ST Door Sensor for shed 60 ish feet away

[JDRoberts]

@Nick_Lavoie

This is the part I’m having trouble with

Zigbee for home automation is designed to be a very low power protocol. That’s good, because first of all, it uses less energy, and secondly it allows for quite long battery life in battery powered devices like sensors.

The bad part is a Zigbee home automation message can only go about 40 feet.

But the other good part is that Zigbee devices can pass along messages for other Zigbee devices on the same ZigbEe network. This is why it is called a “mesh protocol.”

Think of it like the Wells Fargo pony express. A message is given to a rider who goes as far as they can. Then when their horse is tired they stop at the next waystation and give the message to a new rider with a fresh horse Who takes it the next part of the journey. And so on, until it reaches its destination.

A smartthings hub is a plastic box with multiple radios inside of it. It participates in three different networks: one for Zigbee., one for Z wave, and one for Wi-Fi/Ethernet. These have nothing to do with each other, they are completely independent networks. Your cloud account keeps track of all of them for you as one account, but physically they are distinct.

Zigbee repeatS only for zigbee. Z wave repeats only for Z wave. So the fact that you also have Wi-Fi doesn’t help with getting a Zigbee message to its Destiination. Zigbee messages get passed from one Zigbee device to another along your Zigbee network. Wi-Fi devices don’t have hops like that, they just get broadcast out from the hub to the various Wi-Fi devices.

So to get a zigbee message from the hub to a Zigbee device in the outbuilding, You need to have a path of Zigbee devices, each no more than 40 feet from the previous.

OK, that’s the basics. There are two threads that you should read.

The first is the community FAQ on wireless range and repeaters. Start with post 11 in that thread, read that, then go up to the top and read the whole thread. (The topic title is a clickable link)

A Guide to Wireless Range & Repeaters

One more thought. While I understand the marketing reasons for the decision, the fact that SmartThings gives customers zero guidance on how to set up a network backbone does lead to a lot of frustration that shouldn’t have to exist. if people knew that .1) The hub should be located centrally in the home, both vertically and horizontally. Don’t put it in a garage or basement as those have concrete and pipes and metal objects which will reduce signal. If your Internet router is off in some inaccessible corner, you can use a Wi-Fi access point that has a ethernet port on the side and plug into that. Also, the hub should not be put in a cabinet. You just want to make it as easy as possible for signal to spread around your house. .2) you need one device that can repeat about every 40 feet…

After you read that, there is a how to article in the community – created wiki on how to automate an outbuilding which will discuss the various different methods for solving this general problem. That should give you some more ideas.

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