larryllix

I would be sure that the planar position of the Tag would be important for RF radiation patterns. Perhaps a few turns of wire around the Tag with the loose end acting as an antenna extension? Steel or aluminum construction may make a difference also. They would both "Faraday cage" the electro part, but steel would also "Faraday cage" the magnetic potion of the electromagnetic radiation. Neighbours will think Christmas packages are coming and you want to make sure the parcel will fit. My latest Tag purchase of Tags with Lux detect motion by changes in lighting.....weird but it works. Maybe a plastic back panel on the mailbox with a Lux unit facing forward? As long as your mail comes in the daylight.

Finally found a frequency range for these Tags on the FCC website. 431.04-439.36 MHz which puts the wavelength at about 27" +/- 0.5" Sound like a metal mailbox length for standing wave problems? I have a plastic mailbox but I am guessing this may be a clue. EDIT: Most of the rural style mailboxes I have found on homedepot.ca are 20-22 inches in length. Shouldn't be a factor.

Metal cans can be a problem for RF in so many ways. The shape could be a bad ratio of length to width even, causing standing waves to go nuts. Even just the length could tune or detune the wavelength. Try padding one end with steel wool. LOL

Thanks SG! Have you read my post above? Can you try the calibration I showed the screen shot for above? It is found on the Tag webpage for your tags. I would be really interested to see if this improves your reception. I know you had a lot of problems when you first tried one in your mailbox and don't know how you resolved it, even to 80%. I have never had to calibrate my frequency offsets for my tags, but apparently it can become critical if a narrow bandwidth is selected as the frequency may wander around a bit, based on temperature. IIRC the narrower the frequency the further range you will get but the freq. can become flakey and need seasonal calibration. Long time! Here is a screenshot for setting the bandwidth first for a longer range.

Sorry. SmokeGrub was the other I was thinking. We have our answer above.

I had trouble with getting a position from the earth's magnetic poles when screwed to a flat metal garage door. 45 degree twist in position fixed it, and it never fails now. I have it sticking above the top of the garage door so there is no metal against the back of the Tag. At the opposite end of my house, in the garage, I have a freezer and the Tag works fine inside the freezer. OTOH, @asbril (I think) @smokegrubhad a lot of problems getting his to work inside his mailbox at the end of his lane. IIRC eventually he got it working. I am not sure what the solution was.

Have you done the frequency calibration of your tag? Many people report these working fine inside freezers and fridges. I didn't think it should work either and I don't see how the signal gets through a thin and compressed magnetic gasket slot, but it does somehow.

Yes. I think these boxes try to translate each word separately and then make the best sense out of the words they can. When you use phrases like Turn on XXX YYY as well as just Turn On XXX, the interpreter is never sure whether it just didn't hear the YYY, or not (mixed in with ambient noises) so they do their best, amounting to guessing. This is compared against previous commands remembered, which adds to the confusion because some have, and some don't have, the YYY word.

You have the same Bedroom Fan words in all commands. Try using Bedroom Fan high/medium/Low/off so they are all the same word count and consistent adverb usage.

My routers would act up at 44c measured by a CAO Tag placed on top of the plastic router case, both my Netgear and Asus units.. Opening the door to the cabinet and waving the router around somewhat or blowing into the case would make the problems disappear, every time. Both my AC1900 routers are mounted vertically now, and the antenna output powers turned back. WiFi range increased dramatically after lowering the power output. Before lowering the transmit levels, my wife's iPad (very poor WiFi) would work no further than 15 feet from the router on 5Ghz. After the adjustment down, it was good almost anywhere in the house on 5GHz.

Obviously this limit needs a user notification. How many threads gave we seen with the same problem and we just guess? Sent using Tapatalk

Alexa can respond with a whispering voice to a whispered request now, why not accents and other languages, like they do now? I am starting to see how these units can match the cognitive skills of a human soon. Sent using Tapatalk

@asbril might be interested in that one!

Watch your plurals also. Alexa is very sensitive to 'lights' vs 'light' lately.

I agree. Both systems have good and bad but to compare two cars, one that has already arrived, with one that is just starting, is a silly argument to point out that one hasn't moved, and imply there is something wrong with it.

If you focused your anger issues on Zwave you would be able to find many more problems. 5 years ago Zwave devices were not even compatible between brands and had to be polled. A very lousy HA system. I don't have any Zwave. I am waiting until they mature as a protocol, and make nice looking wall switches that fit into existing boxes, and work more than 30 feet away. Zwave hasn't progressed in 10 years.

Zwave is only coming up to Insteon standards where devices work with each other. Yes they have progressed more in the last 3-5 years because they had so far to go. We will just have to wait to see what each comes up with. I don't see that many new toys I need yet and the ones I want are not either protocols because Insteon filled all my basic HA needs. I am not big on remote control, other than vocal. That isn't HA.

I would likely, at this point, restore your original DHCP for your ISP. I don't think that resolved it. However I would look for a new power supply for your ISY, in your spare parts box, and try that. Is your ISY in a restricted air space, making it overheat? I have had two routers go berserk on me in the summer heat, even in an A/C house.

Me thinks these protocols will require USB dongles.

I have a few of almost all the models over time. The last ones I bought had lux, which I wanted, but it seems they have eliminated the XYZ positioning. It seems like it detects movement by changes in light, wakes up and does some other measurements. I have never used the XYZ positioning on my other tags despite having them in my ISY variables, and they seem based on the earth's magnetic poles so ???? OTOH, I am using one for my garage door but in the Door Opening mode where it does some kind of self calibration thing when closed. The cool thing about them is the multi-sensor aspect. You can stick one on your mailbox lid and read outside temperature and humidity off the same install. These things must already be 13 bits as you will receive 0.001 C temperature resolution. Maybe I didn't buy the cheaper ones in the beginning? All but the cheapest units have memory and if disconnected will update the parameters back months before the reconnection.

I have heard of setup difficulties but not range problems. Some may need to be tuned for longer range or battery saving adjustments. They have a self-adjusting frequency routine but the user has to trigger it. Motion detection and other parameters have to be set to self trigger reporting, or else the tags will only send updates on the preset periods, like 1,2,5,10,15,30,60,120, 240 minutes. They have flashing lights and beepers that can run the batteries down if turned on. I tried the NS but found it just added further delays to reporting and add more complexity into the data path security.. I also tried the vocal options in the app but it freaks people out when my phone babbles in my pocket. Here is the temperature, Dewpoint and Lux readings inside my fridge for the last week. Use the swipe select to zoom in and out andyou should see every time we opened the fridge door. I use an immediate notification on our mobile phones (no ISY required) and ISY for longer term slower monitoring. https://www.mytaglist.com/eth/tempStats.html?d3f5c09f-3c55-437a-8ff2-b011cd3fc291&Fridge&C&1

CAO Wireless Tags. About $30 each plus a single Tag manager $25?. Everybody loves them. You will need a new CR2032 battery every 9-15 motnhs depending on how frequently you have them update. Ther are many threads about them here in the past. I have published kumoApps to stuff their parameters into ISY, there is a fine PolyGlot NS, and they support many other methods of getting their parameters to almost every place you could want it. Alexa now has a skil you can query the temperature form them vocally. Humidity, Lux, and XYZ positions are not supported by Alexa skill yet. I have one screwed to my garage door that tells if the door is open or closed. I have one in my glove box that tells if the car is home or not I have one in my fridge that tells if the door is opened too long. Saved our bacon a few times now. I have two outside that tell me air temperature and the sunny wall temperature in order to create intelligent thermostat predictive setback and recovery. These also have lux. I have one in my wine cellar that controls an exhaust fan based on inside to outside dewpoint comparison. Temperatures come at you down to 0.001 C resolution, very stable and accurate. Some stats wander around seasonally plus or minus 1-3 degrees C. Based on averages using 6 Tags and a few other digital thermometers, these don't wander much. Dimensions are about 1.25" square by 1/4" thick. I have received signals from the one in my car over 1.5km away.

Possibly I bought some old stock. I have a few ApplianceLincs. I don't find any need to improve on basic Insteon devices as they have been as stable and reliable as any other appliance in my house. Insteon is really lacking growth on analogue devices but what would they do with them if we all just had Insteon Hubs? I don't have any desire to use remote controlled door locks. I do not carry any keys, ever. I already have one hand combination locking deadbolts on doors, I can pass through without hardly missing a footstep rhythm, and they are typically automatically locked when closed. Of course, I live in an area where people leave their front doors unlocked, while they are out, and nobody I know around here has a security system, except my ISY created system. Insteon brought out a light bulb but I fear it was likely a sales flop. I do use many RGBWW smart bulbs but they are not Insteon. I want alternative remote control of them should Insteon disappear in my home. I guess an Insteon RGBWW bulb may be a welcome sight. IMHO webcams have nothing to do with HA so I don't care for Insteon effort in that field. Upgradeable firmware in Insteon devices may have helped in some spots but basic devices don't need it. End devices that need upgrading are ones that were released before enough QC and QC is not found very often anymore. OTOH, IED things could be coming back, distributing the CPU loads away from central controllers. Insteon devices already have some of that being able to tight link a lamp with a MS. Programmable and logic based timeout or lighting levels could be implemented.

Dual-band technology, Insteon siren, improved PLM, OnOff module, door and window modules. Every module has had firmware updates, not always better. Existing modules don't really need any improvements but newer device releases have been disappointing from Insteon. Original Zwave has been a complete flop and new non-compatible standard had to be created. ZigBee is even worse. They all have their growing problems. The youngest child always grows the most over the last few years. Thank Gawd there is ISY to help us through the tough times and make a complete system out of the shrapnel.

Sure, stagnated, but Zwave has a while to go before catching up. At least with Insteon, all devices are compatible with each other. Zwave may get to that point, eventually. At the rate your Insteon devices are failing, you could be all Zwave by now, but you might have to rebuy them all again to get the current standards, and make them compatible with each other. I wonder how green the grass can get from an acute angle?