Hey Guys-
I'm finalizing my installation and cleaning up the coat closet that holds my switch, some other gear, and the hubitat. I'm looking at ways to mount the hubitat and was wondering if there's an orientation that the stick antennae work best in? Sitting flat, mounted on wall? Doesn't matter? If it doesn't matter I'm going to wall mount the box using the included screw holes.
Orientation shouldn't matter. I have mine mounted with the stick on the left, simply because then I can access the power plug easily if I need to.
The surface behind, and objects around should be the biggest considerations. Obviously you want to avoid metal boxes for mounting. If you want it in a cabinet, you should only use RF transparent boxes.
Vibration is probably the factor that would influence me the most.. I'd hate to find that once a year I had to pick the Stick up off the floor because of environmental vibration plus gravity. So if I had to, I'd mount it, more or less: stick UP.
That turns the mounting holes horizontal, which should work too. Could get artsy and mount it with a jaunty angle. 
So far vibration has not been an issue for me. I've had mine installed on the underside of our uncarpeted stairs since March, with the whole family thundering up and down daily.
It's a tiny factor, admittedly. But there are so few factors, that one stood up and waved at me.
Yeah, I think stick facing down probably should be avoided 
Mine is flat, on a shelf in a metal comms cabinet...
But...
My usb sticks are on 10m usb amplified cables placed as near to the middle of the house as I could.
Works for me! 
Andy
Here in the PacNW, anytime I mount anything with an opening that faces upwards, I think about all the ways water can pour into it Just force of habit...
Shock and surprise in the first few words and then I remembered you are the originator of the Hubitat 'stick on a rope trick'
Not a bad thought, but water finds its path. Keep that little angle dry!
I bought a small piece of acrylic (6" x 6") screwed it to the wall and used two strips of Velcro to hold the hub to it.
I've used this setup before on my VeraPlus and it never fell down. And if I need to move the hub near a stubborn device I can just pull it off the wall. My orientation is: wires up, light shines down (so I can see it).
That's a good idea!
The sombrero is all I want to talk about though!
+5pts for the use of "jaunty" in a sentence.
Similar thread with additional answers:
There's a lot of interesting Zigbee related info in this installation guide (for an unrelated Zigbee product) if you are concerned about antenna radiation patterns in a multi-story application.
Kind of glad I found this after my setup was installed and working in the first spot I happened to choose... looks like a lot of things can cause issues. The dead zones and interference potentials may account for some of the problem installations that come up from time to time.
Well here's an anecdote. Yesterday after asking the question about mounting, I ended up mounting the hubitat on a wall with the stick pointing up vertically. Previously it had been sitting on a shelf in the same closet with the stick oriented horizontally.
Before all this I had some trouble connecting the lock to my back door. I finally got it working, but after re-orienting the hub the lock still thought it was connected but commands weren't making it to it. Nothing else had changed except re-orienting the hub vertically and moving it about 2ft. I repaired the z-wave mesh last night with the hub in its new vertical orientation and the lock is working again this morning.
I'm guessing that the different radiation pattern between horizontal and vertical orientation caused some nodes in the mesh to be unavailable as first hops and other's to be preferred? Something like that.
I’d be interested to know if the usb stick is horizontally or vertically polorised.
Are zigbee/z-wave concerned about polorisation?
I’ve never read the spec
Andy
Download the Hubitat app
