Audaciously starting an empty thread in hopes that others will follow with information and experiences. Staff might already have results from pre-release testing.
Putting this up because some of us have "bridged WiFi" configurations to remote an HE hub. IF that bridge can be retired, or even if an intermediate Access Point could be used to replace it, that would be very good to know.
Should be no problem..
I have a small ranch style home ~1500sqft, with a full basement, and plaster walls with metal lath. C-7 located in the center front took 3-4 hops to get ZWave or Zigbee to the garage and Zwave to the furthest device was at 9.6kbps.
C-8 is located in the exact same spot as the C-7 was, all devices are direct connect, ZWave are all at 100kbps except the locks which top out at 40kbps. Took about 24-36 hours for all of the devices to renegotiate. Only have the zigbee radio set at the default 12.
All but one of my devices are direct connect now. low RTT. It's fantastic.
Thanks for replies already. I'd better categorize my bridge for context.
I'm running a 300' WiFi bridge to an external antenna on an outbuilding, could put an Access Point half way to reach a C-8.
The ZibBee mesh around that outbuilding easily covers 100'+ beyond it (once I put Ikea repeaters outside it's metal walls 
)
Edit: Hummm, it's dawning on me that putting a WiFi enabled C-8 in a shaded waterproof outdoor enclosure with solar power might improve a lot of people's use of the product in outdoor/multi-building facility/farm scenarios.
Until we get some more ZWave LR devices available, I think you're still going to need something to bridge 300'.
So far - on my "new" C-8 Z-Wave hub:
28 Z-Wave devices
24 connected directly
2 connected with an intermediate "hop"
2 not showing a route yet (one is a Minimote)
That may take a day for battery devices.
My experience is not indicative of most, but since you asked here ya go! Though on paper the C8 mesh looks much stronger, with most devices connecting directly, in reality I have a couple of lingering issues about 4 weeks after the initial migration.
(1) I have a couple of Ring gen 2 keypads (FLIRs) unable to maintain a stable connection whereas with the C7 they were fine for years. I actually tried pairing them to a second C8 and they exhibited the same issue, albeit with no repeaters.
(2) Some devices, most notably Zooz ZSE18s, showed really odd routes and slow response times.
(3) Some Aeotec trisensors started eating batteries like they were gummies.
(4) On the C7 every one of my devices had at least 2 neighbors. On the C8 I still have 5 that are only reporting 1 neighbor.
(5) Some devices are still slow to respond. I understand from Bryan that RTT for battery operated devices may not be accurate, but the ol 'walk into the room and note the delay before the lights come on" method indicates there are still some issues.
(6) I often get partial inclusions with new devices or a stick. The stick in particular will often show up in Simplicity Studio (now THERE's a misnomer) as included, not show up at all on HE, and see only a fraction of the devices HE reports. I can usually get it to work after a half-dozen exclusions and inclusions but with the C7 generally no issues.
(7) I've had some devices sitting on a desk literally broken into pieces and 24 hours later during a remove attempt HE thinks they are no longer on the failed nodes list.
I've taken a number of troubleshooting steps with mixed success. Bryan has tried to recreate the Ring issues and has not been able to. I suspect, though have no data to support this conclusion, that there are some devices in my mesh that just do not like the C8 and are causing problems they did not cause on the C7. Why, I am not sure.
I am in a 2-story apartment complex, tons of Wi-Fi here, all channels. I live upstairs in the back. Wi-Fi range extender was intermittent and unreliable to mesh a hub in the garage unit, approximatley 50' to 60' away. I am using 2 Samsung ZigBee outlets and 2 Iris V2 door sensors in the garage. I setup 2 XBee Pro units, one in the apartment, one in the garage, extending my C7 ZigBee mesh reliably to the garage. The outlets would not connect to the hub without these. After migrating to the C8, I was able to remove the XBee in the apartment and I am connecting reliably to both outlets in the garage now. I will remove the other XBee unit this weekend to see if it is needed at all in the garage, but from what I am seeing, it doesn't look like I will. I see much better connection to devices, and much longer range. I did turn the power up on the C8 to the next to highest level.
Just an observation here. I use an Orbi Satellite system for wifi in my building. I was moving the HUB around to include doors that require close proximity pairing. When the Hub went out of range with SAT3 on the north end of the hallway, it would not connect to SAT2 at the other end of the hallway. I believe it is reserved to only that one satellite orbi (3) that the hub was set up on. I will dig in more to the madness later today.
Any ideas or suggestions on reserved IP and or mesh networks would be appreciated. I understand you don't move the hub around when the system is final. Would be nice to have it switch over to another transceiver on the mesh.
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