Interesting, but confusing. Didn't she just say the weaker 14dBm is used in battery devices, and isn't this a battery device? Wouldn't a symptom of erroneous power assignment be awesome range and pitiful battery life, lol.
On another note, I'm getting 11 dB from my Ecolink Z-wave contact sensor, non-lr, at the gate, and 3 dB each from the ZSE18 lr's in the package bin and mailbox. All three in roughly same location, and enclosed in plastic boxes.
I had to move the hub to get them to work. Pretty sure the ZSE18's non-lr worked where it was before. Hard to quantify. Trees, vegetation, etc. It seemed to have pretty long range when I walked down the road with only trees in the way, not leaves.
I still have the non-lr ZSE18's; maybe I should re-include them and compare.
Even at 3dB, they've been pretty reliable.
But 11dB from the Ecolink, wow. I use the contacts in the sensor to determine open/closed status of the gate.
Also note that the ZSE18 doesn't use a flat battery, it's 1/3 AA size. I'm too lazy to look it up right now. More ooomph. The Ecolink uses the same battery.
123a i use that on my gate also;..seems to work the best when attached to a metal gate pole... i did have to put a bigger neodyn magnet on the gate to get it reliable.
ya ive tried like 4 times with the zse41lr now.. probably write it off and throw it in the bin.. only works basically 2 rooms away in the house.. through 2 walls.. i am not moving the hub just for this.. as soon as i go 30 feet outdoors it drops..
where are you getting the db levels from? i think the motion zse18 would be too big for my mailbox.. thank god the smaller smartthings multi works.. just a pain replacing the battery every month or two.
i could try the zse43 tilt .. but my feeling is they all have the same guts and small antenna so probably no.
I have a plastic mailbox; you said you have a metal mailbox...different setup in all likelihood.
The magnetic mount is screwed to the back of the mail box.
I wrap the sensor in Saran wrap.
It's easy to reach in an remove to bring inside the house.
Of course, where I have it in the package bin, it gets knocked off every once in a while, and I have to reach down (think large garbage can on wheels) to retrieve and replace it.
I am getting the dB readings from the Z-wave details page.
edit: It's a plastic mailbox, plastic garbage can, and plastic gate control box.
