Been having a few zigbee issues recently and it appears relocating my hub may be the solution. Its been mostly fine over the past year although occasionally some of my z-wave devices dont receive the odd signal sent to them. Mine is less than a foot away from a desktop PC so wonder if this may affect RF especially when the PC (which is cable only and no wifi) is powered and running.
What are the recommendations for where to place/locate hubitat hubs and in what orientation? I'm guessing there is a recommended distance to keep away from certain other items, ie away electrical devices or especially wireless devices (home wifi router, etc)
Also what way round? flat on surface, rotating to face a particular direction relative to most devices, vertically-mounted, (which way up) etc.
Does the hub emit/receive RF (z-wave & zigbee) equally in all directions? (mine is C7 unit)
A similar conversation was had some while ago (but didnt fully cover the above) here:
I'm not a good one to ask, because I have mine where they are convenient. Main one with radios disabled and one with both radios are in a rack with other devices that is in one corner of the house. One in a metal box also with a bunch of devices nearby. Another one in the open, but also surrounded by other devices. Another two in another rack (second home) that is located on second floor in a closet. I have little issues. The key is good meshes and devices that behave properly. And antennae straight up or down.
By devices, I mean Lutron hubs, Apple TVs, Wireless APs, Philips hub, switches, routers, NASs, etc.
I have mine sitting on top of a small display cabinet that is located across the room about 20 foot from my router. I installed a data drop and unmanaged switch that I am running my HE Hub, Aqara Hub, and security system hub from. They are all sitting on top the same display cabinet. The HE and Aqara hub is separated by an Amazon Echo Dot. The HE hub has both antenna pointed up. The location is probably about 15 foot off center to the house. I have had zero issues with zigbee devices. I only have a few Z-Wave smoke detectors so can't really say on that.
Aqara hub is on channel 15. HE hub is on channel 20. I have Home Assistant running on a mini PC across the room from them on channel 11. I only have one wifi router and it isn't a mesh system so it is on wifi channel 11. So far this placement away from the router and the split in channels has proven to be a happy spot for them all.
If it can be located in the center of your house, that would be ideal. Given that you have a C7, it is OK to have it sit flat. C8 and C8 Pro hubs require the external antennas to point up.
Many people plug their hub directly into their router via ethernet, so that is not a problem. One thing to note though is that you want the hub's Zigbee channel to be set to something that does not interfere with WiFi. Channel 20 or 25 is a good start. 2.4GHz WiFi should be set to channel 1, 6 or 11.
