I had one node 300 series Z-Wave device acting as a repeater for a number of other devices. I wanted replace it with a 500 or 700 series device. If you are tempted to ask why, consider some folks were blessed with an extra dollop of OCD.
So I purchased and installed an Aeotec Extender 7. I updated the firmware. Excluded and reincluded the Aeotec. Then I excluded the 300 device that was repeating many of my devices.
Well the devices that were on the 300 device jumped to other devices but none seemed to like the Extender 7.
My questions are:
Has anyone been successful getting an Extender 7 to act as a repeater?
In @TonyFleisher's "Hubitat Z-Wave Mesh Details v0.5.22.2-beta" app the Extender 7 is NOT showing up in the list of repeaters. Is this significant? Is there a missing/error in some capability attribute?
I do have devices that repeat through these... though not many! I have switched to the Ring range extenders instead. They have battery backup which is kinda nice. I think repeaters only show up in Tony's app if they are actively being used as repeaters... so to your point if yours is not it won't show up.
The mistake I made was plopping repeaters in all over the place AFTER most of my mesh was built out.
I have one hub w/only four devices on it. One of them is repeating through an Aeotec6 I have, and it's not pretty....Aeotec is connected at 100, device repeating through it at 9.6. Last night when my five blinds closed (I have them closing in one group of two, and a second group of three, separated by 2 minutes) there was a several minute delay for the Kitchen Blinds that I hadn't investigated yet - 9.6 helps explain that:
I've never had a lot of luck w/stand-alone repeaters. Even the vaunted Ring repeater was a dud for me, waited weeks and it never picked up more than one device, IRRC.
Best for me is a Jasco external plug and a Hank Plug. (Yeah, it's called that.)
Just did a Refresh on the Z-Wave Details page on the kitchen blinds, and they bumped up to 40.
I have one Aeotec Range Extender 7. It seems like everything on my mesh is routed through other devices and they all ignore the range extender. I updated to the latest firmware (V1.05) thinking it may help, but it has not. On the "Z-Wave Topology" map, only one device out of 22 cannot "see" the range extender.
I'm confused by your screenshot. It appears all those devices in the "Routing For" column are connected directly to the Hub. Perhaps I'm not familiar with that screen. Where was the screen shot taken from?
@bobbyd Is there some sort of issue that might cause the Aeotec Extender 7 to be ignored in the routing process?
I've removed two high device repeaters (in two different steps) hoping I could get something to repeat....no luck.
If you have no suggestions I think my next step is to power up my C4, add the extender then add one z-wave device as far away as I can.
The step after that is to return the Extender 7 to Amazon with a "doesn't work" as reason.
The dedicated repeaters are both Ring. They are the V2 which I think are 700 series. I have other devices that act like repeaters too, and some are 500, others are 700 series.
with almost 100 zwave.. look how poor the extenders are being used.. maqybe my mesh is that good but i put 2 extenders on each floor on each end of the house.. (3 floors a combo of ring and aeon 7)
I also put 1 outside each in the front and back of the house in an outdoor outlet box.
I don't think repeaters need a driver necessarily if I understand correctly. The driver is to see things like the power status, battery, and so on. The Z-sticks act like repeaters even without having a driver, for example.
i was going to say the same thing.. but not 100% true as there has to be some driver that is installed when you join the extender to your hub.. can an extender work without being joined.. certainly not with s2 devices? I belive that you could just make the extender "device" though and it would still work.
i am wondering if the fact that the extenders are so small that the antennas are poor and that is why other devices are being used for repeating iinstead of teh extenders.
it would be nice if someone made an extender with a BIG antenna kinda like you can put another wifi router (with 8 antennas) in ap mode and used as an extender for your wifi network.
