So I have an outdoor ring contact sensor for a gate o the other side of my house furthest from my ZWave hub. I do have a 700 series repeater plugged in the wall about 20ft from the gate but the contact sensor is connecting to a ZWave MultiSensor in my 2nd floor bedroom instead. I’ve tried running a repair a few times to no avail as well as shutting the ZWave hub down and powering it off at the plug for a few minutes before bringing it back up again. Bottom line is when the contact sensor is on the gate, it loses signal. I bring it back into the house, it starts to respond. I have a C7 hub with external radio antenna and this is the only device I’m having a connectivity issue with. Curious if purchasing a C8 that support me ZWave long range will fix this issue?
No, LR was only added to the C8 because, from what I understand, the firmware on the chip supported it by default. The C7 chip is not ready to do LR, they could possibly add it but does not seem likely, unless they decide to do another firmware update on the C7 zwave chip.
depending if you use older zigbee devices, a C8 maybe a headache, unless you run 2 hubs. But LR running properly would likely solve your issue. I don't recall if the C8 or C8 pro is ruuning LR without any "growing pains"
Can you provide more context on why upgrading to a c8 for zigbee would be a headache for older devices? Can you give an example of an older device? Most of my zigbee devices are Centralite devices branded under the Iris name from Lowes.
Iris v1 is not compatible with Zigbee 3.0. I'm currently using Iris v2 motion sensors with a C8p and they have been working well. I'm using Inovelli Blue series switches as repeaters.
I have Sylvania and Sengled bulbs on a C8 separate from my main hub and they have also been good. That mesh also has a few Inovellis as repeaters.
I'm still building out my new networks from my old integrations but that's what has worked for me. I'm sure somebody will chime in with any other concerns.
There have ben some growning pains that are still being worked out. The C8 and C8 pro can do it, but you won't know how well until you try.
I had a heck of a time going from a C8 to a C8 pro for the extra resources. Prior to the migration everything was fine on the C8. With the C8 Pro my radio was borked and had to be reset. You won't know until you try it i your radio db has issues. If it does you will likely need to do a radio reset and pair everything again. Just make sure you use the SmartStart app by @jtp10181 that helps allot with managing those Smartstart codes.
There have also been some issues with Backups in the current firmware of 2.3.9.150 i believe. related to LR devices.
If you serach/read through the forums you'll see an unresolved issue where non Zigbee 3.0 devices will migrate fine to the C8 but if they disconnect, then re-pairing them is very difficult, maybe impossible, unless the issue is addressed. Mike is working with Silabs to evaluate if it's fixable. Mike is incredible, Silabs...meh
