Visonic MCT-340 E distance from ST hub

[JDRoberts]

@162884

I just purchased several of these sensors. Problem is that several of them are a bit far away from the ST hub. Status updates are sporadic at best on these sensors.

I need to find a way to get a better, stronger ZigBee signal to these areas. Would appreciate some suggestions since the hub needs to remain where it is.

Thanks!

If it’s zigbee, you just need to add a device which can act as a zigbee repeater depending on the distance. These are not signal boosters. They are regular devices with the same range as the sensors. But using the zigbee protocol that smartthings uses, zigbee forms a mesh and the mains-powered devices can act like a relay and pass along messages for other zigbee devices on the same network.

There are a lot of FAQs in the community that can explain more about the details if you’re interested, but really all you need to read to start is post 11 in the following thread: (The topic title in 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…

Ikea makes a plug-in pocket socket which works well as a zigbee repeater with smartthings. It’s just a simple on/off device, no energy monitoring or anything, but it works fine as a smart control and as a repeater. And it costs $9.99 if you buy it directly from IKEA, so it’s hard to beat the price. (It will cost much more if you buy it from other sources like Amazon.)

The IKEA Tradfri plug-in pocket socket and their smart bulb both work well with SmartThings. The handheld remote/button/switch only has partial integration at this time, so I would skip those.

The product descriptions will say that you need their gateway, but you will be able to use the smartthings hub instead.

https://m2.ikea.com/us/en/p/tradfri-wireless-control-outlet-30356169/

Once you add the new repeating devices, then unplug the hub (including removing batteries if it has them) and leave it off power for about 20 minutes while leaving all of your other devices on power.

This will cause all of the other devices, including your MCT sensors, to go into “panic mode” because they can’t find the hub.

Then after you put the hub back on power, all the devices will rebuild their neighbor tables, and they will find any new repeaters you have added. So this just lets the other devices on the network help get the message out to the sensors that are farthest away. (Battery powered devices do not generally repeat because it would use up too much battery life, which is why you have to add a mains powered device.) it can take a day or so before this process completes, fully, so be patient. But strengthening the mesh in this way should definitely help.

But again, read the FAQ above and it explains the most important parts.