Zigbee range, looking at ways to extend it?

[ericmark]

I would like an outside light on the shed which I can switch on from the car. I took a table light to the shed, and plugged it in to test, and seems out of range, was surprised as nearly line of sight. I would guess, from SWA used, around 20 meters, it is around halfway between where I park the car and the house, so ideally placed, but by time walked from car to shed, I, if going to house, would be in range of house's outside lights, so any ideas?

 

[morqthana]

I assume "out of range" means when standing next to the car, not still sat in it?

 

[pcaouolte]

Any zigbee device that is powered by the mains (not battery) will act as a range extender, so in this case another zigbee smart plug half way between the car and the shed. It will need to be plugged into the mains permanently to act as a repeater. It would be sensible to use an identical device to the one in the shed to avoid potential conflicts between different makes. Alternatively can you move your zigbee hub closer to the car and the shed?

 

[ericmark]

The Zigbee hub is in the window sill facing the shed, my test was to take the bedside lamp from my room and plug it into the shed supply, and it shows "Offline" bit surprised as the shed is about same distance if less to the lamp outside on other side of the house, but between the window and shed there is no electrical items, so can't see how using other Zigbee items will help.

I think tomorrow I will repeat the test. And try higher up.

 

[robinbanks]

How many other signee items do you have between each of these two far flung items you're testing; it's the point that pcaoulte is making, that if you have the hub, then 3 rooms with zigbee lamps in, then the test lamp at the far reaches of your house, and it works (because the 3 repeat the signal in a mesh).. yet the same test lamp in the shed with no other zigbee device halfway between may be out of range

 

[pcaouolte]

Also if you are moving a zigbee device to a new physical location it can take ages to rebuild the mesh, the lamp may still be trying to communicate through a repeater near its original location. You might need to switch off some other zigbee devices to encourage the mesh to rebuild.

 

[ericmark]

Also if you are moving a zigbee device to a new physical location it can take ages to rebuild the mesh, the lamp may still be trying to communicate through a repeater near its original location. You might need to switch off some other zigbee devices to encourage the mesh to rebuild.

That may well be the problem, I will re-try latter today.

 

[ericmark]

I tried again, bulb worked everywhere tested, so maybe just had not left long enough after having the power off.