Connecting second location 100' away

I’d just try it.

Plug-in devices act as wireless repeaters - use those to extend range.

Second hub is a separate system that you would mostly have operate seperately.

Maybe a zwave outlet on the outside of your house closest to your garage and one on the outside of your garage closest to the house. If there’s no trees or anything blocking the signal, it might just work.

This should work for you.
Aeotec Range Extender 6, Z-Wave Plus repeater https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M6CKJXC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_aeNvzbFGBMQ1B

There is a how to article in the community – created wiki on automating an outbuilding. It should be of interest. :sunglasses:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Automate_an_Outbuilding

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The range extender might work, but it won’t do anything any other Z wave plus repeater wouldn’t do, and these days there are better ways to spend your money. :sunglasses:

Zwave Range extenders were important in the third generation of Z wave when a lot of devices didn’t use max power.

Now we’re in the fifth generation, and pretty much every device uses max power. The range extender can’t do anything that any other zwave plus repeater doesn’t already do. So you might as well just buy a device that has another use as well, like a pocket socket or light switch. You’ll get exactly the same result as far as extending coverage, and you’ll have a device that has another use, often at less cost than the single purpose “range extender.” A dual purpose device is just a better use of your money. So your other suggestion of an outdoor pocket socket would be a better choice than the single purpose range extender. :tada:

See the article on repeaters in the community – created wiki:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Repeaters

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Some day i learn to shut up while I’m ahead. Lol

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No problem, the range extenders were helpful in the third generation of Z wave, but nowadays a dual purpose device just makes more sense. :sunglasses:

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I don’t think I am going to be able to get any device to hit from the house
all the way to the barn. I’ll give it a go, but from my experience, it
doesn’t feel likely :slight_smile:

Again, try the wiki article, it lists four or five different ways of approaching this specific problem. :sunglasses:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Automate_an_Outbuilding

I appreciate the input. I am going to look at some outdoor sensors to try to bridge the distance.

The main thing I was hoping for was since there is ethernet and power run to the outbuilding already, that there would be some sort of ethernet-to-zwave bridge or similar that I could carry the signal across ethernet into the outbuilding and use that and have it be more reliable/solid than trying to get two outdoor z-wave units to communicate.

Most sensors are battery powered and battery powered devices don’t repeat, so it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to help.

There is a “Z wave over IP” capability in the official zwave spec, but very few manufacturers have implemented it and I don’t know of anything off the shelf you can get right now.

So again the methods detailed in the wiki article are probably your best bet. Have you considered just putting a second hub in the other building, since you have Ethernet there, and treating it as a second “location” from a SmartThings perspective? That might be the easiest. That’s option 2 in the wiki article.

That was my thought as well, the second hub route. I will have to do some more looking into/reading on how two hubs behave with second “location”. Things like if I can coordinate scenes across both locations or only wihtin a location, etc.

Thanks!

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Smartthings removed this feature now. You can only control devices within their perspective location. You could go into IDE and change the location of the device but they removed that option around 1.5 years ago. I then went the virtual devices route and they removed that maybe 9 months ago? The only devices that still controllable with multiple locations are Lan devices. So as of now. I can control my Phillips hue bulbs and nothing else. Maybe you can try IFTTT.

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So superLAN connect doesn’t mess this up? The same Hue bridge gets added to both locations for V2 hubs?

You are able to control both locations because of superLAN. I was not able to do it before that. SuperLAN added all the bulbs and bridge to both locations.

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So samsung has a new hub out now (or will be released soon anyway). I’m surprised no one has mentioned this before. (I just found out about it) it’s the answer to all your problems.

Not really. :disappointed_relieved:

It’s designed to eliminate Wi-Fi dead spots in the home, but only one of the units will be a smart things hub, and it has exactly the same range as the current SmartThings hub, so in terms of the discussion in this thread, it doesn’t change anything at all.

There are several discussions in the forum already about the new router, so if you’re interested just look for one of those. But we’ve already been told by SmartThings staff that if you have a current hub, The new one will not add any new functionality in terms of home automation. In fact at present, the new one has somewhat less functionality than the existing SmartThings hub, as not all of the same devices will work with it, although they are trying to get them all supported.

Ah, gotchya. I figured all the extended hubs had zigbee and zwave capabilty also. Guess i shoukd read more about it. I was just got excited wen i found out about it. Lol

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How did you get super lan connect?

Everybody with the V2 hub has it now automatically. I don’t know about V1 hubs.