ZSchroff

If this would help, it seems it already would have. But the plug-in devices are not primarily repeaters -- they spend some of their volume on the outlet, the switching hardware, and on pretty stuff like the colourful light ring, rather than on antennae and signal boosting. So it still seems to me that a dedicated repeater should provide a better coverage improvement than something that has to do something else as well, and if I'm not going to put an appliance or lamp or similar there, perhaps a better use of the outlet. I have two Aeotec Range Extender 6 units (one recently moved to right next to the ISY -- less than 6 inches away, per Techman's suggestion) and 4 Aeotec Smart Switch 6 units. I also have three Aeotec Multisensor 6 units, all USB powered, but I expect they're probably not repeaters even this way.. The whole arrangement of the units would fit inside a 15m sphere, with the ISY toward the top of the sphere but not at its boundary. Moving the repeater from a location on the floor below (there's still a another repeater within 12 feet linear physical from its new location) has had no apparent effect on things. The ISY is (now) less than 6 inches clear line of sight from the first Range Extender 6, then through a floor and wall (both at an angle) to less than 12 feet physical (but about 45 feet by WiFi alliance rules about walls and floors) to another Range Extender 6, then about 12 feet physical (but another 35 feet by WiFi alliance rules about walls and floors) to the second most flaky device on the network, a USB powered Aeotec Multisensor 6, which is 3 feet clear line of sight from an Aeotec Smart Switch 6, which is 3 feet clear line of sight from the most flaky device on the network, another Aeotec Multisensor 6. The physical straight line distance between the ISY and the flakiest of the Aeotec Multisensor 6 units is about 25 feet, and assuming the first Multisensor 6 doesn't count as a hop because it isn't repeating, it's four hops. Before moving the repeater to next to the ISY, it was somewhere else, but I didn't have any units beyond it, so I chose it for experimenting. The layout is suboptimal, I'll admit, but what's beginning to bug me about placement requirements for these things is that I'm getting the impression from reading this forum that placement is insanely restrictive... 20 feet clear line of sight, a wall counts as 10 feet if the signal passes through perpendicularly, &c. That 'effective wall thickness' looks like something I have seen from the WiFi alliance, which I think also mentions floors are effectively 15 feet thick (denser material) on normal, and increases with the tangent of the signal angle off normal. So it's just not possible to transmit ZWave between floors without explicitly ducting the signals, unless I have an outlet within 2 feet of the floor above, and within 2 feet of the ceiling below? With a maximum hop count of 4, that means that I probably couldn't cover all of a 2 floor 1000 square foot condominium with ZWave. Maybe ZWave *should* have a wired option where I can use coax to run from one repeater in the middle to spoke repeaters out near the edges...? I have two of the Aeotec Range Extender 7 units on order, just to test, but I read conflicting indications on the forum here as well. To take advantage of anything at all to do with the new generation, everything must be new generation, else everything will run at the lowest generation of all the devices. Does that apply even to repeater effective range? I hope not. I may try upgrading to the 500 series based controller in my ISY, but if the repeater range is limited by generation as well, it means I won't be able to reach the ends of my house from dead centre, on just one floor, let alone cover the other floor, crawlspace, or attic, if I have to stay within 20 feet clear line of sight equivalent and have to stay within four hops of the ISY.

I have a vintage 2015 ISY994i/ZW/IR PRO running 5.0.15A, and mostly an Insteon setup. I also have a few ZWave devices (Aeotec 'multisensor' and Aeotec 'smart switch' devices). I prefer Insteon devices for their reliability (all my Insteon devices seem to work fine with the assistance of a couple repeaters for phase bridging) but in some places I want to be able to monitor power use (for example, I have a crawlspace dehumidifier, and I want to know when it switches on so I can also switch on a fan elsewhere in the crawlspace to circulate the air to allow the dehumidifier to reach more than just the air 'near' it). I also monitor the environment down there so I can be sure things are working well. There just don't seem to be Insteon devices that do this (switched outlet with energy use monitoring; sensors that monitor temperature AND humidity)... But every time I add a new ZWave device, it's a nightmare. First, the ZWave devices act like they are transmitting using modern ciphers (512b+ blocks) with a data rate closer to X-10's 30 baud -- it sometimes takes seconds even for an on/off command to take effect (and a little longer for the confirmation to come back), and adding a new device takes a minute or more. Ask the ISY to 'Repair Links' or 'Synchronize' and it takes at least a few minutes. Second, for each new device I add, at least one of the existing devices gets flaky, so I have to remove it and re-add it, often this propagates once or twice, and at least once this has propagated to all of the devices. Third, setting up a new ZWave device and then moving it even a few feet seems to destroy a large part of the network (suddenly several devices can't communicate, and removing and re-adding the new device only seems to help marginally). Finally, putting two ZWave nodes within a foot or two of each other seems to render both almost useless (neither shows up reliably), but move them a few feet apart and they seem to work better. Sometimes the ZWave devices just don't seem to be there. I have none that are using battery power (all of the environment monitors are USB powered, and the USB power converters seem to be okay), but sometimes I'll look at the admin console and one or more (even one of the 'smart plugs') will be marked to indicate that it is not responding. If I let it sit there long enough, there may be an update from it and it's no longer marked as not responding. If I query one that is marked as not responding, it might reply and thus become okay, or I may get an error trying to communicate with it. Seems this has gets more common every time I add a new device... I don't see an antenna connector for the ZWave device on the ISY, but it offers an 'external antenna' option in the settings (I have it set to use the internal antenna). As I am sure from a number of points that I have the older '300' ZWave module (system vintage, LED on the module is visible, firmware that does not support the newer module), I am wondering whether upgrading to the '500' module and the 'certified' firmware for the ISY would be worthwhile? Is there something else I can do to make this ZWave mess more reliable (or at least less flaky)? I have tried the 'ZWave/Repair Links' and 'ZWave/Synchronize' functions numerous times and most of the time they seem to run (sometimes a node is nonresponsive and I get an error) but it does not seem to help. I only have one ZWave device that is obscured by anything large and metallic from the ISY, and (curiously?) that one has been one of the less flaky nodes; every other device 'line of sight' is only blocked by wood frame or floors/ceilings or walls (none of which are metal), and all are within 20m 'line of sight' of the ISY, most ZWave devices are concentrated within 15m of the ISY.