I read through a many threads on zwave pairing, and still am having problems. There seems to be two different thoughts -- pair zwave devices at the end location, one at a time, or pair them close by, then repair network. For my new system, the complication is that the only zwave devices I have so far are trisensors which are battery powered devices.
What are your thoughts on this specific use case when I only have battery powered aeotec trisensor in the network? I got the first one working and close to the hub. I want the second one to be maybe 20 ft away but it is not pairing, getting stuck on "initializing"...
Z-Wave Plus will repair itself through explorer frames or through a manual repair process. I pair battery devices at my desk and then move them and let them heal on their own.
As for your situation. You need repeaters. Any powered device works as a repeater for other devices. You can by single purpose repeaters from Aeotec or you can get some power plugs which are more useful.
We like newbie questions because we get to say what we wished someone had told us..
As @jeubanks said, you need a powered device to extend your mesh from the hub outward. Battery devices don't repeat, because that would eat batteries. You have three choices: A specialized repeater; An in-wall outlet; An in-wall Switch or Dimmer.
The Tri-Sensor detects motion, the motion is often used to turn on lights. Some use time-of-day to set dim levels too. Therefore, the most likely device you would want to get is an in-wall dimmer. Even if you don't automate it today, it will just sit there and repeat for you. Physically it looks just like the switch/dimmer you have.
Second choice is an in-wall outlet, with a switched outlet on the bottom of the pair. Again you don't have to automate it, it just sits there and repeats.
The final option in my mind is the Aeon Range Extender 7. It's plug in so you can see it and potentially have family members unplug it, not realizing it's importance. On the positive side, it's movable. It is great for finding the optimum spot to add an in-wall outlet.
Thanks for the reply. I am going to first do the "pair close by", "repair" route. I have the cheaper Aeotec repeater ordered because they look small and easy to be hidden. This is for a rented house so I am not going to replace outlets/switches.
I am going for mostly zigbee sengled bulbs so I have a centralite plug and hoping that will be my zigbee repeater.
