Yeah thatās just more DIY than Iām looking for. Itād be less work to dig a trench and put in conduit for a closer outlet than itās going to be to build that. Those relays are cool, but now I have to set up an arduino, etc. a lot of work for a lightbulb. Time = money and that looks like a lot of time to me. Definitely cool, just not what Iām looking for.
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Thatās the receptacle thatās already in the garage that HE refuses to route through. I canāt put that in the outlet by the lamppost because itās not a gfci so it wouldnāt be up to code.
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Ah sorry I thought your earlier post was the GE outdoor outlet thing.. carry on! 
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Before going to great effort, put an extension cord plug in the outlet in the garage and hang the extension cord outside a garage window, plug an Aeotec Extender 7 (or Ring Extender Gen 2) in the extension cord, outside the window. That will tell you whether it would even be productive to put an outside receptacle for a repeater.
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Good idea! Iāll try that after putting it in the lamppost outlet.
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Just to be clear you are not going to put the repeater near the lamp post but rather somewhere between the hub and lamp post right? That's generally the recommended way of using a repeater - closer to the hub. Also keep in mind you get 4 hops with ZW devices...
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No. As I said, there is no way for me to do that. There is already a GE outlet as close as possible to the lamppost (~55ft away). However the hub doesnāt route through this device. I already have 70 zwave devices in my house. There are plenty of repeaters to get from the hub to the end of the house. Iām going to try to put the repeater near the lamppost to at least try to guarantee these two devices route through it. If HE gave me a way to specify a route thatās what I would do. However, the algorithm the hub used tried to make a 250ft hop. Well that didnāt work. So Iām trying to outsmart the hub.
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I probably missed this too but there is no switch in the house controlling the lamp post you could change to a smart switch?
No, unfortunately there isnāt. If I put a switch inside itād also kill the outlet which I donāt want. Otherwise thatās be a great idea.
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I have a smart switch controlling my lampost which also has an outlet that still works.. now I don't ever put much of a load on it (the outlet part) and my smart switch is a GE toggle switch.
There is a single wire going to the lamppost and outlet. If I put a switch I , it would cut the power to both.
Here is what I did with my GE/Jasco Smart Motion Switches and Dimmers (26931 and 26933, 500 series Z-Wave Plus) that are in our bathrooms: I was always seeing low throughput on these devices, that are in tiled bathrooms. So, I took off the faceplates and saw a very small (2.5 inch) wire antenna for each, running vertically parallel to the switch. I installed a longer wire antenna - about 6 inches - and let it hang outside the (plastic) wallbox down into the wall. Thatās what Somfy does with their Decoflex wall switches.
So, you might try a longer antenna on the GE receptacle.
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You can swap a breaker in the panel to GFCI and it would be compliant. And the whole circuit would then be protected.
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Ah I see you do NOT want to cut the power to the outlet for obvious reasons. Got it. My use case is a bit different..
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I was trying this on the enerwave relay. It has about a 2in antenna as well. I wasnāt sure what gauge wire to use or how to attach it to the existing antenna. Should I remove the insulation at the end of the existing antenna and twist the copper/solder? I wasnāt sure if messing with the antenna would make things worse.
Gauge isnāt important, itās not carrying current. However, I would replace the entire antenna with same gauge wire. Donāt solder something on to existing one, that would put a reflecting impedance mismatch in the middle of the antenna that would reflect the signal.
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Maybe if you make it the wrong length. If you stick with a multiple of the length that is there, (AKA 1/2 wave vs 1/4 wave) it should in theory be better. I will see if I can dig up the length of a Zwave antenna.
I would solder and use sealed (marine grade) shrink tube. But for temporary use, twisting might tell you if it is even going to work. Wire gauge isn't critical far as I am aware, but try to get it close as you can to the existing.
That is probably the most correct answer. But in reality, I have found that it isn't quite that critical for something like this. Maybe for a ham radio or TV that is more true.
That could put a loading coil in the middle of the antenna, again, possibility of impedance mismatch.
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So like desolder the existing one from the board and replace with my own?
