You should have looked around on here first before you spent that much on repeaters. You could have done Iris outlets from ebay, at about $10 each. There is a terrific seller who has 5 packs all the time on there.
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I tend to agree with this. I came from wink and, although Hubitat is a far more capable platform, it really is odd that it has as many issues as it does with z-wave and ZigBee radio strength. I don't understand why the hub is designed to be so small. I could care less if it was as big as a wink hub, or even larger, for that matter. It's not like you're porting it around and compact size is important. I'm not sure if it was designed so small to keep shipping costs down? As others have mentioned, if you have to buy a couple z-wave range extenders then paying a little more, to cover the cost of shipping a larger hub, wouldn't be a big issue.
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About your locks - this might help:
Just as a clarification, the Z-wave and Zigbee hardware radio antennas are only a few millimeters wide. It would be no problem to increase the radio amplitude without changing anything about the size or shape of the hub.
However, if you'd like to increase the strength of your Zigbee mesh by a few orders of magnitude, take a look at the XBee thread in this forum. If you enjoy messing around with hardware, you can add an XBee device to your mesh (which is a fraction of the size of the HE hub), and expand your Zigbee radius much farther than the hub can reach.
Regarding the learning curve - stick with it though. There's endless help and support in this forum and eventually things start to make sense. I came from SmartThings, like a lot of folks here, and I'm still learning the ins and outs of basic home automation operations.
Yes, thanks. I was hoping the tool could help me in positioning all my zwave devices. I may go ahead and pull the trigger.
Thanks!
Will do. Thanks!
Yes, I tried this and it helped some. When I get home tonight I'm going to try setting the aeotec right on top of HE hub. Do a repair for the 500th time and try again.
You probably don't want to put those repeaters too close, a few feet away would probably be better than right on top of it. You don't want to overwhelm the Hubitat's signal.
Also, I am not sure if you saw this, but here are some suggestions how to build a good mesh.
Yes, I have pretty much followed this. Starting to wonder if my problem my be that I have my main Orbi router less than 2 ft away from the hub. It's a strong router with 2 satellites with 2g and 5 g backhaul.
I give that a qualified "maybe". If you remember, Wink had/has a huge issue if you put them too close to your Wifi router. It won't pair with wireless among other symptoms.
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If the 2.4ghz wifi channel(s) and zigbee channel overlap it can definitely reduce range having them too close together.
You can lookup what 2.4ghz wifi channels you are using and zigbee channel you are using and compare.
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There is hype. And for good reason. There is also a learning curve with this. This platform doesn't just walk you right through things, but community does. Sure, there are limitations because there's not a cloud interface like with Smartthings and Wink, but there are ways around that. Get your feet wet first. Start close to the hub with your devices and work out. Don't add a bunch of devices in one day. It's easy to do, but pace yourself. You didn't build your wink mesh in a day either. Also remember that Zwave doesn't repair itself, so after a day of adding things, do a zwave repair. Might help with your lock frustration. I have a zwave schlage lock and I had to bring the lock to the hub to pair. Then install it in the door. Then I set up a repeater, although I have all zwave swtiches and did a repair. It joins securely and that's why it's so picky. Once you get things going, your frustration will lessen. BUT - and I say that in all caps. One of the reasons people go with and stay, and even leave and come back is because of the community. You're not alone in this. Don't try to solve the problems all on your own. Give it a go on your own, but if you've failed once or even twice, then ask. If you're not sure where to begin, start by asking. There are very few haters here, and this community is like none other. (Love you guys 
)
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Excellent advice. Totally agree!
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I'm often hard-headed and will sometimes burn up days of time before asking for help. While that may sound bad, it also usually includes a lot of learning potential. If I'm spoon-fed a solution, I won't remember it. If I had to learn it the hard way, I'm more likely to remember as I learned other related information in the process.
Another thing I do is utilize search both on the community and the web in general. I may not always find the solution to the immediate problem, but I also learn a lot of relevant material on the way.
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I agree with billmeeks comment. Through my research, trying and failing, experimenting, testing, you name it; I have learned more about the smarthome industry, its products and technologies simply by doing. This "hands on" approach, as with many other hands on skills like learning how to code on your own, in my opinion is the best way to learn. A coworker of mine started asking me the other day about smarthome automation, and I went off rambling for the next ten minutes about Zwave, Zigbee, Lutron Clear Connect, WiFi - he looked at me like I had five heads. I laughed at myself with a bit of pride: it's all because I've done a ton of reading and touching. I've successfully migrated 99% of my devices from Wink to Hubitat about 3 weeks ago. Now that my Zwave mesh is working perfectly, I know that saving the Schlage lock for this weekend was the correct approach. I have 2 Zwave light switches right next to my front door so hopefully I won't run into any issues. If I do, I know I can rely on this community. If you haven't already, check out this thread below:
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Thank you my friend. Good luck with your locks, you've done your homework. And yes, this community is awesome!
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Prediction to take to the bank. Hubitat Gen 2 with stronger radios. And to increase revenue stream once HE levels off. GUARANTEED.
Gen5 is the current model. Maybe you mean Gen6 (or Gen7) with stronger radios?
Personally, that wouldn't be a big draw for me. I'm building out my Zigbee and Z-wave meshes to where there's no benefit to stronger radios in the Hubitat hubs.
Yes, Gen 6, 7 or whatever. For the new Hubitat users.
