two zigate usb at the same time?

[tjabas]

Hi!

i have reached the limit of paired devices on my zigate, i have 13 routers and 27 end devices, that makes 40 nodes, so i guess that i cant ad any more to that zigate device. i at least havent tried to ad any more.

but is it possible to buy another zigate usb and start to ad zigbee deviced to that one?

can i have 2 zigate usb at the same time?

i run domoticz on a rpi 3b+

thanks in advance.

[ronaldbro]

I think it would be possible, but don't think it's the best idea. You will have two radio's close together and it will be hard to create two stable networks from there. I have two wifi zigates and have separate zigbee networks for upstairs and downstairs/outside. In my case there is no overlap with the two networks. I would advice to buy a wifi zigate as second zigate and make a logical split in the two networks.

From the specs the zigate can handle 30 additional devices through routers. This was always a bad idea because devices prefer to be bound to the zigate itself and you could end up that a device moves to the zigate which takes a spot of another device so the original device will be blocked. However, since some time it is possible to bind a device to a router directly. (At least it is on beta, don't know if this is already the case on stable). I've been testing with this functionality for a few weeks and it seems the Xiaomi end devices stay at the router where they are bind to. This means using the extra 30 devices can start to work
I don't give any guarantees but this might be an option to try.
Just be sure there's at least room for all the routers to be bound to the zigate as the routers create multiple connections and at least after a power off/on they will explore new possible connections.

[gerbenvanasselt]

Just to add on Ronaldbro's answer. I would advice you to use different channels on the 2nd Zigate to avoid interference. Next thing you can have a second Zigate web UI as well. While creating the new HW plugin in domo you must add a different port than default. Than you can have two web UI's.

And yes I would choose for the wifi version as there is no Ethernet version yet.....

Verstuurd vanaf mijn ONEPLUS A6003 met Tapatalk

[pipiche]

I think all have been said.

Yes you can have 2 USB Zigate. You'll have to run 2 separate instances of the plugin ( 2 Hardware ). you'll have to define a different port for the WebUI, otherwise you'll get a conflict.

Then from a Zigbee coverage standpoint , that is true that having the 2 Zigate on the same place will not help. Now if you have just a lot of devices, the best would be to set the 2nd Zigate on a different channel (make sure the end devices that you want to pair on it support such channel).
To set the Channel, you have to go to the Web Admin UI of that particular Zigate and define the channel. Then you need to go to Admin -> Zigate and do a Soft Reset of the Zigate.
Make sure that the channel do not overlap with the Wifi 2.4 Ghz Channel

PS/ Do not change the Channel of the current Zigate, as quiet a number of end devices (xiaomi for example) are not capable to follow-up and switch.

[tjabas]

ok, thank you all for your answer, a friend of mine have a spare zigate usb, so i guess that i will go for that one, so basicly to get this working is to ad another zigate hardware in the hardware menu, and change the port, the listening port for the web gui on my present usb zigate is 9440, so if i choose 9441 on the new zigate, would this work?

what happens if i try to ad another zigbee device/node to the zigate that has 40 nodes, will it tell me that i have reached the limit of 40 nodes or will it still ad it?

[ronaldbro]

It won't be the best solution, but yes this will probably work. As I don't know your exact situation I can't say if it will be very stable. Just make sure you have different zigbee channels and no interference from 2.4GHz wifi. And port 9441 on second zigate plugin is ok.

If you try to add another device on your first zigate then you won't get an error as is supports 70 devices through routers. There are multiple situation possible:
1) Your zigate doesn't have 40 devices directly connected yet because some end devices are connected to a router. This way it will just be added. You can check this in the network topology diagram.
2) Your new device can connect to a router, so it doesn't need one of 40 spots on the zigate itself. (You can force this using the 'New device to router' functionality in the provision menu of the web gui.)
3) If your zigate is full and the device want to connect to zigate the join will just fail.

Without knowing you exact situation (where are the zigates, where the routers and where the end devices) it is impossible to advice what would be the best solution.
It also depends how many devices you want to add. If it's just 1 or 2 end devices I would try it first with only one zigate. I you want to add a lot of new devices now or in the near future I would split up the device logically so you get two non overlapping networks. And maybe you can use a simple USB cable to bring the second zigate closer to your second network.
So maybe the best advice would be to make a plan on paper and think about where you want to add devices in the future.

You can always only buy a wifi module to convert your second zigate to wifi if this doesn't work out.

[tjabas]

thank you for your answer, really apreciate it.
i will first try to use the first zigate.

thanks