I know the tutorial documentation states to place it close to my router.
I am wondering why that is? Is it just because the docs assume nobody has cabled ethernet / switches in a residential application?
The reason I ask is I want the radios the hub provides as close to the center of the house as possible. In my case that would be in the living room on the console by the TV. I am fully wired with Category 6 cable and have gigabit switching in the house. I have a port sitting there ready for my use for this right now.
Is there any valid reason I shouldn't use my gig ethernet port that is in the living room instead of connecting directly to the router that is in the structured wiring cabinet in the home office?
I wouldn't think so but it might have something to do with the Zwave / Zigbee radios so I want to make sure...
They actually recommend placing it at least one foot away and definitely not directly on top:
Can you point out where the documentation says it should be close? Perhaps it could be edited to be more clear. (That being said, I'm guessing it will be somewhat close for most people given that, as you note, lots of people don't have their homes wired for networking, and the hub lacks built-in WiFi, so maybe that's what it was aiming to suggest.)
As for the other part of your question, as noted above, this should be fine (mine are set up similarly), and central to your home is generally better, so I think what you're thinking is a good idea!
All of my hubs only connect at 100 FDX so a gigabit should be overkill. I can't remember where I read it but I thought the HE hub can't do any better than 100 FDX. Can someone else confirm?
It doesn't matter where it's connected or how far (unless you have so much of a run that the line can't support it without a repeater and that's unlikely) Put it anywhere you want if you have a network jack there. Or you can use a wifi dongle now. (I prefer mine hard wired though) Centrally located though I think is best if you have a larger house.
That's what I thought. The quick start tutorial should just say to plug it into the router, or a network port on the internet connected network you want to use.
My hub actually just about 5 minutes ago arrived and came out of its box... Looking at the quick start guide it just says to connect to your LAN with the supplied eithernet cable. That works.
Perhaps I need to rewatch the videos, or I misunderstood what they were saying. It happens...
I put mine in the middle of my house, and my wifi router is pretty close but there's no reason for it to be so. If anything putting it too close, could cause interference issues for zigbee given that they share the same frequencies and the radios would be really loud. If you configure zigbee on channel 25 and use wifi channel 1 or 6 you should be fine.
Okay, done, more or less. The micro USB power cable this ships with is way too short so I had to put it in the console with the gaming consoles. I don't want it there long run.
I need to dig for a 10' Micro USB cable to feed power to it and I can move it to on top of the console. It's actually kind of a pretty little thing so there's that...
Anyway I am up and working on it, messing things up, figuring them out. Gonna take me a while to figure out the logic of the built in apps to automate my lights but I at least have the groups figured out.
I suggest something like this, with an in-line switch for removing power after the hub is shut down to red light. However, the cable is only 5 ft long, which may not be what you need. The micro USB connector on the hub is fragile, and can break the solder joints to the PC board if you connect and disconnect the power at the hub’s micro USB connector.
FYI, for future reference, you can pickup an old used Cisco 2960 POE gigabit 24 port switch for a little over 75 USD. The things are incredibly rock solid. 10 year old tech that still kicks azz today.
