Short ZWave range on red series inovelli dimmer

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I’m playing around with an inovelli red series dimmer, and I have issues if my hub is more than 4 feet away. The switch stops responding to commands. If I drag the switch 2 feet closer (it wants to live about 6 feet away), it responds normally (except to button device commands, but that could be me). I don’t have an extensive zwave network set up yet, but 6 feet seems awfully close not to be in range.

I’m thinking of buying more, but if they have limitations like this I may have to look elsewhere.

Thanks for any suggestions in advance.

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I have Inovelli Reds and Blacks all over my house with none being any closer than 15', and do not have trouble with any of them. Most of my switch boxes are even metal. You might just have a bad switch. Can you move the switch or hub to another location to see if there is some particular interference in that location.

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How is you switch connected? Is it on a temporary cord?

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I took one out on an extension cord in my back yard 60 feet from anything else and it worked. What do you get when you perform a Z-Wave Range Detection?

Z-Wave Range Detection

  1. Hold down the Configuration Button (A) for five (5) seconds until the LED Bar (B) lights up GREEN

  2. Once it lights up GREEN, release the Configuration Button (A)

  3. If the LED Bar (B) stays GREEN, the device is within range

  4. If the LED Bar (B) turns RED, the device is not within range and needs to be moved

NOTE: Sometimes the LED bar lights up RED and the switch is within range. While rare, this has been reported on some of the switches.

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The plug is in the wall. I put my hub on a long extension cord and a long cat5 cable. The zwave test comes back green if the hub is 2 feet in front of the Switch, but fails at 3 feet. Oddly enough it has a much longer range (at least 10 feet) if the hub is outside behind the switch. I’ve been talking to inovelli support, they have had me try a bunch of stuff, but no luck so far.

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Can't tell if this applies to your case or not. When I first received my Inovelli Red I was testing it on the bench (desk). I had connected it with a two wire extension cord with the receptacle part cut off. I had a lot of trouble pairing it. After some thinking I connected it with a 3 wire cord. This added the "green" connection. Wow.... now the dimmer paired with no issues.

So you might verify your safety ground is connected and the connections tight. This would be the bare wire or metal housing with metallic jacked wire. (aka BX cable).

BTW I did nothing with the range measurement capability.

John

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I’m in a metal wall box, so no ground wire. I guess the box itself could be ungrounded. I’ll check that when I get home.

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The metal box can definitely cause range issues. Is there anywhere close you could add a repeater or another switch?

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I have all metal boxes in my home. I've had no issues with Inovelli dimmers.

If you are not familiar with wiring, I would:

  1. Remove power at breaker
  2. measure the resistance from the box body to the white wire. I'm making some assumptions here but its a good first step.
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There's a good reason for that, the antenna of the red series is right under the switch paddle facing out. I only discovered this when swapping for a brown switch paddle.
The range test for me, is not a good indicator, as I have switches that indicate weak signal (red LED) but function fine

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