I recently purchased a Vera and have been trying to get it linked up to two Z-Wave nodes (a dimmer module and a thermostat). I am unable to get the Vera to configure the devices unless they’re literally like 1-2 feet away from the Vera. Anything farther (5 feet) and the device doesn’t work. I’ve tried excluding and re-adding the devices, adding only one of them (in case one module was bad), etc…but so far nothing works. I’ve sent 3 technical support requests over the past 5 days to Vera and no-one has responded. Anyone have any ideas on a solution? Is the company that makes Vera actually still existing? Should I just assume a hardware issue and return the Vera to where I purchased it (Amazon)?
Are you talking about adding the devices to the dongle or adding them to Vera after plugging the z-wave dongle back in? If it’s adding them to the dongle that is the expected behavior. If you talking about configuring them in Vera, I have not experienced any problems like that.
If you add some info about your setup to your user profile, it sometimes helps us know what to suggest.
So if you set up your devices in close proximity to Vera does everything work? you can control a lamp and your tstat? but then when you move Vera farther she can no longer control the devices?
Wayne-Dalton Thermostat and Dimmer Module. Latest Vera firmware (979) and the dongle was flashed to the latest rev.
Yes, when the devices are very close to the vera (1 foot), they configure fine. When moved out a bit farther (3-4 feet), nothing works at all. It is very weird and makes me think the dongle has a hardware issue.
I have no problems adding/excluding devices with the dongle itself in close proximity.
So, if it’s an issue with the dongle’s range, then you could test it by keeping your lamp module close to Vera and moving your tstat 5-8 feet away and see if everything still operates. You might want to perform a repair network after you move the tstat, just so your three devices know who they should be talking to. This way, I think you should be making use of the lamp module as a relay for the other devices (tstat) and making use of tis range, not that of the dongle. If that doesn’t work, I’d start looking at RF interference as a possible source of trouble. It that’s it, move Vera to a different part of the house and try all of the above.
Yes, that was my initial strategy, but it turns out the dongles effective range for me is less than one foot. The closest outlet is 2-3 feet away. There is no 900MHz interference in the area that I know of (all other devices should be operating at 2.4 or 5 GHz). Ah well, I’m assuming a hardware issue and am returning the Vera to amazon for a refund.
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