(Ideally all these would be done before the upgrade so you can havea benchmark, and then done again afterwards…)
Carry out a system ‘Heal’ and see if the strength of communication (stars) against each node has increased
Check the reaction time of your furthest Node to see if it has improved
Use a battery powered device and move it away from Vera in stages and then check communication by ‘Polling’ it (Poll button) to see if your range has improved.
I ordered my stuff back on Feb 21 from uxcell via Amazon and it showed up today (March 3). 10 days is a lot better than what they quoted, so hopefully yours will show up soon.
Installation was easy. Working on some testing now to see the improvement.
I just ran the connector out of the bottom of the VeraLite for now, didn’t want to modify the case just yet. Once I’ve done some more testing I will drill a hole in the side of the Vera.
So far so good, I can already tell a difference on a few of my switches (faster response time). The real reason I upgraded antenna was to help an outdoor relay for my pool pump I plan on setting up this spring.
Just remember that more connectors and longer the antennae wire will reduce the effectiveness (there is signal loss for each of these … for both transmit and receive) of the new external antenna.
Ya I know, but it also helps to be able to relocate the Antenna in my case. I might buy a rubber ducky Antenna and compare the difference. Either way it’s better than the stock Antenna on the VeraLite.
I had the same problem, it has some small clips. Use a small flat head screw driver and carefully pry, you can see the tabs on the photo I’ve attached of the green lid.
Thanks. Installed the rubber duck antenna on the Veralite and so far so good.Really an experiment for installation at my rental home on a Vera3 where the distance between devices is larger and door locks and pool controllers seem overly sensitive. Here I moved a plug in device across the house and still got 5 stars. In that location it was zero stars to begin with.
Thanks for posting the links Quinten, i ordered the same bits for my Veralite… see how i get on. Doesnt look to bad looking at all the pictures on here
Finally looking to do this on my Vera 3 to improve the door look devices response. I’m in the US and before I purchase an Antenna want to make sure I’m getting the proper one. I found this on Amazon:
I’ve never been able to find the output power on the Vera radio, but this 7dbi antenna may push the EIRP beyond legal spec. Has anyone every found the actual specs on Vera’s Z-Wave dongle?
I am sure that I don’t know enough to debate this, but just to add to the discussion and maybe get a better answer from someone who knows more. These types of antennas are typically designed around one frequency, usually a middle frequency in the band. My guess is that this 900/1800 Mhz antenna is probably designed around a middle frequency in the 900 Mhz band. In the US, I think z-wave uses 908.42 Mhz. A lot of factors go into determining gain, my point is that a gain of 7dbi is probably way more and not even close to what is actually realized when using this antenna with z-wave. If we had all the specs on this antenna we could probably get a better estimate of what the real gain is with z-wave. My gut feeling is that it probably does outperform the stock antenna, by how much is the real question.
I am sure someone can/will comment with more information.
All very valid points. However, since we don’t know any of the specifics of the radio’s output nor the accuracy of the new antenna’s rating we can only make assumptions and estimates.
Though I am unable to determine Vera’s EIRP, I do know that the builtin antenna is a 2.2dbi(excluding cable loss) PCB antenna.
Speaking very roughly and in theoretical numbers, a 3dB increase in gain is roughly doubles your EIRP. So, going from the 2.2dBi internal antenna to something close to the claimed 7dBi(questionable) would at least double the power regardless of how close the antenna was tuned to the middle of the spectrum.
Now for the big assumption. If we assume that MCV, wanting to provide the best range and signal quality, built Vera to be at or close to the max legal EIRP, then doubling the power with a new higher gain antenna would exceed the legal EIRP.
Am I actually worried about any of this? No. Just making conversation on a board where many people don’t seem to grasp that the radio waves only travel in a straight line and not through many obstacles, like say, ~3dB meat bags.
I am ordering a Vera 3 and I would like to place the unit in my basement, but run the wifi antennas up a wall to get a more optimal signal. It’s been mentioned that the increase in wire line decreases the antenna effectiveness. Is there any rule of thumb for how much difference a certain length makes (i.e. -db/ft).
Cable loss depends on the quality of the cable and if the impedance of the cable is matched for the radio.
The most loss will be through connectors for short connections … To extend you would need additional connectors for Vera to cable, and cable to Antenna. You might loose all of the gain through the connectors.
Connectors are normally a few 10ths of a dB (maybe 0.5dB for the cheap connectors that most of us use!), so 1dB for the 2 connector on the extension cable. However, the cable will normally be just as much, as the cable will loose around 1dB per meter for RG174 (which is what’s normally on these antennas). So, if you run a few meters from your basement, the loss will quickly add up… 3mt (10ft) would therefore be around 4dB for the cable and connectors.
