I don’t have much experience with Vera yet so seeking help from PRO’s.
I have a rather large home with two floors and having challenge reaching out to Schlage locks at front and rear doors. I have added several devices in between but still having problems reaching the locks. I will appreciate if you can confirm the following possibilities and/or suggest alternates
Question #1: Read somewhere on forum that battery operated devices have to be in the vicinity/reach of Vera gateway and no intermediate devices will be able to relay (Somehow this seems the case with me though) – True/False
Question # 2 : RF signal is transmitted via the dongle and not the Vera box – True/False?
Question 2.1 If True, is it possible to add another dongle?
Since you care working with Schlage locks, you need to ensure that the modules closest to the locks support the “beam” feature needed to wake up the locks. The locks are battery operated and the Z-Wave folks invented the “beam” feature so that battery powered stuff can stay in a lower power state more often and preserve battery life.
The Schlage plug in modules have the feature. The Vera USB Dongle does as well. I’m not sure about other vendors products.
It is my understanding that battery operated devices generally don’t operate as relays, which makes since they would have to stay on all the time to perform that duty. They should however be able to communicate with intermediate devices that are acting as relays. You can determine the graph of the mesh network by looking at the list of neighbors in the advanced settings of the device.
Keep in mind that the Schalge AND GE/jasco modules all support beam now, so make sure that you at least use beam capable modules inbetween to extend this reach. You may need to repair network after adding these to rebuild the mesh and neighbor list.
You are on the right track with the USB extension, I believe you can go almost 28 feet with a USB extension. Another trick is to “unwire” vera, set the WIFI to Client mode, then you can just plop vera in anywhere with power and wireless signal and that becomes the “center” of the Z-Wave network. I moved my Vera up to the top of the rafters in my cathedral ceiling in the middle room of the house.
Keep in mind that you CANT do this if you use Vera as your main router, I have it as a secondary router just used for Z-wave and not NAT.
SOME battery devices can be powered via a DC adapter, such as the express controls 3-in-1. If you have one of these you can connect it to power 24/7, ditch the batteries, and set it to “always ON”. This then makes it a relay in the network…although I have yet to make my 3-in-1 to work the way I want it in this mode…it always seems to be tripped when I do this…it’s a work in progress but I do have it powered from a DC walwart and it’s working great and wakes up every 6 min to report temp, light and motion
as others have posted the device closest to the lock must support “beaming” or it has to be able to connect right to the vera’s dongle. Posts all over the net seem to indicate the schlage lock range is very limited- particularly if you put it in a steel door. So you probaly need something that can support beaming very close to the doors.
THe device that can beam will then be able to pass commands to/from other devices.
ALL the schlage lighting models support beaming. So does the ACT ZDP100 (which is typically the cheapest lamp module) IF it has firmware 3.3 or newer. (so if you get an old one you might be out of luck).
I suspect that the ACT/Schlage/GE/jasco are all the same device just rebranded from ACT. I even bought a schlage kit that came with an act device.
Becasue of that- I’m not sure iif all GE/jasco units come with the correct firmware or if you might get stuck with an old one that doesn’t support beaming.
You can use the following GE/Jasco Devices and they support beam as long as you look on the package and confirm its 2.0a or 3.0a firmware. There is a tiny window on the back of the package and you can see the firmware version. They should also have a sticker on the front saying they support Schlage LiNK
[quote=“myhomeserver, post:6, topic:165448”]You can use the following GE/Jasco Devices and they support beam as long as you look on the package and confirm its 2.0a or 3.0a firmware. There is a tiny window on the back of the package and you can see the firmware version. They should also have a sticker on the front saying they support Schlage LiNK
This is what I got from GE/Jasco PR folks when I reviewed some of the Z-Wave products. I suggest you contact GE/Jasco support or see if they carry these at the local radio shack. A quick look at the sticker on the front should tell you, but I’d ask Jasco
I just checked the directions on te dimmer and seems again they related to the act’s (same parameter bits for ramp rates- but no mention of associations).
If they are the same hardware than i assume the act’s built with the newest firmware would support beaming too at some point. (who knows when though)
for now I’ve been looking to replace my intermatic dimmer by the front door with something that I can program the ramp rates. so I’ll get one of these ge dimmers so if/when i stick in a doorlock i’ll have the beaming right there.
seems that ACT is updating their firmware so their switches also will have beaming support in newly manufactured items (the wall worts already have it in the newest version- I’m not sure about outlets or other devices as I only specifically inquired about upcoming switches). ASI has been backordered on ACT, the homeseer store also seems to be low/out of stock on most ACT switches (website says call for availability). ASI believes when product starts shipping again it will be with the new firmware. I am under the impression that the end of February is when new product with the correct firmware is expected to ship.
I heard back from GE/Jasco. They said that their on/off switch will be updated to support “beam”. The expect to have the new version available mid-summer.
Best Home Automation shopping experience. Shop at Ezlo!