Do the Connect Home Units (say you bought a 3 pack) work as z-wave repeaters? I purchased a 3 pack and transfered all my devices over to the new SmartThings Hub which I’m assuming is inside the first Connect Home. I am not seeing better performance (in terms of range) in my Z-Wave network. Each connect home says Z-wave on the product sticker so it would seem that they would all have zwave radios in them not just the one that acts as the primary controller. Is there a setting I need to turn on.
If this is not the case why? It seems very logical that if you needed this system for coverage in your house you would need extended range for your Smartthings Hub z-wave and zigbee devices in addition to WiFi.
RBoy
(www.rboyapps.com - Making SmartThings Easy!)
2
How are you measuring/testing this?
As far as I know it’s a WiFi mesh system. Maybe @JDRoberts or @slagle may have some more insight into whether the other 2 units have a Z-Wave/Zigbee repeater in them.
If this is not the case why? It seems very logical that if you needed this system for coverage in your house you would need extended range for your Smartthings Hub z-wave and zigbee devices in addition to WiFi.
Since zwave is a mesh network, any of your mains-powered devices will act as repeaters. That’s the whole idea. So the light switches, in the wall relays, plug-in sensors, outlets, plug-in pocket sockets, any of those.
See the following for tips on how to lay out your devices for best Z wave performance. First read post 11, then go back up to the top of that thread and read the rest of it.
So I don’t know exactly how the Samsung connect home operates in this regard, but you should be able to set up a strong zwave mesh without needing them.
I setup the base Connect Home in the same location as my original Smartthings. Center of the house for all intensive purposes. I then placed each of the new Connect Homes on either side of center. The problem Z-Wave devcice is a door lock that connects and reconnects all the time (i’m assuming its dropping signal). I can swap the door locks around physicall and the problem stays at the door. I have attached map of my setup. It both the original setup (an orignal smartthing at location 1) and the new setup as shown. Any zwave device in the location of #4 shows poor performance. I assumed that the Connect Home acted as network attached Z-wave repeaters and would help but doesn’t seem to. The real question is are the z-wave radios even turned on in the other 2 Connect Homes? Doesn’t seem like they are. And it doesn’t seem like the connect app or the smartthings app have a menu to turn them on ever even add them as Hub in another location. I would be fine with that too.
Adding more Connect Home units in a mesh does not build out the ZigBee/Z-Wave mesh at this time. I had heard that feature was in development, but am not sure on the timing.
I was hoping to find out this same information. Samsung is really dropping the ball by not allowing this feature. It is difficult for me to extend my zwave network to my detached garage even through use of hardwired devices with built in repeaters, with the distance between the garage and my house. Hopefully this will be implemented soon.
It would be awesome if SmartThing’s built dedicated extenders.
But I have an early V2 hub at my primary house and a recently purchased V2 hub at my condo and I found my system at the condo is a lot more reliable. The condo is 8x smaller than my house but interference from neighbors is significantly greater.
