Using Smart Things at Commerical Building

Hi,

Just looking for some advise. I would like to use Smart Things at commerical building. The only issue I have is I don’t have internet coverage throughout the building. I would like to deploy sensors at the vacant stores that way I would know the tempature of the locations to avoid water damage etc.

What type of sensors would be able to be deployed in the building. I would estimate the distance between stores to be around 500 feet.

Thanks in advance!

500 feet will be a challenge without using z-wave repeaters or the smart plugs as repeaters. You might be better off going with a low cost 3g providers like Freedompop and have a WiFi sensor like the quirky spotter at each location. Freedompop gives you an amount of data for free which shouldn’t be less than what the polling data would be. Good luck.

We have an ST multi sensor on the mailbox about 400 feet away. But our hub is setup higher in the attick to Mack this possible. Battery life takes a bit as well.

Hi makes sense. Problem is I am in Canada where 3G/4G is much more expensive then in the USA.

What kind of repeaters could I put in that would get me to the distance required? Is there a limit on these devices?

Thanks again!

If you go the ZigBee route you should get better range. I have ZigBee routers spanning my network more than 1000 feet at its biggest hop. Your range is going to vary based on building to building penetration. My ZigBee routers are outdoors up on a pole and have clear line of site to each other.

Check out Wireless Sensor Tags. They have a range of about 750 ft line of sight. I actually have one of these in my freezer (steel box) and I still get 3-4 out of five bars. Great little system and reasonably priced. Even more so with this 15% off coupon code TAG-ffbt3dtf.

These things look cool what radio do they use? Z-Wave, ZigBee, WiFi?? How are you connected to them?

They are very cool. They use 430Mhz. Currently they are sending notifications to my phone/tablets, and sending commands to my HA server. They can call custom URLs based on a number of predefined rules so they can call SmartThings endpoints as well. They also have a javascript app environment similar to SmartThings, but less sophisticated.

Oh, and they keep statistical data you can share publicly if you like. Check out my freezer!

I looked up their radio number on the FCC’s web site and saw that their radio was at 430Mhz and I thought that was a mistake. That isn’t ZigBee or Z-Wave. What do they physically connect to? Do you have some type of 430Mhz dongle in your laptop?? Cool link on your freezer!!

It is not a mistake if you want long range and reduced cost. They connect to a $58 tag manager that connects to ethernet, and can support up to 255 tags. There are apps for iOS, Android, and a browser.

It is a standalone system; no PC required.

Quick note that all the SmartSense and SmartPower products that SmartThings sells are ZigBee and they are amplified. The range should be really good. Of course it depends if you have a lot of brick, rock, or metal between sensors too.

The SmartPower Outlet will extend your network. Placing them every hundred feet should be sufficient.

Thank you all for the replies. If I use the Smart Power outlets I am limited to four including the final end point?

Thanks again!

@scottinpollock Those tags are VERY cool. We need to add that to the list of devices to support.

Humm so what standard do they adhere to communication’s wise? Seems like a proprietary solution unless I’m missing something? Do we need yet another radio, another frequency band, and another hub to plug in and use power??

You’re not… it is.