I am new to setting up smart devices in my home. I do have a computer background but I am trying to over come a few issues. I am looking to solve a problem that I am having with some smart devices before I sink more money to automate my home.
I have a smartthings hub Generation 2.
I have one light switch that is in my shop which is detached from the house. I would say total distance from hub to switch is 30 feet max. However the signal is going through a framed, insulated, brick exterior wall and having to connect with the switch that is in a concrete block building with brick on the exterior. Switch is in a metal industrial box.
I am trying to determine if I am losing that much signal between the two devices that it continually shows not connected.
What are my options?
Do I need to add a second hub in my shop to control these devices? I am trying to determine the best course before I spend a hundred bucks on one switch to control my compressor. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Brick and concrete wall is a potential issue. Can you add a repeater device (mains powered outlet) in between the two? An even a simple mains powered outlet (see this post for examples) would help.
If there’s no response at all, then it could be one of 3 things:
- The pairing didn’t happen properly (excluding and repairing should solve that)
- The switch has lost the connection, simply cycling the mains to the switch should fix that
- The Mesh is too weak, you need a repeater.
RBoy I have an interesting situation. I have installed a second light switch which I would hope would work as a repeater. This switch works find and talks directly to the hub. When I went into my smartthings account on my PC I looked at the switch I am having issues with and I noticed the following rout of communication.
I only have the 2 switches and the hub in the house. Is it possible this is trying to speak to my alexa or echo dot?
This is interesting. When you open your IDE, click on My Devices, how many devices do you see? Do you see any devices with the network ID 03, 9F or 11?
There is a how to article in the community – created wiki on how to automate an outbuilding which may also be of interest.
https://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=How_to_Automate_an_Outbuilding
That said, obviously you need to figure out what’s going on with the routing first. And no, your echo devices will not be included in that route: it’s only for zwave protocol devices.
Nope only my 2 switches and my smart TV.
Didn’t I just read an article that allows 2 ST hubs on the same account?
You could always have two hubs on the same account as long as they were on two different locations. However, a lot of the third-party integrations, including echo and Google assistant couldn’t work with two hubs on one account. You had to pick one or the other. That was also true of Ifttt. It looks like that may have improved with the new echo skill, however, but only for Echo. It’s still a problem for Google home and Ifttt. 
With the new V3 app you can now technically have two hubs on one location, but it is not recommended and results can be unpredictable.
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002084806-How-to-add-a-SmartThings-Hub-
Note: It is not recommended to add a SmartThings Hub to a Location with an existing Hub.
(Note that all of this is different from the Samsung Wi-Fi mesh system, which has one primary hub and then up to three “sub hubs“ which look like the same device but are not acting in quite the same way. However, a sub hub doesn’t give you any longer Zigbee or Z wave range than any other device of that protocol in the same physical point. So it’s just adding a plug-in pocket socket at that spot wouldn’t help, then having a sub hub at that spot doesn’t help.)