I am sure that both platforms would benefit from this… but would it be possible to add a signal strength indicator on each tile that shows the relative signal strength for each item to the hub? That way once an item is placed it would be helpful to know if it were borderline or not as far as distance from the hub, or any active repeater. I just had an issue and for some reason the distance between was the last thing that I thought was wrong. My mistake, but its all worked out now.
The device type has the code in it already to do this. I think they just need to “turn it on.”
I went to the IDE and removed the comments from the code and was able to get RSSI fro zigbee devices.
Not sure if this will work for zwave devices though.
What we really need is a mesh diagram on the IDE that shows us all this info.
@tslagle13 love that idea. It would be nice to see the devices and the average network signal. Then, we can add additional information in the IDE for the devices along the lines of location and feet away from the hub. (I know with some work that the signal strength could be used to speculate distance (heck with the mesh you might be able to triangulate the signal)
Yes, I know just dreaming,
Some way to display mesh topology has been something requested for a while and SmartThings has played around with potential solutions.
I would prefer something that would allow the user to place devices on a graphical layout of the home and it show the RSSI strength between devices. Something like this:
This would help you better manage your devices as well as how they fit into the mesh. But something like this would be a good start:
Yes, exactly. However, I think there are other items to improve first. I would like to see this idea on the to-do list for SmartThings
When people start with a few devices, it isn’t such a big deal. However, after a few dozen devices it becomes unwieldy. If SmartThings is serious about Internet of Things they will have to provide such a tool.
And I’m sure there are already support calls from customers who don’t realize they have range issues. Or worse, many attribute slow unreliable system to buggy unreliable hub where it is really a mesh issue.
I agree it would be cool to have this but I’m not sure that many people suffer from range issues. I read the forums a lot and can’t remember reports of range issues. I have dozens of things spread out over large space all the way outside to my septic tank and I have never seen signs of poor connectivity with the Z-Wave or Zigbee devices. I have other things going on that would present risk for signal interference but have never seen it happen. If anything, I think you would see this problem with fewer devices. I never did then either.
Well, come to think of it I did have an issue with two things at first when my ST hub was touching my wireless router. Issue fixed by moving the hub 16 inches away from the router.
Well the mesh diagram would also show if you have interference from walls, furniture, Wi-Fi (smile) and etc. I think a topological diagram would be great, but I want them to add more functionality at first.
Related, see today’s ST’s blog post http://blog.smartthings.com/iot101/a-guide-to-wireless-range-repeaters/
I have been trying to figure out how to get RSSI and found this post. What code specifically did you modify??
Any progress on this for z-wave? I’ve been hacking on the z-wave device template to no avail.