Right now, I haven’t fully installed all my zwave devices but I’ve already notice some problem. It seems that I’m having trouble with a door sensor on the other side of a room about 15 or so feet that’s slightly blocked by a kitchen cabinet. Once I add my switches in the kitchen, it should extend the range of this network so there shouldn’t be a problem.
So basically, my problem is more with upstairs. I tried a wall plug switch and it worked for a little bit, but pretty much dropped completely off the network. So i’m thinking when I finish up with the rest of my house, the same problem might exist. I’ll have wired switches at all corners downstairs, but the problem is, the will be a huge gap between first and second floor. There won’t be any plugs to add a range extender along the stairs, while it’s straight, i’m afraid that I may run into communication issues.
Do you guys think it’ll be ok when I have a big enough mesh that upstairs and downstairs can communicate without a problem? Or is there any way to resolve this?
I haven’t used any z-wave door sensors, since I use the alarm panel. But on one of my houses I have a light switch in a detached garage. That’s very far away and it works no problem. My door lock on that same building had trouble at first but has been working first try after a heal was done.
I would be very surprised if you had problems with range in a 2 story house unless you only had 2 or 3 zwave devices. A ceiling or floor is no problem to run z-wave threw, it doesn’t have to travel a path up the stair way.
50-60ft plus threw a floor and wall is no problem. And altho I haven’t measured the detached garage it’s probley 75ft ish of open air between house and garage and light switch is 5-10ft inside on a interior wall. Nearest z-wave in the house is on inside of exterior wall.
Here is info on the how to heal incase u didn’t know, Also you can view a repair report after that will show you how well it communicated and tested out to find which ones seem to be weaker.
Another thing not to forget is a device might be defective or low battery which could affect rang on just that one device.
Also battery devices are not part of the mesh network (sort of) to conserve battery they don’t repeat the signal like hardwired devices. So adding more battery devices wont help.
Hardwired devices don’t have to be a physical wall switch or electrical outlet.
There is tons of devices some visible and some hidden in the walls (aeon microswitch). A/c thermostat or hardwired motion detector or anything of the like will help extend to hard to reach places without using a light switch or electrical outlet (but honesty which room in your house doesn’t have a light switch or outlet).
I’ll have to try it again. When I was having problems, I pretty much just have a couple door sensors and a wall plug. Since then, I’ve added 3 more dimmer, the additional dimmer solved one of the door sensor issues so I figured adding more nodes to the network should help. I guess it’ll work fine when I finish my project then.
I guess my biggest issue is my wife telling me to stop… ;D
As for motion sensors though, I really haven’t found a good motion sensor that I like. And hard wiring seems like a PITA… at least with wall switches and outlet, the wiriing’s already there, just “plug and play”…
[quote=“NomisR, post:4, topic:180664”]I’ll have to try it again. When I was having problems, I pretty much just have a couple door sensors and a wall plug. Since then, I’ve added 3 more dimmer, the additional dimmer solved one of the door sensor issues so I figured adding more nodes to the network should help. I guess it’ll work fine when I finish my project then.
I guess my biggest issue is my wife telling me to stop… ;D
As for motion sensors though, I really haven’t found a good motion sensor that I like. And hard wiring seems like a PITA… at least with wall switches and outlet, the wiriing’s already there, just “plug and play”…[/quote]
Run a heal and try again. A couple of wireless door sensors do nothing for extending your network.
Motion sensors are a trick. I have alarm wired ones that are pet sensitive, but for me they don’t trip fast enough or sometimes like in hallway at all. I can walk threw 10% of the time without tripping it. And z-wave ones seem to have other issues or false alarms. So that’s a fine line to walk. I need to trade mine out for non pet sensitive ones and see how it goes. Altho I have 60lb dogs so…
If you can get past the wife, your network will be fine.
[quote=“integlikewhoa, post:5, topic:180664”][quote=“NomisR, post:4, topic:180664”]I’ll have to try it again. When I was having problems, I pretty much just have a couple door sensors and a wall plug. Since then, I’ve added 3 more dimmer, the additional dimmer solved one of the door sensor issues so I figured adding more nodes to the network should help. I guess it’ll work fine when I finish my project then.
I guess my biggest issue is my wife telling me to stop… ;D
As for motion sensors though, I really haven’t found a good motion sensor that I like. And hard wiring seems like a PITA… at least with wall switches and outlet, the wiriing’s already there, just “plug and play”…[/quote]
Run a heal and try again. A couple of wireless door sensors do nothing for extending your network.
Motion sensors are a trick. I have alarm wired ones that are pet sensitive, but for me they don’t trip fast enough or sometimes like in hallway at all. I can walk threw 10% of the time without tripping it. And z-wave ones seem to have other issues or false alarms. So that’s a fine line to walk. I need to trade mine out for non pet sensitive ones and see how it goes. Altho I have 60lb dogs so…
If you can get past the wife, your network will be fine.[/quote]
Yeah, I understand the door sensors won’t work, that’s why i’ve been adding dimmers. Just saying that adding a couple of dimmers seems to improve the situation with the door sensors not responding so hopefully it’ll help with upstairs too. I’m just starting out with getting everything setup so I can have time timed scenes and control stuff with my phone so now. Once I start adding some sensors, it’ll be another headache to figure out.
Still trying to figure out the best way to get around the wife hurdle.
I’m still waiting on some stuff to do mine, but I’m hoping it will solve some issues I have with some of my battery devices (some of which don’t seem like they want to work unless they can talk directly to the Vera).
And this could be the case where maybe one brand sensor might be better then the next. OP shouldn’t buy to many of the same sensors without testing the limitations of a few first. Might find the one your using isn’t so good for your application or will require to many modifications to make it work vs. another brand.
And this could be the case where maybe one brand sensor might be better then the next. OP shouldn’t buy to many of the same sensors without testing the limitations of a few first. Might find the one your using isn’t so good for your application or will require to many modifications to make it work vs. another brand.[/quote]
I’m thinking that as well. I’m currently running Aeontec door sensors, probably going to try Philio and maybe the ones monoprice carries, haven’t really decided on the motion sensors yet. Suggestions on those because they all seem flaky when on battery.
I have the same issue with these Aeotec Door Sensors. They are quite clearly only communicating back to the Vera and ignoring other powered devices on the network. Interesting that the Neighbours configuration always comes back empty - maybe this is related?
Sorry answering my last question, but it looks like more of a problem with the device that I was trying to route through (Schlage Z-Wave Plug-In Appliance) and as soon as I swapped over to the Aeotec plug the relaying seemed to work as expected.
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