Is there a way for hubitat to tell the signal quality of devices? Z-wave @ 900Mhz should go farther and thru walls better than 2.4Ghz devices, and with built in mesh network it ranging shouldn't be a problem.
But right now i can't figure out why my hubitat (2nd floor) can't reach my motion sensor (ground floor) which I would estimate is just approx 5meters away.. (i live in a small 2storey apartment)
So i placed the siren in the middle between the hub and the sensor but it didn't improve at all.
Placing the motion sensor at 1m position = hubitat detects motion from it
Placing the motion sensor at 2m position or farther = hubitat doesn't reach it anymore.
Placed the sioren at 1m position (where it's still in range with hub) and with line of sight to the motion sensor.. = hubitat doesn't get the triggers at all.
I checked the hubitat > devices settings and made sure the mesh setting is enabled.
ps
I wish hubitat had a way to display the signal strength of devices ...... would save us a lot of guess work
True, 900MHz should go further and pass through objects better, however Z-wave uses very low power. So you still need to plan accordingly, avoid metal in walls and use repeaters.
Keep in mind anything battery powered does not repeat the mesh, only mains powered devices. Your siren if it is not mains powered is not repeating the signal. My suggestion is to buy Jasco (OEM by Honeywell) Zwave switches and or dimmers and make sure you have enough to where you have a good signal. Hub in the center of the house and build outwards. These are $25US each and easy to move around until you get good coverage. I have an all zwave network with 100+ devices and standardized on zwave years ago for it low frequency penetration. The prior replies are correct in the signal is low powered so you still need a mesh density that allows for more than one path per device to get to the hub. Indoor with walls a good rule of thumb i use is no more than 10 meters of separation between nodes. Once you have decent density, run zwave repair and make sure you watch the log to see that each device completes normally, then leave it alone. The mesh learns and improves with time. Generally a few hours to a couple of days and speed and reliability develop on their own if you have enough devices that are mains powered. Not a fan of the "repeater only" devices sold to extend the network. My experience is once the mesh is dense enough without them i pulled them because they created signal to noise issues that interfered with my mains devices.
This is interesting. I was not aware of this. I have several Aeotec Extender 7s and Ring Range Extender G2 that I included to strengthen the mesh but none of my devices want to route thru them. I left them installed because I believed that they would not hurt anything, but you say they could be causing signal to noise issues.......How can I tell if this is happening?
While I can agree with the "dense enough part", I cannot agree with the "signal to noise" part. The behavior of repeaters, whether they be stand-alone devices or integrated with a switch/dimmer, is the same.
I also agree, from the view of the Z-wave mesh, how is a dedicated repeater any different than a powered smart device that has repeating function built-in? It should be identical to the Z-wave mesh network.
@bcopeland has quoted many times "you can't have too many repeaters in your mesh network". I live by that statement, and so far my mesh has treated me well.
I appreciate the feedback. So to be clear my experience was not opinion i was expressing, it was the results of measuring signal to noise with a spectrometer and packet errors and latency with a packet sniffer. It surprised the daylights out of me when i saw spikes in noise (i was using Aeotec range extenders) near the Aeotec repeaters and the mains powered devices (mesh repeating devices that are not just dedicated repeaters) nearby were erratic in terms of response times. I removed the Aeotec repeaters and the noise level settled down and the mains devices behaved with speed and consistency. I waited a month and repeated the test and got the exact same results. Not trying to argue, just trying to explain my measured observations. Until i grew my mesh with mains based device / repeater density the Aeotec repeaters helped, but once the mains based device / repeater (i.e., plugs, dimmers, switches, etc) density was very dense i had to remove the Aeotec repeaters to resolve the problems i observed above. Got a pair of Aeotec repeaters, you want them? Bruce's comment is spot on, you cant have too many repeaters, density makes for a solid network. When i got to a point where i was over 100 devices just the areas i had the Aeotec Repeaters installed were behaving with inconsistency until i removed them. They worked great to bridge dead spots until the network grew past the need for them, Got a pair i will send you if you want them, seriously not knocking this product - just sharing what i measured and observed. This is a never ending hobby when it comes to learning. What makes it fun!
jj
Oh is that so? i totally did not know that. I thought all Zwave devices will repeat natively.
Thank you for that.
I too am not into stand alone zwave repeaters unless it calls for it. At the moment i have a project where z-wave is employed just for alarm system and there are sensors far from the hub that i need to reach so Im going to need repeaters
Oh and, one more thing....... Is there a way /device we can use to measure signal strength of zwave and zigbee? im getting tired of the guess work and trial and errors
The Aeotec Range Extender 6 is ok. I had 4, replaced them with Aeotec Range Extender7 and then Ring Alarm Extender Gen 2 repeaters. The advantage of the Ring for your application (just for alarm system) is that the Ring has internal battery backup. It also has a Z-Wave 700 series chip, and can report power fail events to your hub for automated shutdown by a rule.
I have one, purchased on recommendation of Ashok Aiyar (@aaiyar) in this forum. Works ok, but I rarely use it. Mostly, I just add repeaters around.
You are welcome. If you decide to use the Ring extenders, note that, during the power restore after the power fail, the Ring extender will come up before your hub, so the hub will miss the “return to mains power” event, so you need a rule on System Start to refresh the state of the Ring extenders. Here is mine:
