Long-Range Z-Wave

So some of my outer-most Z-wave devices occasionally have communications problems so thought I'd seek out a few possible solutions.

Right now, my Acetec Z-wave stick is in the back of my iMac, and one sheet of paneling away from my refrigerator. I know USB hubs are a no-no, but what about a plain USB extension? I could easily raise the Z-stick up higher if doing so might help with reception.

I also have a Zooz S2-700 that I could use, but only if a) it's supported, and b) transferring all that data from one stick to another is relatively easy.

Zooz also makes a Long Range 800 stick which I wouldn't mind buying but again if it would actually work with Indigo, and again if moving all that info was fairly easy.

Do you have plug-in Z-wave devices between the Mac and the further devices? Z-wave is a mesh protocol, so it'll relay.

I'm using this with Zooz 800 stick

https://forums.indigodomo.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=27868

[jay (support)]

The Z-Wave sticks are less finicky as the Insteon interfaces about USB extenders/cables and hubs. For hubs, I've had very reliable results using USB2 hubs on a variety of Macs.

So yes.. lots of Z-Wave devices scattered around the house. I guess my worse case is a door sensor I've been using to signal me for new mail. The mail box is way out at the front of the house down a driveway. It works fine for several years, but broke a few months ago. The version I had originally isn't made any more and the one I bought to replace it, listed as a Zooz Long Range device just isn't working correctly.

So seems like the easiest thing would be the extender.... my experience with WiFi is the higher up the accesss point is, the better the coverage seems to be, so guessing Z-wave might work the same, at least to some degree.

Thanks for the suggestions.

One of my Indigo installs uses a USB extension cable. The other uses a USB hub. Both have performed flawlessly for years.


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This is is little consequence, but I ended up putting in a combo motion/light/temp/humidity sensor in the mail box and it works fine with a Motion Trigger. This is also probably pretty irrelevant, but both of the devices that I've managed to get to work for this app use "AA" batteries. The device that I could not get to work reliability, used a dime battery. I wouldn't necessarily blame the type of battery used in the device that didn't work, but regardless, I now get a text when the mail has been delivered......