I got the highly regarded BingFu antennas, based on the price point I had to try them. So far so good but I haven't done much testing yet. I got the suggested PoE adapter today as well. So far so good but I haven't added anything new today (yet)
BingFU is the mark of quality 
in all seriousness made really well for the price cant speak to the performance yet
I love them, solved my Z-Wave connection problems with iBlinds, since installing that antenna for Z-Wave on my hub I've had zero issues. Before installing that I would run into problems with the blinds not always responding.
@danabw @dennypage so I got two of the "PT-PTC-AT" units today i put one on the C8 and its working thus far drawing very little power with 15.4 reserved
Actual consumption
Measured at the port: 1.7
Maximum Power drawn by the device since powered on: 2.9
That's the one I'm using at the moment...zero issues since installed. Mine is a rare upgraded version, however. 
Yup the one I got does not possess that upgrade 
I finally decided to try out a new antenna and used your suggestion, and I have to say I know have 0 hops to every device on my network. Every device is so responsive. I feel like I now have the best of both worlds - hub and spoke with neighbors when I need them.
Just wait until the neighborhood starts complaining about how ugly the antenna is....
Meanwhile the neighbors garage door is opening and closing every time woodsby turns on a light, and the other neighbors car is starting when woodsby's motion sensors are tripped. Oh, the airplanes are hovering over his house thinking that it is the radar tower.
Other than that, the bigger antenna works terrific!
High gain Omni antennas work by flattening the Doughnut. If your home is single level it is a win. But if your home has multilevels, you could be worse off.
Yup, absolutely correct, I always forget to note that.
My home is a SFR, so the flat/wide donut of this antenna has been great. Might also work in a multi-level home depending on repeaters/layout, concentration of Z-Wave devices by floor, etc., but a taller donut probably better in that case.
As @danabw indicates, an antenna does not increase the total RF energy, it just concentrates in in specific areas. I have a home with an upper floor and a basement. Thus, for me, the low gain antennas that come with HE are appropriate.
While vertical antennas are typically omnidirectional, it is possible to have a directional antenna. These directional antennas concenterate the signal in a specific direction while the signal is minimized in other directions. A satellite antenna dish is one way to produce a highly directional antenna, but there are others types as well.
Fun fact I just learned - if you include these devices "normally" (without SmartStart) they will join the mesh, not Long Range. If you join using Smart Start you can select Long Range and then, and only then, will the device operate in the "star" (direct to hub) mode otherwise it is just a regular member of the mesh. Long range devices - ONLY IN LONG RANGE MODE - totally ignore the mesh.
You shouldn't need to change any SmartStart settings to get LR on an LR device (or really ever unless you have a specific need, as the QR code has the data for everything), but you do need to use SmartStart.
This is all documented here:
Another alternative is just to use YoLink sensors with the community Hubitat driver. I have a very long driveway at my home where my mailbox is. No long range Zwave sensor was going to work in that mailbox because of distance and the fact I wanted the contact sensor inside the metal box. The YoLink contact sensor solved that problem for me and has been extremely reliable. Since then I've added other YoLink sensors to Hubitat due to range issues. IE, I have the Luba robotic lawn mower to mow a very large backyard. I placed a YoLink Vibration sensor on the Luba Robot so when the Luba is out mowing but stops moving after a period of time, I receive a warning that Luba might be stuck. Another pro of YoLink... the batteries last a long time. But the downside... the system depends on the Cloud. But I've been very happy with it and its easy integration with hubitat.
Hello everyone.
I am just finishing an upgrade to 800 series devices on the majority of my devices. My experience has been very positive. I just posted an issue. In it; as part of the diagnostic information included the ZWave table from my main hub. You can check that out to see the network routing. (link below).
Before the upgrade at least 50% of my devices had 3 hops. Some had 4 and several (outside mailboxes and sheds had 5). I live in a rancher and each room is blocked by walls making it harder for signals to get through.
Now 90 percent of my devices are directly connecting to the hubs. You are seeing the table on one of the hubs. I have two. The results are equally impressive on the 2nd hub.
https://community.hubitat.com/t/some-rule-manager-rules-not-triggering/159485/2
Download the Hubitat app
