I've seen the info on the antenna upgrades and those patch type antenna aren't fantastic on anything. There's a reason mobile phones used to have a pin port for a further aerial on handsfree kits.
I was on Aliexpress today and saw a few zigbee 12v remote switch/relay boards that all had a pigtail style antenna and I'm pretty sure it'll fit inside the usual hubitat case. If it's tuned to pick up zigbee signals, then I'm sure it'll transmit them pretty well.
I haven't looked up z-wave stuff but if they do something similar using that protocol then the antenna on that will be tuned to be efficient in that wavelength...
Maybe a simpler, less get caught on something and yanked across the room, type of mod. It's probably not going to be as effective as the huge aerial style but it might be worth investigating if someone hasn't already...
I can't fathom these are much better than the antenna that comes with the Hubitat. I don't personally see much use in doing the antenna mod unless you go with a full wave antenna
You might be right, but it might be worth someone trying it on an old hub see if it gives any improvement.
I think it will give some improvement - something between flat patch antenna - and the accidental buttplug type (I can just see those aerials getting caught in clothes etc, and important bits getting yanked, snapped etc).
Just curiosity really.
Antenna design is very weird. Those that understand it seem to start off conversations with "Oh, it's not that complicated, there's only 3 variables..." and by paragraph 7 of their talk, we're up to 18 variables.
But for us, here in this community, we don't get to adjust the majority of variables. We're limited to replacing the antenna with one better suited to our home... our specific home. The Half wave antenna mod used the most by this community does a good 60% of it's benefit simply by rotating the plane. The built in antennas, stuck to the lids as they are, create a donut shape of RF that radiates out the lid and out the base. Replacing the antenna generally tends to result in the "rubber ducky" antenna standing vertical, which shifts the radiation pattern 90 degrees. It tends to cover the home between the floor and the ceiling.
Many have found this true by simply mounting the hub on a wall, so that the lid faces towards the Z-Devices.
Yeah. I saw the screed on what he came up with and it's a really major improvement. I didn't see anything on helical type aerials.
These helical aerials seem to provide multiple lobes of a similar shape to the singular lobe the patch aerial provides. Think apples stuck on a long spike.
If that's right it appears it should give you more than one signal lobe. The question is, does it actually improve what the devices pick up?
If you mounted the hub on a wall and configured the helical aerial with a curve in it as far as I can see you can roughly aim the signal lobes towards devices low down/mid height/higher up (ceiling).
Might still be worth a look if someone more skilled than me is feeling bored.
The power output is the power output. The Antenna does nothing to alter that. If one assumes a true omni antenna created a RF sphere, then an antenna simply squashes that sphere to make more of the RF go in the not squished direction. Multi lobe would start by dividing the total power by the number of lobes and then squishing each to whatever shape was intended. I imagine that would be worse for most people since we're trying to get our Z-Devices to hear the hub at edge of reception.
I'm not talking about an external antenna. I'm talking about an upgraded internal one. The number of times I've seen expensive bits of kit go crashing to the floor and an incoming dodgy warranty claim because someones clothes caught on said expensive piece of kit and yanked it floorwards...
Hence the helical aerial idea. It should fit in case and provide some improvement although I haven't been able to find a z-wave equivalent to the zigbee ones so far.
