Antenna on Vera3 -- extending?

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

Hi. I had a zwave network up and running and everything was working fine. The nodes are all relatively close together within 15’ of each other and the base.

THEN, I put all of my networking electronics (including the Vera3) into a Triplite wall-mounted metal cabinet. Two of my nodes are no longer reachable. I tried adding “manual” routes but nothing worked. The minute I open the metal cabinet, everything works again.

This is for a vacation rental and I was hoping to secure my equipment.

Is there anyway to add an external antenna to the Vera3? Has anyone else run into this problem?

thanks,
-Rich

#2

This is why I have my Vera dangling outside of the [metal] wiring closet:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,10747.msg75032.html#msg75032

It’s technically possible to open Vera up, and connect an external antenna… but I don’t believe anyone’s done it yet. I have all the bits to do it, but never got around to pulling the trigger.

From memory, it’s an U.FL connector on the board, and you’d externalize that to an RP-SMA for an external antenna. No idea about all the required specs though (watch the freq specs on the antenna itself, since they’ll need to cover the ZWave band for the appropriate country.

#3

Thank you. I’ll let you know how bold I get.

#4

[quote=“guessed, post:2, topic:172162”]This is why I have my Vera dangling outside of the [metal] wiring closet:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,10747.msg75032.html#msg75032

It’s technically possible to open Vera up, and connect an external antenna… but I don’t believe anyone’s done it yet. I have all the bits to do it, but never got around to pulling the trigger.[/quote]

Hi Guessed, is the same thing possible on the Veralite do you know?
Also what about the memory?, is that an upgradable module or is it part of the board?

#5

Memory is not upgradable on the Vera Lite. It is part of the mainboard.

  • Garrett
#6

[quote=“garrettwp, post:5, topic:172162”]Memory is not upgradable on the Vera Lite. It is part of the mainboard.

  • Garrett[/quote]
    True for all the models. I’ve heard people using reflow on other router-based devices to do it, but that’s not always possible (chip arch, and availability with similar footprints) and likely isn’t for most people anyhow :wink:

Not sure why you’d need to upgrade the memory though, even a Vera Lite has a ton of it for HA purposes.

PS: I’ve never opened up a Vera Lite to look at the internal connectors, so I don’t know. If you have one, it should be easy to find out if it has the connector.

#7
#8

Ok, that makes it easy then :slight_smile:

Thanks oTi@!

#9

Is the antenna connection on the mainboard the same on the lite as it is on the Vera 3?

#10

They both appear to be U.FL connectors. You can always open it up and take a look…

#11

Yep. Currently running Vera 3 with Vera Lite’s antenna, as a test: seems to work. (They both appear to be the same PCB antenna assembly.)

#12

Just throwing something out there… So if you wanted to hide your Vera away, you could do the following?

1 x U.FL to SMA cable = http://www.ecrater.co.uk/p/13249554/12-ufl-rp-sma-wireless-wifi?gps=1
1 x SMA Antenna = http://www.ecrater.co.uk/p/14111314/6-inch-sma-antenna?gps=1

About £10/$15 upgrade.

Are there other benefits to having a larger antenna, e.g. increased range for inclusion, or does it add little?

#13

I’d really like to run an antenna that goes outside of the metal box;

Should I care if Micasaverde “supports” what I do?
Is there anything that they do support to improve the antenna?

I’m just as willing as anyone else to solder the board; how do you know that the antenna pictured is for Zwave and not for the wifi?

#14

Disconnect it and see which radio stops working.

#15

Also:

  • The connector is right next to the Z-Wave module in both cases. (And on the Z-Wave daughter card in Vera 3.)
  • It’s the same type of antenna Vera Lite and Vera 3 have in common; Vera Lite has no WiFi.
  • It’s the PCB type Z-Wave antenna described in the FCC reports. (And not the dual WLAN antennae.)
#16

A bit of surfing suggests that the antenna needs to be in the range of MHz that you want it to work within/cover, so 908.42MHz (US) and 868.42 MHz (EU) version

Being in the UK, unless I’ve missed something, it sounds like I could theoretically drill a small hole in the case of my Veralite and get the U.FL connector to SMA to create an external SMA connection and then get a suitable antenna like this one and screw it on?

I will admit to being curious about what it will give you? Would it I prove the range?

BTW - nothing is new in the world, here’s an external z-wave antenna mod done back in 2005.

http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=109115

#17

Any preferred polarization?

#18

That, and the antenna-matching are the open questions…

At work, we spend ages experimenting with different antenna combinations, with the gear to match them correctly, so it’s going to be hit-n-miss for those wanting to try this.

#19

Hello,

I understand this is an old topic, however I still wanted to share the info I have so far.

Based on this thread, I purchased these 2 items:
U.FL to RP-SMA: w w w .ecrater.com/p/13249554/12-ufl-rp-sma-wireless-wifi?keywords=12%22+U.FL+RP-SMA+Wireless+WIFI+Mini+PCI+MiniPCI+Antenna+Cable+USA
and
900 MHz 5dBi Rubber Duck Antenna: w w w.l-com.com/item.aspx?id=22181

When I receive the items, I will be sure to post my findings. I too have a metal wall-mount cabinet in my basement, which was prohibiting my MCV3 from communicating to my front door lock. I will give this a shot and report back my results.

Misc. Info:
Controller: Micasa Verde Vera 3 (USA Version)
Door Lock: Kwikset SmartCode Z Wave Deadbolt
Potential Distance between controller and lock: 15’ (with Vera in a metal cabinet in basement and lock on first floor)

#20

I would like to extend my vera3 antenna … this would prevent work with 2 vera3 installed.

has vera3 a connection to plug an additional antenna ? or needs a technical interference ?

thanks !