Controlling locks

šŸ“ Rule MachineĀ®
21

Here's a good article in regards to why its good to have a repeater even if it's close to the hub.

This is the key takeaway from it though:

Lock manufacturers have to meet two conflicting consumer demands. First, people donā€™t want to change the batteries In a lock more than once a year. Second, they want the lock to almost instantly respond when someone enters the code or runs an automation. (Basically, no one wants to be standing outside in the rain while they wait for the lock.)

OK, the normal way to extend battery life on a Z wave device is to make the device ā€œsleepy,ā€ that is, it is inactive most of the time and just wakes up periodically to see if anything is going on. But that doesnā€™t work for locks, because it would make the wait time Longer than people will tolerate.

So zwave came up with ā€œbeamingā€ which is A way to have a repeater which is close to the lock hold its messages and re-transmit them the instant that the lock wakes up. Thatā€™s very different than the pony express paradigm. Instead of just trying to get the message from one place to another as quickly as you can by passing it from rider to rider, when the message gets to the last stop before its destination, it is held there, and is soon as that station realizes the lock is awake, they tell them that they have a message waiting. And again, this was optional when it was introduced.

So for Locks, you want to always make sure that the repeater closest to the lock, ideally within 10 or 15 feet of it, supports beaming.

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22

I have a load of GE/Jasco ZWP (mostly S2) dimmers (and some switches) all over the house. I believe most are capable of beaming, if they are chosen to do so.

23

Maybe run a repair on the one closest to the lock and a repair on the lock? I can probably convert the universal lock handler also which addresses some of those issues. Nm, I think I paid for that one.. It's one of Rboy's.

24

I've done various repairs before. It just seems to be the way it is.

My entire house is within ZW or ZWP range with a single hop (or should be), but a few devices manage to take some circuitous routes. However, those locks are all direct to the hub (no repeaters used). Even though they could go out of their way to use one.

25

I don't know, I used to use Abode for my alarm and it also acted as a hub and I never had any issues at all with any of my devices. They also opened or closed the first time without any issues.

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