernet and it will power it via PoE. Or you can actually connect it via the USB-C port on here. So if you haven't got a network port available, just connect it via USB-C into a USB-C power adapter. So you don't need to connect it to the PC or anything like that—just connect it to an available wall socket with a USB power adapter, a 5V USB adapter.So as I don't have an Ethernet port available where I'll be putting this device, I'll be connecting it via USB-C on the port here. So you can use any of these SLZB devices. So I'd recommend if you've got an SLZB device, then also adding the repeater. So the Zigbee router—also use an SLZB device.Now, it doesn't matter which model, but I would recommend that you use the same chipset. Now, you can use different chipsets. So you can use the MG24, for example, with a CC2674 chip on your original coordinator, but I would recommend just sticking to the same chipsets on both devices just to keep things straightforward and a bit easier and simpler.So what we'll do is I'll connect this via Ethernet now. We'll hop onto the computer and I'll show you what to do. So let's get started.So here we are at the computer screen. And as I've said, I've plugged in the SLZB-MR3 into an Ethernet port. So it's powered via PoE, and we can access the web interface as it's connected via Ethernet.Now, the MR3 we'll be using as the Zigbee repeater (or Zigbee router, or router). So we'll be putting it into the router mode, whichever you like to refer to it as.So, in the first tab here, we've got Home Assistant open. And then in the second web browser tab, we've got the SLZB-MR3 dashboard.So what we're going to do on the SLZB-MR3 is go down to Mode. And you'll see we've got two chips in this coordinator. So we'll be only using one chip, and we'll be using the device solely as a Zigbee router. So I wouldn't recommend using it as two different things—for example, Matter over Thread and a Zigbee router at the same time. I would just use the device solely as the Zigbee router.So in this case, I'll be using Radio 2, which has the CC2674 chipset, as the SLZB-Ultima is also using the CC2674. Now, the SLZB-Ultima is being used as the first Zigbee coordinator.So what we're going to do is select the CC2674 Zigbee router mode. So just click the slider, and it will say it's reflashing the radio module. So click Next, and then it will ask you to change mode to Zigbee router. So what we're going to do at this stage is go back to the overview page of Home Assistant. We're going to select Zigbee2MQTT at the left-hand side, and then what we're going to do is click the Permit join button, which will give us 4 1/2 minutes to join the device.So then we'll go back to the SLZB-MR3 screen here and click Change mode to Zigbee router. And then with the pop-up, it's saying confirm flashing Zigbee router. Click OK, and it will then download the firmware and flash it to the device.So as you can see, it's now flashing firmware. It just takes a few seconds, and then it will say the radio module OTA update is done. So click Close.Go back to the Home Assistant page, and you'll see that the router has now appeared, with the blue spinning circle there. So we'll just wait for it to finish and the blue spinning circle to disappear. It will take just about a minute to do this.As you can see now, we've got the link quality. So we've got LQI 255, as it's right next to the original Zigbee coordinator at the moment. So now what we can do is click Disable join, and that's added our Zigbee router into our network, which will then extend the signal range.So now that we've done that, what I can do is unplug it from the network, and then I can plug it into USB power. So I'll just pause the video for a second while I go and do that.So now that it's connected via USB-C, it's just connected via USB-C power into a wall outlet with a 5V USB power adapter. Now you'll see that we get some recent activity messages saying that the device has left. Now this is perfectly fine, as the router is still appearing here with the LQI. So it's still active on the network. It just means that the device is not broadcasting at the moment.So this is normal for Zigbee devices, as they do connect and reconnect to the network automatically as and when required. So that has now extended the range of our Zigbee network, so that our end devices further away from the original coordinator should pick up a better signal strength.Now, just to confirm that there's only one device here at the moment. Now you would have many more devices, I would expect. But just wait probably one to two hours for the network to settle down and for the devices to find their best route back to the coordinator, and they'll eventually find the router we've just added. And hopefully the signal strength, over the space of one to two hours, should improve for those devices which have low signal quality.So you can of course add more than one Zigbee router to your network. So you can have multiple ones of these to extend the network even further, but it's just a matter of trial and error getting the right positions for the Zigbee routers to extend and improve the signal range.Now, just the one thing to note: if it doesn't appear as a router here, then I would recommend restarting your Home Assistant box and also power off and power on the Zigbee router which you're adding into the network, and then hopefully just repeat the process and it should then appear.So if, after powering your Home Assistant server on and off, and also restarting the Zigbee router, it still doesn't appear in the list of devices here, then as a last resort what you can do is plug your SLZB back into Ethernet. Then from the dashboard here, you go to Zigbee2MQTT and ZHA (the Z2M and ZHA option). Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see there's a Read current address button.So what you need to do is click that. It will then appear with a number in there. So what I would recommend doing is copying that. Then in the Flash custom address, paste it in there, and then just change the last three digits of those numbers. Say, for example, it was 777—change it to, for example, 999. And then click Write IEEE address and wait for it to write the address.And then once you've done that, then try adding it back into the Zigbee network by putting your device back into Zigbee router mode and then going into Home Assistant again, clicking Permit join, and then it should then appear like it has done here. So that's a solution what I found to add it in if it doesn't appear.So just remember that you will need to put it back into Zigbee coordinator mode before you scroll down and write the IEEE address. So that should resolve the issue.So, thanks for watching this video. Hope you found it useful, and I'll be back with more videos again soon. Bye for now.