Aeotec Z-wave range extender 6 working

Did a forum search but did not find this topic. New to Hubitat so attempting to learn. Like many I purchased the Aeotec Z-wave range extender 6 to help me with the Schlage BE469ZP locks (IMO Schlage should include these with the locks :rage:).

My question is how do you know if they are truly working. Both of mine show last activity as several days ago...

I added a daily refresh rule in rule machine so I could add it to Device Watchdog to monitor that it is still functioning.


If you want to know it your locks are using the extender you'll need a Z-wave tool of some sort. You can buy Z-Wave tool box or make one via this thread. These device let you trace the packets and "see" what is talking to what.

The bigger question is do the locks work after adding them?

I use a couple community apps to get my locks to work more reliably. If yours continue to misbehave, I'm happy to share the recipe (it's posted one a few lock threads all ready)

Ohmy gosh. Don't make this difficult. The light on the extender flashes when it's in use. If you want to know what's routing through it, get a zniffer. Placement is everything for those extenders to work with the locks. You won't get it first try

Depends on the firmware version of the extender. Mine only flash for the first 30 minutes after they're powered up.

Or second or third if your me. Just keep trying. I found upstairs above the lock worked better than right next to the lock :man_shrugging:

The Z wave toolbox is on sale (still $150) but does have cool toys to play with. I used to see tons of CRC errors in my site survey now I see none (two red dots are battery devices).

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weird because even the specs define what they do on the aeotec site.

I know.

Thank you all who responded. The front lock appears to be more stable now and also shows its status (locked or unlocked) but my back lock does not. This is the second time it has quit working all together - first symptom is it will not change it’s status then it stops responding all together. I put one of the range extenders in the plug about a foot from the lock, in addition I have 2 Z-wave switches right next to the lock (about 6in away from it). Interesting that it was rock solid with the Wink hub...

This is a common choice, and is probably incorrect as explained a few times by @bobbyD and also by @april.brandt

Z-wave has a maximum of 4 hops. Therefore, the hub will end up communicating with the lock using the beaming repeater that is closest to the hub and within the 4 hop limit. Therefore, it is suggested that a better choice is to place range extenders such that one of them is very close to the HE and the others are at intermediate distances between the HE and devices that need beaming repeaters.

Hi Steve,
Your locks won't like the switches if they don't support beaming. Take an aeotec repeater and put it within 5 feet of the hub. Seems that there are different views on placement of those repeaters, but am finding that they work well if one is close to the lock the other close to the hub. If you have a second, then try placing it equidistant between the two locks you have. Do a repair after. Then use the lock a time or two after the repair. physically unlock and lock it a few times. Then wait. Z-wave plus is self healing, so give it some time and try the locks intermittently throughout the day. It's hit and miss with placement and the weirdest route will be the favored one by your lock. I don't know why.

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I've got 5 of them. The arrow points at the one that is closest to the HE and zwave toolbox indicates it has about 40 devices repeating through it.

This one only lights up (for ~30-40 minutes) if I unplug and plug it back in. I still see traffic going through it. I played with parameter 82 (which controls the LED) in all sorts of ways. No change in behavior.

I'm less sure about the other 4 because they are used less frequently for repeating.

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I think my locks are stable because I have 3 repeaters on my network. I have 3 locks. So there are at least 3 or better good routes with beaming that each lock can take. My house is not large. 30x60 ranch, so everything is fairly condensed. Without spending a ton of money on the zwave toolbox, I'd just simply slowly adjust placement. Z-wave stays happy when there is more than one good route to the hub. the last hop in either direction has to be the beaming device. So, If you're covering some distance, maybe? I don't know the reasoning really. It's best guess. Mine hit every time with this setup. 1 repeater next to the hub.

[Edit]
keep in mind I don't have zwave toolbox to make a pretty circle with arrows, so for me, it's best guess.

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So much difference between yours and mine. My dog walked into the living room this morning (it was dark) and the repeater flashing woke me up. I wander at night. Start out in bed, but end up on one of 3 couches by morning. :grin:

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Thanks again. I just plugged in the extender near the HE. I will reset the lock, do an exclude and include again and test it out for stability.

One interesting thing about the Schlage is that when I installed the front lock in HE I had to set all the parameters (device type and lock) but the back one, when included, came in with HE already knowing what it was. Does anyone know how to check the firmware on the locks? Also, even though they are both the same model locks I bought the front one about 3 months ago whereas the back is a couple years old

I was looking at my repeaters and noticed that the one was running device driver "device". And my locks were still hitting. this was the repeater close to my hub. I've changed that to read generic repeater.
Rookie Mistake
So @aaiyar, thanks for bringing my attention to this topic. Or I probably wouldn't have noticed. It's been that way for roughly two weeks.

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Dont reset

simply run a repair

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You can see the firmware on the lock or you can use basic zwave tool. But I just rant that on mine to find the a firmware for my alfred lock and I lost all of my codes. Not hard to program them back, but good thing I noticed it.

The likelihood is high that the new one is a BE469ZP, whereas the older one is BE469 (or BE469NX or BE469WK).

Only the ZP is a zwave plus lock.

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Just wanted to mention that Per HE disclaimer, when drivers are added to HE, they do that using the newest firmware. So backwards compatibility on anything older is not guaranteed. I get it, but all the same, it sucks. FWIW my Schlage lock is 3 years old. And it works. But not without spending some major time and energy getting it there.