I have a smartthings hub in my house. I would like to add some devices in my detached garage. Unfortunately my garage is about 130’ feet away. I have a small barn that is about halfway between the garage and house, and put a Aeon SmartSwitch Z-Wave Plus plug in the barn, but it is won’t connect, even though I have another Z-Wave Plus switch in the house closest to the barn.
I have Ethernet run out to the garage. Can I connect another hub in the garage as a slave to the Smartthings hub in the house in order to control some devices in the garage with the hub in the house?
I want the switches (and routines/apps) in the house to be able to control the lights in the garage.
I saw this which makes me think it can be done, but not sure if I understand it correctly or if it actually works. I’m hoping the hubs can communicate via Ethernet instead of having to communicate via Z-Wave.
I think I read no in the sense you want. You want to extend the range. Get a range extended. Or what I did was add plug in sirens and smart switches. They act as a repeater. I have two floors 3000 square feet and have a sensor covering my shed 50 feet from the house. All work. I would say my mesh network is very robust as I have about 90 devices and 3/4 are zwave.
I put in Z-Wave Plus repeater in the barn which is about 80 feet from the nearest Z-Wave Plus switch in the house. They can’t communicate. Too Far. I tested with a 100’ extension cord to see how far it would reach and it was only about 45’, and even then not 100% reliable (sometimes it would work others it would not). Not happy with the 150 meters they say they can reach.
I tried using the Iris Plug as a repeater. Put one on outside plug of my house closest to barn. Then put one in garage 150’ away. There is a Z-Wave outlet in the barn that is in between. The Z-Wave outlet rarely works, but the ZigBee Iris Outlet in barn works everytime. Kinda surprised ZigBee goes a lot further and more reliably than Z-Wave Plus.
I found ZigBee has better range also. It must be more powerful or something. I dunno because the freq is higher and normally the higher the freq the less range.
Zigbee Home Automation has considerably shorter range through clear air than Z wave plus. But it does do better through rain or high humidity than zwave as Zwave is more prone to dispersal. There are some zigbee pro devices which have much longer range, but most people wouldn’t be using those with a SmartThings installation.
Beyond that, there have been a number of reports that the Z wave repeater in the iris smart plug just doesn’t work reliably. So don’t think we can draw any conclusions from that particular device.
In this particular case, I would suspect the device rather than the protocol.
I only can go off my experience. I had a zwave outlet in my barn won’t work with the nearest zwave about 30ft. I put a ZigBee plug out there and hasn’t missed a beat. Nearest ZigBee device 50 feet. And that device is behind two walls so not even sure it’s repeating to it.
I tried with Aeotec SmartPlug 6 Z-Wave Plus and the Iris Plug Z-Wave Plus Repeater in same positions. Neither work. Either both devices are crap (good possibility) or Z-Wave Plus protocol doesn’t measure up to advertised specs. Basically the Z-Wave Plus devices won’t go 80’ (house to barn) yet the ZigBee goes 150’ reliably (house to garage).
If anyone knows of a known good Z-Wave Plus device that I can use in an outdoor covered outlet as a repeater, let me know and I’ll give it a try.
“All home automation is local.” If something is working for you, or not working for you, it doesn’t really matter what the standard specs are. Quite often there are individual local features which change range dramatically. As I mentioned, Zigbee disperses less through rain or humidity so a lot of devices intended for outdoor placement use it rather than Z wave. If you getting the range you need, that’s great.
As far as a Z wave repeater to try outdoors, there are some, but most of them are expensive. If you can wait a month or so GE should have their new Z wave plus outdoor pocket socket out. ( they’re upgrading their whole line) that would probably be the easiest to try.
What I think I may try is a Wink Hub in the garage and use virtual switches/devices in ST to correspond with devices in the garage, then use IFTTT so that SmartThings can control the devices connected to the Wink Hub and IFTTT will also notify ST when a garage device is turned on locally.
If something is working for you, or not working for you, it doesn’t really matter what the standard specs are. Quite often there are individual local features which change range dramatically. As I mentioned, Zigbee disperses less through rain or humidity so a lot of devices intended for outdoor placement use it rather than Z wave. If you getting the range you need, that’s great.