Help with new setup

Community Playground Getting Started & Initial Setup
1

Hi,
My house is a 2400sq ft 4 story townhouse. My Vera needs to be on the bottom (bastement) floor. I’m wondering if I will have a problem getting the signal to the top floor and maybe the roof.

Mostly switches for lighting and plugs, three thermostats, first floor door lock and front door camera.

Also, I was hoping to somehow get my doorbell to send a text msg when it is rung since we can’t hear the doorbell from the roofdeck. Haven’t seen much info or products on how to do this.

Thanks!

2

@punkbrain

There are mny options and much is configurable.
Zwave creates a mesh but especially for locks the distance to Vera is important.
More info here:
http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Z-Wave#Setting_Up_A_Z-Wave_network

All devices can act as a repeater for other devices. But with doorlokcs you need devices with the ability to “beam” the encoded data to the lock if Vera cant reach it herself. more info here:
http://forum.mios.com/index.php?topic=948.0

As for the doorbell issue, you might find this interesting:
http://forum.mios.com/index.php?topic=3010.0

  • Henk

[quote=“punkbrain, post:1, topic:168973”]Hi,
My house is a 2400sq ft 4 story townhouse. My Vera needs to be on the bottom (bastement) floor. I’m wondering if I will have a problem getting the signal to the top floor and maybe the roof.

Mostly switches for lighting and plugs, three thermostats, first floor door lock and front door camera.

Also, I was hoping to somehow get my doorbell to send a text msg when it is rung since we can’t hear the doorbell from the roofdeck. Haven’t seen much info or products on how to do this.

Thanks![/quote]

3

Thanks! Very helpful. That doorbell hack looks a little to complicated for my level of electrical know how, but cool none the less.

4

This is not easy to predict. It really depends on your actual situation, i.e. construction materials and other ‘obstacles’. I can reach devices 2 floors up directly, but a few that are closer in distance I can not. I’d say it’s probably not a given that your situation is going to work without anything in between. See also this topic with a recent response from MCV about a similar question.

It’s best to have some extra devices around and spread them.

5

awesome. thanks for the reply. hopefully i won’t have a problem, but if i do i will know what to try. this board is great!