I recently switched from wink to smartthings and no matter where I put the hub in my house there is always one or 2 devices that lose connection because they are too far from the hub. Any recommendation on how to fix this problem?
Repeaters. Line powered Zigbee or ZWave repeating devices, depending on what protocol your other devices are.
Can you be more specific about the brand and model of The devices that are out of range?
For example, if they are Z wave devices, it may just be that you need to run a zwave repair to create the most efficient network routing.
I have sengled lights that I believe are zigbee. And a dime motion sensor that is zwave. And iHome plugs that are wifi. And as I love the hub around there is always at least one thing that seems to be out of range.
Dime? Or Dome?
The Dome sensor is ZWave but battery powered so it won’t repeat.
Sengled bulbs are Zigbee but they were intentionally made to not repeat (also why I picked them for my system)
The WiFi plugs wont care their range will depend on your WiFi access point/router.
Most hard wired Zigbee and ZWave devices repeat and extend your network (notable exception - those Sengled bulbs) so depending on which devices are going offline:
the Dome: get a repeating ZWave device between your hub and the sensor
The bulbs: get a wired Zigbee repeating device between the hub and the bulbs thet are offline.
Meant dome. So it sounds like for my lights issue if I switch to zwave bulbs that should help out.
For the plug I agree that since it’s wifi it shouldn’t matter but one day it is working fine in smartthings and the next it says it’s not connected. But even when it says not connected in smartthings it still works and shows up in Alexa. So not sure how to remedy that.
Out of curiosity why did you want lights that wouldn’t repeat?
Because I prefer to control the structure of my Zigbee mesh and Smart bulbs are traditionally HORRIBLE repeaters. Besides that, they get unexpectedly turned off all the time. IMHO - more trouble than they’re worth.
So instead for the Zigbee side of my configuration, I have Securify Peanut plugs strategically deployed through the house to form the backbone Zigbee mesh, then when I do need to deploy a battery powered Zigbee device or Bulb, I really dont care the impact of the mesh because I already have a strong working network and neither Sengled bulbs nor battery devices change its structure.
My ZWave network is incredibly strong because inhave well over 35 line powered devices in the house.
The offline thing with Wi-Fi may be related to SmartThings device health and may not have anything to do with your network at all.
I use zigbee light bulbs because I like their features, including color temperature changing and the ability to create lighting zones without rewiring.
I solve both of the problems you mention in a pretty straightforward way, although I may be spending more money than I would with a smart switch and dumb bulbs, it just depends on the exact set up.
First, all of my bulbs are connected to a hue bridge, not directly to the smartthings hub. These bulbs are excellent repeaters for each other in that set up.
Second, I use smart switch covers So the bulbs always stay on power and we never run into the other issues you mentioned. And there’s an intuitive switch on the wall right where you expect it to be for guests. I have several different brands of these. Right now the least expensive are a Z wave option from Go control, at about $10 each. Those work fine for just on/off.
Mostly we use the Lutron aurora dimmer switches which are much more expensive, around $40 each, but work great, are very intuitive, look fine, and also work with HomeKit. we have five of these around the house and they have been well worth the cost to us.
And if you do want to use, say, the IKEA bulbs, which are excellent zigbee repeaters when connected directly to the smartthings hub, You can also combine both methods by getting one of the Z wave switches that has an option for controlling smart bulbs. The switches act as zwave repeaters and the bulbs act as zigbee repeaters.
So the problems you mention are real, but these days have an easy solution as long as you’re willing to spend the money. Choice is good.