Check this out, assuming it could work with older hubs without the now included antennas...?
This appears to be a Z-wave repeater with an antenna tuned for the specific frequency specified for each ITU region. Although I have not tried this antenna, I am a ham radio operator and am well aware of the performance enhancements provided by a good repeater. Since Silicon Labs controls Z-wave protocol and devices, I presume this antenna is useful if you have a property large enough to need it.
I have a house with two floors and a basement. When using the Hubitat 7 and 8 hubs, I needed smaller Z-wave repeaters to reach all my devices. After upgrading to the 8 Pro hub, all but two of my Z-wave devices connect directly with the hub. Thus, I do not need the larger repeater antenna.
For those living on a large lot with outbuildings, I can see that this antenna might be ideal.
That is a an external z-wave radio + antenna that works with Home Assistant. It is not possible to use it with a Hubitat hub.
Let's hope that the HE staff are seeing this "new" piece of gear, and will incorporate this concept into the next model of HE. (As I believe they have done in the past with the Zigbee radio/antenna).
As well, perhaps this new antenna will finally unlock the full potential of Zwave LR to be all that it's possible to be.
Ummm... Not exactly sure what you mean? The C8 and C8-Pro hubs already come with Z-Wave 800 series radios and support replaceable external antennas. If you want a full wavelength Z-Wave radio antenna, one can simply purchase the proper antenna and replace the antenna that came with the HE hub. Same with the Zigbee antenna, if one is so inclined.
Big discussion of external antenna options for the C8 from a while back...lots of options then and now if you want to add external antennas to replace the stock ones on the C8.
The stock C8/C8-Pro antennas are pretty good, probably sufficient in most cases.
Yeah I did the antenna mod on my c7 hubs and noticed significant improvement but it was painful to accomplish nor inexpensive.
I haven't upgraded to the c8 but absolutely love that Hubitat staff were very engaged in the antenna mod thread and incorporated into future designs.
Was just crossing fingers this might work for others not on c8 but hadn't done the mod yet. All in all, cool solutions all around ![]()
From what I read about the antenna, it has no connection to the hub, either Home Assistant or Hubitat. I believe it is an external repeater with am antenna tuned for Z-wave. The antenna that come with the C9 and C8 Pro are not long enough for ideal Z-wave transmission, although they might be tuned using an internal matching network.
Here is a quote from the antenna faq
" Yes, you can. However, Connect ZWA-2 is optimized to work with the Home Assistant platform and standard Z-Wave JS. If you use it with another smart home platform or a custom Z-Wave add-on, you will miss Home Assistant-specific features such as easy migration or automated region setting. You will need to set up the adapter manually in the platform or add-on of your choice. You can find more information in our documentation.
As @ogiewon mention, it is not a repeater. It is meant to replace the existing zwave dongle HA users might have.
It has a connection to the hub through a usb cable.
And again: It won't work with Hubitat.