A superb opportunity to justify the purchase of that laser range finder you've been wanting... 
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You think a solid ex-military guy from TX like Lewis doesn’t have a laser range finder?!!
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Did someone say... Range finder? 
I just happen to have one on eBay right now.
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I did both because… why not? I only have about 12 zigbee devices and only 2 are repeaters, but I didn’t notice much improvement on zigbee. On zwave though, 3 days after adding an antenna, I previously had 49 directly connected devices. I now have 66. Not perfect, I have 103 devices. But it’s much higher (15% higher) and zwave has been much more stable. This proves to me what I previously thought, the zwave antenna in a C7 needs improvement.
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Depending on your layout a different antenna might fit your situation better. If you have a floor plan or something like that I can make a recommendation if you want.
Generally though 5db is a good all around antenna for medium sized 1 to 2 story homes.
3db is good for 2 to 3 story small sized per floor homes.
9db I generally only ever use on large single story or single story with difficult penetration.
In all cases though, placing your hub as close to the middle of your hose as you can will make a huge difference.
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@DarellCraighead you had asked in another thread about how to get your mailbox motion sensor working better. See @lewis.heidrick post above about adding a Zigbee antenna to his hub and the amazing range to his mailbox. Something to consider.
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I went with the same antennas you used. I have a 3 story (2 + basement) 3000sqft home. My hub is in the basement. The biggest challenge I have is it is NOT centrally located in the house, and I really can't do much about it.
So far though it's still getting better, I'm now at 69 direct devices. That's 20 devices more than before I did this modification and I have 104 devices, so that means a 20% increase. I'm very happy so far.
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To get it centrally located you could try something Like me. I have a coax run from where my modem is to the TV in center of house middle floor. I use gocoax adapters to run from the modem to the other location and put a switch behind it. Not sure if that wil work for you or not.
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Yea, if it was on first floor you'd probably get all of them. It would be interesting to hear what your relocation limitations are. I'm sure we could find a workaround.
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Would a TP-Link WiFi dongle make it possible to choose a different location?
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10m 33ft Cable RP-SMA Coaxial Extension Cable Male to Female Connector for Wireless LAN Router Bridge & Cellular Antenna, Not for TV https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TMP85H9/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_g_E6TNK04TFEEWW6MZAP4D
Relocating the antennas instead of the hub is also another option.
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Won’t that result in signal loss?
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Not a technical problem. It’s a “my wife wants it somewhere she can’t see it” problem 
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It will definitely reduce the signal. The longer the run and/or cheaper the cable the higher the loss will be but the can be bought in all different lengths.
Wife approval factor just means it needs to be hidden or blend into the environment though and that's a lot easier than overcome than a technical reason.
Here are a couple of my favorite hiding spots:
Mounted to the backside of a TV
Above the door in a closet
On top of the kitchen cabinets
Mounted to the backside of the entertainment center
Behind hanging artwork
Inside hollow furniture such as lamps and couches
Inside hallways with close entryways
For the one on top of the cabinets, there is usually a fake plant sitting on top of it but I moved it so you could see it.
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@lewis.heidrick
You've made me think about a situation that I have.
There are 3 hubs in the basement (out of sight), in a 2 story rather large house, attached to a switch or the router itself. (one zwave, one zigbee, one control).
However, what I could do, is put those 2 hubs on the main floor, centre of the house, behind a small sofa. I would give it ethernet access via a powerline AV2000 connection (and a small switch).
Do you think that the benefit of being more centrally located would compensate for the loss in "ethernet" speed? All of the devices on these 2 hubs, go via HubMesh to the third hub.
What's your opinion?
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@jtmpush18 Hub link speed really is irrelevant since it uses a 100mb Ethernet, and the amount of network traffic to and from the hub is miniscule. Latency is a much more relevant metric depending on your use cases for Ethernet based connections. Latency under 50ms is imperceivable and wired local latency is usually under 1ms. Try out the location and ping your hub from a wired PC on the same network and see what the latency is. Likely, the latency will be under 50, but you will reduce you device to hub latency to your more distant/problem devices by much more. Keeping in mind that the device to hub latency is the critical metric you want to reduce as much as possible. Local lan latency is typically going to be much lower regardless of what crazy stuff you do.
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One thing worth mentioning is some of the old first and second gen power line adapters were garbage and would frequently lockup requiring them to be unplugged to reboot them. They often ran hot and could add latency. Perform a latency test before you settle in and commit to the location. There are some limitations when trying to connect to different circuits also. I'm not familiar with the model you mentioned so use your own judgement with your experience with that model/brand.
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I found power line adapters to be crap. Microwave or furnace start up and they crap.out. that is why I use coax adapters. Ymmv.
Also two stories should be ok if u centrally locate it and have at least 3 extenders spread out on each floor. I have mine on the first floor as I have 3 stories just over 3200 sq ft. And 4700 if u count the unfinished basement. And mine works pretty good just with STD hub and antennas. I did put repeaters/switches for both zigbee and zwave in the garage and outside front and back of the house to reach outdoor devices. The most hops my zwave shows is to try and go through the outer wall to reach the repeater as those walls seem to be the most dense.
Haha I had to turn off the LED on one of my Unifi APs. It's in one of the kid's bedroom and was a permanent night light. Neither my son nor wife approved.
I so want to do this project because I am a tinkerer but my ZWave is solid (knock on wood).
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Is there any kind soul who would be willing to do this modification for a community member in need for a premium?
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