I use Antenna like this. As long as it has the ipx connector, you should be able to use them. I am hoping that you can try to find different type of antenna to test as so that I can get more data. They just need 2.4Ghz 50 Ohms antenna. Many antenna with this spec may compatible with 5Ghz, it may also work. 2.4GHz/5GHz antenna is more common as they are used for wifi as well. I personally looked for 2.4GHz antenna for my test.
Please PM me if you are interested. Please see the my other reply. Let me know the quantity that you may need. Would you be looking an idea to bridge locations. The long range module only help on the transmitting part. Your end device need to have enough power to get to the repeater as well.
Just an update, I only have the following quantity of module.
4 Extended Range module with external antenna. They potentially are gone based on the first two request.
3 module with external antenna still available.
I will have more made with additional sensors for a few more weeks. Again, they will be in small quantity. I can not get huge quantity and give them for free.
I do apologize that I can only share them for those member with USA address only. Shipping to another country could be prohibitively expensive.
I have plenty of iPhone chargers laying around. 1 ? what will I have to do to mount the antenna and how does it attach to the card and will I have to solder it to the board. I guess that is 3 ?'s.
I’m interested (from anyone in the know) whether these would work in the UK. I’m having range issues to the back of my garage and i’m looking for anything workable.
If so, i’d happily cover postage
They will work in the UK, but they will probably be illegal if you don’t get an individual license as they will exceed the transmission power standard there for unlicensed devices. They might be seized at customs for that reason.
It’s not a prebuilt solution, but there are community members who have been doing something very similar to this for several years. You can see that discussion in the following FAQ:
Very interesting. Right now, I have an Iris Zigbee/Z-Wave repeater/outlet installed in an outside outlet box that uses one connection but the size takes up the entire outlet. Wish that this had both Z-Wave and Zigbee repeating in it because I think we all have been asking for a dual repeater but no manufacturer has ever come up with one. I could attach another outside box with something like this and swap out the outlet with a duplex outlet with USB in it and run the USB line into that other box.
If there was a way to make this and another one in Z-Wave, I would buy it.
@Derrek113116,@cchilds1976,@trirocketman, I am sending the modules today. Here is the github link for the device type handler. You have to add the dth in your smartthings account. Once you do that, the rest of the process will be the same as like adding other zigbee devices. I believe that have posted a link to antenna that I use. Please try out other antenna as well. I will be interested on how they perform.
@kamran, are you still interested on testing the module? If not, I will pass it on to someone else.
@cslee, I have one non extended module left. You do have the option to play around with the antenna. There are some high gain antenna that you can use. PM me if you are interested.
Iman,
What zigbee sniffer are you using and how do you use it? On the topic of zigbee repeater, I have two keen vent hub which I assume can be used as repeaters if the ethernet is not connected. Does any one use them? I dont know if there are really working at all.
The USB port is not for sniffing. It is used for powering the Zigbee module.
I use CC Debugger + cc 2530 to sniff the packets. This is rather cumbersome setup. If you want Zigbee sniffer, you should find something else that get your data into wireshark. Once you get your data to wireshark and find the network key, understanding what is going on will be easy.
I do not have keen device. I do not know how to comment about it.
One of the reason I made the dth, I want to have some visibility of what is going on in my reperater. The neighbor info tell me that my repeater is capable to see 13 different devices.
Out of that 13 neighbors, the repeater sees 3 of them as children. The child is a number of end point devices( typically battery powered) that connect to my repeater. These kind of device is extremely optimized so that it only know its parent and communicate any packet through its parent. This should tell me that my router is routing from at least 3 devices to eventually the coordinator (in this case the Smartthings hub).
Zigbee is a complex protocol. I am hoping that the information that I show can give some peek of what is the module is doing without going into sniffing the zigbee packets.
Thanks @iharyadi for sending these. Just hooked up both of them:
I will likely find a better way to mount these…but this is my current setup.
Garage
In my garage I currently have a SmartThings Outlet along with a ZigBee Lock, Z-Wave Light’s (3 of them) on the opposite exterior wall from the repeater, and a Iris Keypad. I have have a bunch of Z-Wave & Z-Wave Plus devices a few feet away from the repeater. Interference - WiFi access point in the garage & on the opposite wall I have my Solar City and Power Meter gateway that both operate on ZigBee…so plenty of interference. And I have a dashcams in my cars (parked in the garage) that broadcast Wi-Fi.
Dining Room
This is installed behind the curtains (high up) adjacent to my Aeon Z-Wave repeater. Hoping to use this to improve the ZigBee performance of my ZigBee door contacts and water sensors.
Endpoint devices is very sticky. If those devices already connected with other router and assuming the connection is good, they will not try the new router. You can leave it alone for a few days. If none of your devices are not making connection to the new extender, you do not have issue with range in the first place.
You can force connection to the extender by shutting down all other zigbee routers and smartthing hub for 15 to 20 min and leave the extender on. This is a trick that I learn here as well. However, if this is the case, why force a good connection of a device to different router?
