Looking to educate myself a bit. I'm new to Hubitat....Smart Things convert. From everything I've read, to install my LR devices (I have a C8 Pro), I need to insall them via "Smart Start".
Curious....why do I have to install them differently than a traditional z wave plus device?
Follow up question: If Installed via smart start, will my LR devices "join" the rest of my traditional devices and act as a node for traditional devices or do my LR ones stand alone outside of the rest of my z wave plus device network?
Is there a secnario where it would be better if I did not install my LR with smart start, and just installed them like a normal device?
Requiring SS for LR is a z-wave standards requirement (not just something Hubitat is doing off on their own).
LR is a hub-&-spoke topology, not mesh. Devices paired LR do not and cannot talk to other z-wave devices paired as mesh, since LR devices are not part of that mesh.
If you want to pair an LR-capable device as plain mesh, you can use SS or traditional pairing -- it makes no difference as far as pairing and performance goes.
So far, I only use SS to pair LR stuff. I still use traditional pairing for everything else (including LR-capable devices that I don't need paired as LR). Other folks here are using SS whenever possible, and that's fine too.
Jeff Page's SmartStart Manager app is highly recommended as a SS helper tool, whether you use it for LR devices and/or other SS-capable z-wave devices.
Awesome! Thanks. I'm glad I asked this question. A lot of my LR devices will be used with direct association, so doing a traditional pairing seems to be my best route for me I think on those.
I have only a few LR devices.....and to be honest, probably don't need the range on those. However, pairing traditionally and being able to use them as a hub is probably more benificial for me than having the longer range.
Be aware you also need to have both devices at the exact same security level for associations to work. Honestly with the speed and ability of HE you almost don't need associations at all except for in some very niche situations they are helpful. Otherwise it is often easier and just as fast to make rules on the hub.
100%. Learned this the hard way with SmartThings a while back.
I don't have anything like that that is LR, but very good point. All my christmas light plugs are normal Z Wave Plus. However, this is a very good point.
I can definatly see that this would make the one device more reliable.....however, one could make the opposite argument. If range isn't an issue, adding to mesh could help making the whole network stronger? Or maybe i'm wrong on that one?
By hub, I assume you mean repeater. Just remember only mains based devices are repeaters. Battery devices do not repeat. Another advantage of LR is the signal strength. So if you have a device (such as a contact sensor) that is weak because it's next hop is weak, it benefits more to connect it as LR. Just to keep that in mind.
If it's an S2-capable z-wave device (but not LR-capable), you can use SS to add it as a mesh device (with S2 or not -- you'll still have that choice).
A non-LR-capable device cannot be paired hub-&-spoke -- it will always join as mesh, whether you join it via SS or traditional inclusion. On the flip side of that same coin, a device paired LR will always be hub-&-spoke (never mesh).
You can also include a LR capable device as a regular non-LR mesh node via SmartStart. You just have to edit the boot mode after scanning the QR code, before powering up the device, and set it to Mesh Mode (I forgot what the HE app calls it).
Any device paired as non-LR will be in the mesh. The only time a device would not be in the mesh is if it is paired with LR mode.
I was so excited to try LR as soon as HE supported it, but in my first use case I found it to be less reliable - specifically a leak sensor behind the washing machine. Even though the sensor isn’t too terribly far from the hub, there was enough metal in the way to make the connection unreliable. In this case, I found the mesh design to work better to reach “around” otherwise impenetrable obstructions. Now I’m very selective about what I add as LR.
Yeah, I live in a very old, larger stucco home and have a strong feeling I could have a similar challenge….I know it is a total different frequency band and power, but in order for me to get wifi throughout the house, I have like 6 eero nodes. Lots of dead spots without.
I’ll continue to think it over but pretty sure I’ll find similar results as you and deem it better to add my LR devices as traditional so they can join the mesh.
Yeah, chicken wire in the stucco makes a very nice Faraday cage. A lot of older homes (1940+) also use metal mesh on top of the lathe under plaster which has the same effect.
I had thought a Zooz LR contact sensor that I have on the back gate of my property about 140' from the hub might suffer from my home construction (stucco/chicken wire) but it's been perfect since installed. Fingies crossed.
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