What would be the best way to get zwave into a metal building 260' from the house hub. I have it working on the outside with aotech 7s to a receptacle. We have switches, outlets, a gate operator,and a thermostat to operate inside. Also, how to create a stronger mesh out to the shop. The gate is on the opposite side of the shop from the house.
If you already have an Aotech 7 on the outside of the outbuilding it should be able to repeat to things inside the building. At least to the other side of the wall it is on. So if you put another line-power device (a switch, outlet, or another dedicated repeater) near it on the inside you should be pretty well set. Metal buildings do block a lot of signal but unless someone has gone to a lot of effort to make it a faraday cage, you should be OK.
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You can also try getting another hub and install it inside that metal building and use hub mesh to connect the 2 hubs together unless you can't get a network cable or wifi to reach that building either.
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You could attach a larger antenna to your hub, like this
Haha, okay you could setup an aeotec z-stick as a secondary controller, then simply leave it permanently plugged into an old iphone charger, after the stick was joined to the network. Locate the stick on the outside of the metal building, in an eave or in an outdoor outlet.
Or a 2nd hub would work but is triple the price of a stick
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I do have a nano bridge between the two buildings so I have internet in the shop.
A larger antenna is always the solution to any radio communication difficulty!
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Why not just more antennas?
It seems to be the secret sauce in high powered WiFi access points. 
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would those be more expensive than the z stick? my grouchy neighbor would love those!
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