External Antenna

I took a picture with it powered up on my workbench. There isn't an ethernet drop over there. It lives on top of my fridge in the kitchen. It's pretty balanced between the two antennas so they keep it from tipping over.

I use a Noctua NA-FC1 with the USB connector to power the fan off the UPS.

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When my server room is complete, I will probably be sending mine to you..Damn dude you do nice work..

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"Nice" is not a big enough word... :smiley:

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What's inside a 40 or 50mm fan? Man I just went thru "fan-hell". In replacing the OEM fan(real garbage-failed in a few months) on my Argon One M2 Pi4 case(nice looking POS), I wound up ordering about 6 different fans, most of them moved little to no air and I couldn't find a Noctua 30mm fan. Settled on a fan made for RC cars

The company that makes the case does not support it at all, other than telling you to "fix it yourself"(was about a week old) but that's another story.

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50mm is an unusual size. I've seen 40 and 60 mm fans.

I don't think they make them that small. I also like Noctua fans.

It's a Noctua 40x10mm 5v PWM fan. The fan was about $15 on amazon. The controller was more expensive but handy if you want to be able to control the fan speed instead of wide open all the time. It also includes the USB connector.
Noctua NA-FC1, 4-Pin PWM Fan Controller

I went with Noctua because they have a reputation for being quiet and pretty good quality fan. The controller was needed since this is going in the kitchen in an open area where people can hear it if I turned it up. It doesn't move a lot of air but given the volume of the lid, it doesn't need to. Even at full speed it's just barely audible.

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yep I have one too that's in the process of dying.. :man_facepalming: I do like the other bits of the case though.

Did you cover magnets pull off also? like mine did

Yea. First time the kids slam the refrigerator door, that balancing act will be tested.

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The antennas aren't top-heavy and do a good job of weighing down the hub on their own - especially if placed on opposite sides of the hub.

No they still seem fine. Just that silly fan.. I've used about 4 of these cases so far and (this) one has had a fan issue. But will def keep an eye out thanks.

It's not wibbly wobbly at all. I can casually sling it around on the top up there and it just slides to a rest.

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I replaced both fans in my lorex NVR with noctua for the same reason.

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Plus a Shark fin.

No, I'm putting that on my truck.

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I've had a lot of stuff done at home over the last few months. New outer wall insulation, new siding, new Bahama shutters. So I had removed a bunch of my exterior z-wave and z-wave+ devices. and just put them back on Thursday and yesterday.

Before all this started, I had between 46-48 directly connected z-wave devices out of 58 total. This fluctuated daily. While the work was going on (took 4 months), and after the 7.17.1 firmware update, it steadied at 48.

I put all my outdoor devices back at their original spots, and the number jumped last night to 51 and has stayed there. And, all my z-wave+ devices are connecting at 100 kbps (except the GoControl Thermostat).

So a big thank you to @lewis.heidrick, and an important question - when you coming to the Big Easy?

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Not sure yet, gotta let things settle down at the plant. Shell sold off the refinery in January to Pemex so still doing divestment stuff. Hopefully sometime soon though. :smiley:

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image

Community member requested it, and yes it's actually functional.

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Wow I cant beleive how well this works now. I had major issues with a few of my far devices randomly going inactive. Also I could never pair them that far away. I had to bring hub closer to them pair then move back. Also the speed at which is connects to all deices is very speedy now. Im going to run more tests, but I am super happy with this mod. I have to thank @lewis.heidrick for modding these for me. he's awesome! He did an amazing job and sent back super fast as well.

Please Hubitat add a port fo an external antenna on the next generation! We sorely need it!

Thanks again @lewis.heidrick for an amazing mod and sweet variable fax box.

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Finally, FINALLY! As of this moment, all 47 (out of 47) of my Z-wave devices are connected directly to my Hubitat Hub. It has been a long process whereby the number of devices directly connected would go up, then down, but the average number was slowly increasing. It has taken more than 6 months since the external antenna modification to get to this point where all of my Z-Wave devices are now connected direct.

Thanks so much to @lewis.heidrick for making this all possible.

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