I’ve been seeing a couple other posts with similar problems but i was hoping someone could help me make sure I’m out of luck haha.
So i have two V2 hubs. My main hub is in my house and hard wired to my router. i’ve been using it for a few years and its great. I just rebuilt my garage and its just outside of the range of my router, but i really want to get it onto the network for my devices and wifi. I assumed that i would be able to hard wire a new hub out there to expand my network. So i ran an ethernet cable from my router (about 100feet so im under ethernet distance) and setup my 2nd hub. It seems to workish?? Using plume i can see the hub and it says its happy, but my wifi is not any better. It seemed to help my z-wave mesh because my devices can now connect where they couldn’t before. But is there something im missing on this setup? Or do i need to rethink how to execute what I’m attempting?
I’m starting to maybe see my issue. I need to go confirm, but my main hub is Samsung ET-WV525BWEGUS SmartThings Wi-Fi Mesh Router. I bought them a long time apart. and In my garage i have the GP-U999SJVLGDA.
Hey @nathancu, adding to this, so i got my new ET-WV525 hub and i have it setup as a subhub from my main. Wifi is working brilliantly. However, now it lost my zibgee/zwave devices. Everything i read says it can do both wifi and zibgee, but i can’t figure it out. the instructions say to enter in the device name under new device, but i haven’t figured out how that actually works. Any tips on getting this setup?
Unfortunately we’re a little out of my depth I don’t have the wifi mesh kit. But we can figure it out.
The main mesh hub acts as any other ST hub. The sub hubs should act as repeaters for Zigbee and Zwave automatically. (but they don’t send the info over the wired or WiFi network so distance limitations still apply)
So my first questions are - when you added the other new hub (previous to the mesh gear) I remember you added devices to that hub. When you pulled that hub out to add the mesh hub, did you reset those devices?
@nathancu sorry for the slow delay. No i haven’t restarted anything other than the routers. But maybe my assumption is wrong. I assumed that the 2nd router would not have to act as a repeater, and would broadcast a new signal (since the main hub does just that). It may not be in range of my other connected devices which is why they aren’t connecting…
Nope - it does not. The sub hubs only act as repeaters. So they have to be within range of another repeating device and is one of the two main reasons I personally don’t use the mesh kits. I can cover my system quite well enough with repeaters.
Ok. it was interesting that when i installed GP-U999 it must have been able to reach, maybe stronger receiver or something. Well, I guess i could either move the router closer to the main unit, install a zigbee device closer to the main, or maybe i’ll just plug back in the GP-U999 and see if it can branch all that together.
When you installed the V3 hub (GP-U999) you had two separate SmartThings hubs, each creating their own Zigbee and Z-Wave mesh. When you connected Zigbee and Z-Wave devices you should have been able to choose which hub you wanted to connect them too.
Nothing would have changed with the WiFi as the V3 hub only has WiFi as an alternative to wired ethernet. It is not an access point.
When you installed a second SmartThings WiFi hub (ET-WV525) you will have extended your existing WiFi coverage to your Garage, that being the mesh function.
The Zigbee and Z-Wave capability would not have been used to create new meshes in the garage, it would have been used to try and repeat the existing meshes, and it may not have been successful if the the reception is bad in the Garage. It would still be like having a single SmartThings hub.
Any Z-Wave or Zigbee devices that you previously paired with the V3 hub would need pairing again, and in the case of Z-Wave devices they would need excluding too. That is if the mesh is strong enough to connect to.
It sounds like you probably need to use the two ET-WV525 hubs because you need the stronger WiFi signal in the Garage. However if you do so you may still need Zigbee and/or Z-Wave repeaters between the two hubs so the meshes stretch that far, and it may be one or other still doesn’t. Alternatively you use the V3 and add another WiFi access point in the Garage. I personally prefer the first option, if it works.
@orangebucket, Thanks that makes sense, mesh on mesh on mesh lol. Sounds good, i’ll start fiddling around and i think i should be able to get them going again! Thanks for info, i really appreciate it!