Absolutely. I've been eyeing those aotech repeaters. Certainly easier to install than getting the wink to work and I like your comment about how it blinks when a command goes through it. That is almost as useful as the 'zniffer' you talked about although that tool could be really useful if I ever need to help a friend set up their house.
Sounds corny but hubitat has made building my smart house fun again. I was so excited initially with wink but all the constant headaches made me lose my enthusiasm for it.
Oh the feeling of accomplishment when you solve a problem is definitely a good one, but the emotional rollercoaster can be tiring. I love my locks. I like my repeaters and I am addicted to zniffing. Being able to see what's going where is so helpful when you're troubleshooting things. I'd still get one if you have interest in it. Welcome to the rabbit hole. It runs deep.
I'd wait for the 7's to come available since you have a working solution at the moment.
with the wink hub acting as a repeater near it i'm back to slow drain (98% today) so i'll try additional zwave repairs and move it even closer (in the hall near lock). i may get a zniffer next and do some AUTHENTIC testing instead of guessing who the lock is talking to.
absolutely. i feel like that ge switch is part of the problem. i wish it wasn't so close to the lock..its like 6 inches away max. maybe i'll swap it for a zigbee switch from somehwere else in the house.
I don't think that ge switch supports beaming. If it doesn't then it's no worry. I have ge's 6 inches away from all of my locks. And they don't even see the switches. Before you go to the trouble, zniff.
@april.brandt I think I got it! I had a moment of clarity the other morning when I woke up that I did change something a few years ago when the lock battery drain started. I moved my wink hub from the middle of my house to one side (closer to the pool zwave switch) and the back door schlage lock became a model citizen at that point (it had battery drain issues before). The problem is I didn't realize this caused the front lock drain because at the time I wasn't looking at the battery so closely so I never put the 2 things together. Anyway I moved my new 'repeater' wink hub from 2 feet away from the lock to a room 30 feet or so away where it lived in the beginning. (The other wink hub I left alone.) I left it there for about a day then did a zwave repair.
Lo and behold; for the last 2 days straight the lock battery is reporting 74%. I'm crossing my fingers that this did the trick and I'm still not sure why moving the hub FURTHER AWAY had this type of impact but I'm am just tickled pink and I hope I'm not jinxing anything.
I still plan on getting the zniffer; that may tell me why the routing is working better.
Long story short; anyone with shclage locks don't give up! I haven't done anything 'weird' or unrepeatable (no pun intended) throughout this process except to add some zwave devices to strengthen my mesh which is a good thing regardless.
As an FYI - by design z-wave will use the smallest number of hops to go from the controller to the device being controlled. For this reason, in general, at least one repeater should be placed in close proximity to the controller, and other should be between the controller and the device. There is literally nothing to be gained by placing a repeater right next to the device - because the likelihood of it participating in the shortest path (as counted by hops) between the controller and the device decreases.
I keep saying that too. Hang in there schlage users. Your wink supports beaming and that is why your locks are happier now. I would suggest that you still receive the repeater because your wink will eventually cease to work correctly (I think) as a repeater. So you'll eventually have to figure something else out if they cut off the hubs. I never had wink, so I'm not 100% on that.
To add to that statement, Z-Wave will only hop 4 times, so you can see where this gets tricky. My locks hop once. Usually through an enerwave plug with beaming on the other side of the house to the hub. Z-wave likes to establish around 4 good paths to reduce congestion, so that's why I still suggest getting the repeater you ordered and maybe adding one or two more. Your locks might not use it all the time, but they will definitely see the repeaters as a good path, or switch to it entirely. Thus increasing the reliability of your locks. I have 3 repeaters and 3 locks. My locks hit 100% of the time. Battery drain is one huge side effect of poor Z-Wave communication, so good catch on that one.
I'll be looking forward to hearing how you're progressing with this.
After reading what you both wrote above it makes me feel dumb for not knowing how to arrange things in my house. I knew both locks were rockstars in the past and schlage has been very good to me (even sent me 2 free locks when one of mine didn't work properly) and always answer the phone when i called in the past. maybe others have different experiences but when a company goes out of their way like that to help a random customer it instills a strong sense of loyalty.
@april.brandt i'm definitely going to pick up a couple v7 repeaters and of course the zniffer tool because after playing with 'toy' wink i want a system that is robust and reliable.
As for your comment about wink 'bricking' the hub, i think i'm ok because I was able to include the hub as a 'generic zwave repeater' inside of hubitat so i think as long as the hub has power it will still function as an antenna even if its no longer a functioning device in any other manner. i guess time will tell! maybe wink will send a command to disable the internal antennas but i hope not.
I hope not too. Especially if they are acting that well as a repeater. At least wink users can get some use out of it.
I wouldn't say that. Never before have you been told that you needed to plan your mesh because you always had an entry level hub. So, It's a learning experience. We've all be there. Even said "I'm not buying what you're saying". But, after settling in with Hubitat, you start to learn what does and doesn't work. If you were saying that to me a year after you'd had the hub, then yah ... but not now. Give yourself some credit. You DID make an excellent choice by coming to Hubitat. The learning curve will definitely cut you some slack. And besides, having the older devices on the outside of the mesh might work in your favor as plus is more forgiving, so might carry the old stuff better as it's placed. It's just those stupid locks. There's not a right answer there. Just a lot of experience.
