Door sensor for shed 70 feet from house?

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

Hi.

Anyone have any suggestions how I can make a door sensor on my shed talk to my smartthings hub?

I think I’m just too far. The shed door is approx 70 feet from the hub.

2

Yes, 70ft is stretching it. ZWave and zigbee specs say they are only are good for 90-100 ft with clear line of sight. In my experience that’s WAY stretching it. More realistic to assume 50ft line of sight and half that indoors or through any wall. (which if your hub is indoors…)

You’ll need powered repeaters likely more than one to be reliable.

Other options are hooking up to another hub out there and tying the actions back or some non zigbee/ZWave device

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

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I have a z-wave plus sensor that reaches that far to the nearest repeater on my mail box and it works flawlessly. The Ecolink Door/Window sensor

5

Zigbee on 2.4 GHz has a theoretical range way beyond 70 feet outside (and Z-Wave Plus even more so) but it really depends what is between the sensor and the hub (or a repeater/router) in terms of walls and things, and whether you get much interference. Weather conditions can also reduce the range.

I have Zigbee routers a foot or two inside the outside brick wall of my house and my Zigbee Presence Sensors are picked up over 100 feet away outside so I don’t consider that 70 feet has to be a big deal. However I do consider that it might be.

I think you really have to suck it and see.

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XBee 3 Pro has an indoor range of 300 ft and 2 miles outdoor/line-of-sight range. I do have one of these but my house is not 300 ft long, so I am not sure what the actual range is. I am guessing it should be able to cover the shed if you place it somewhere by the nearest wall indoor.

@iharyadi also has a ZigBee device/repeater that has an extended range ,that also has temperature, light, humidity and pressure sensor. I own one of those too and has been working great. That one should be able to cover 70 feet. I would let Iman provide you the details.

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Thanks to Dave for mentioning my sensor. At this time, I do not have available. But, I am ordering a few board and plan to assemble them during this holiday season.

As the to Zigbee Radio, It has external amplifier that strengthen the transmit and receive sensitivity. The range is estimated to be 1km (approximately 2 miles) in open field. In reality, indoor use will be limited to walls and etc. It is hard to come up with the real number because it depend on the material of the wall and the thickness. But, it is multiple order more powerful than a non amplified Zigbee radio.

For a shed use, I used to have a radio that have external antenna. The external antenna could be wired to the outside of the shed. This way you could cover quite large of an area. There is not many people want this type of radio as the PCB antenna is much more convenient. If enough people want external antenna version, I could consider to bring the external antenna version back.