I have a C-8 Pro hub and all but one of my devices are Zigbee. Recently we had a sliding gate installed at the end of our driveway, about 80 ft from the garage. It is a Liftmaster RSL12UL.
I wanted to automate it and also get notification if it were open or closed, as it is difficult to see it in the dark.
I designed and built this controller:
The case is plastic.
Inside are a Zooz ZEN16 and a Shelly Plus Uni.
The Uni is only for reporting the battery voltage (the Liftmaster runs on a 12 V battery that is solar charged.)
Using z-wave I can open and close the gate, turn on the 12V gate-post lamps, and read the status of a proximity sensor (reed switch) that activates when the gate is closed. So far so good.
However my wife discovered this afternoon that suddenly the range of the Liftmaster remotes had been severely reduced.
We experimented and found that the range of the original Liftmaster remote is 100+ feet when my controller box is off, and barely 20 feet when my controller is powered on. The controller box lives next to the battery below the steel floor of the Liftmaster chassis.
I haven't yet experimented further to learn whether it is the ZEN16 or the Shelly (Wi-Fi) that is causing the interference.
I've seen so many posts where folks use a Zooz z-wave relay to control a Liftmaster GDO, I'm truly surprised that a z-wave device could do this.
I also use a Zigbee 4-channel relay in another application, though it lacks the digital inputs of the ZEN16.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Does it seem feasible that either the ZEN16 or the Uni could be so drastically reducing the range of the Liftmaster radio?
I've considered just not using the original remotes any longer, and instead putting z-wave LR button controls in the cars. But the WAF argues against that, as then the gate operation would be totally dependent on the Hubitat reliability.
