External Antenna

Just did this mod, heres the before and after.

If you´re having zwave issues (slow devices, devices dropping off) dont add more devices thinking you'll "make a stronger mesh", do this first and see how you fare.

Do you have a before and after of your LWR RSSI?

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I'm amazed that mesh even works. The magic of Z-Wave I guess.

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Could be a really big house or faraday cage walls.

I have a pretty wireless-friendly house, but it is pretty spread out.

Small house. Not very wireless friendly. But everything works. The two devices that are apparently not connected to anything are two Aeotec Minimotes that haven't been used since the last time I booted.

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I also have 2 minimotes connected and it always gets me every time I look at the zwave topology map because the two devices are always red!

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Here’s mine, ROFLMAO! Can you say “Z-wave Noob” ? :joy:


BTW, thanks @lewis.heidrick and @aaiyar for all the help you’ve given me getting started with Hubitat as a noob. Its always been greatly appreciated.

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JFC! I thought I had a decent about of z-wave devices. Between you and @lewis.heidrick I'm a piker... (though I have about 60 lutron devices so that accounts for a lot)

With my external antenna, 43 of my 44 devices are now connected direct. The 44th device has one hop and works great. However, it really annoys me that I have one last device not connected direct. Who me, OCD? :grinning:

This 44th device is a dimmer light switch next to my kitchen sink. The Hub is only 20 feet away, but my refrigerator is directly between that switch and the Hub. Are there any dimmer switches that I can rig with an external antenna that I can run up into the wall, above the refrigerator????

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Now you sound like me.

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I keep an even split of zwave and zigbee devices so I can split the load between the two radios. Light switches and fans are zwave and outlets and motion sensors are zigbee.

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GE/Jasco 26933 Smart Motion Dimmer. There may be others, but all of mine are these (plus 26931 Smart Motion Switch, which I also have a bunch of). Here is a picture of one of my spare ones that I haven’t yet installed or modified - installed ones are modified with longer antenna. If you look closely on the right of the buttons (I removed the button covers so you can see), running vertically from top to bottom is the red antenna wire. If you open it up, you can unsolder antenna from the circuit board and solder one of double length (I did that so as to keep wavelength multiple) that you can route out of the box. It improved mine.

I use Jason Bottjen’s (@JasonJoel’s) excellent component drivers that logically separate the motion sensor from the switch/dimmer, makes rules clearer.

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I haven't decided to make the leap to an add-on antenna.

But, it appears that I have a small number of devices in my mesh.

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Blue are neighbors right? I am completely confuzzled why my map is so sparse looking. I've mentioned before I have like 3-5 powered devices in pretty much every room in my house sometimes more. I wonder if it has anything to do with a lot of devices being directly connected back to the hub?

I do not have the antenna hack in place yet..

Note: the column outlined in black is my detached garage motion sensor.. that device is pretty much by itself. It still works though.

:man_shrugging:

edit: so out of 65 entries I have like 40 with a direct connection..

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The first row or column is the most important. The rest only matters if the first row/column sucks.

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Ah okay thanks.

No external antenna

Not to bad

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I keep expecting to see PacMan going around that... looks nice.

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@672southmain
This is exactly what I need to do as I have a switch that just does not keep its zwave route and constantly bounces around. Love the idea of increasing antenna size and poking it through the metal box. Mine is at a corner of my house facing away from any other zwave device and is a Jasco smart motion switch.
I took it apart but when I separated the two plastic housings to expose the back PCB, I could not dislodge it and the front PCB from the housing. I could not tell why it would not come out but seemed as though the light sensor had something to do with it?

If you could give some advice on how to remove the PCB from the plastic housing it would be appreciated. I did not want to force them out as it seemed something was holding them in.

You’d be better off just replacing the metal electrical box with a plastic one!

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