I have three yale real living locks inside my office. one for the front door which is about 3 feet from the panel, one in my office and one in the bathroom next to the office, both of those locks are about 5 feet from each other and are about 15-25 feet away from the panel, interior walls and doors, nothing fancy.
All these locks work fine and talk to the panel and alarm.com great. I also have two GE on/off zwave light switches next to the panel about a foot from it and one in the bathroom that’s about 5 feet from the lock that’s in the bathroom. I also have a GE zwave power outlet that’s inside the warehouse area adjacent to the office annnnnnddd a GE zwave fan controller that’s also in the warehouse just outside the bathroom area about 5 feet from the GE light switch in the bathroom annnnnnnd finally i have a alarm.com thermostat on the wall next to the office lock.
Here’s my issue. I added a 4th yale lock to my equipment cage that’s literally less then 5 feet from my office and bathroom door yale locks and it will not talk to the panel or alarm.com. If I take the go! panel off the wall and walk it over to the lock it’ll work fine and I have no problems. As soon as I walk it back into the room where the panel lives I can’t control the lock.
From my understanding the GE in-wall devices are beam repeaters and should create a mesh network? Are they not able to repeat the secure signal from the locks? Am I missing some type of optimization or something?
Do I have to buy that aeon wall plug in repeater thing that sells for like 30$ and plug it in like right next to the new lock I added for it to work properly? I was under the impression the “inside” distance was like 30-50’ for the yale locks? Am I just barely out of range? And if so what repeating device will solve my issue? It’s really probably less then 35 feet from the panel to the lock with a interior wall between it. It’s the exact distance to the bathroom lock and it has a interior wall between the panel and it as well.
I see a lot of mixed reviews for the Aeon Labs Aeotec Z-Wave Range Extender/Repeater (DSD37-ZWUS). Are people just stupid or trying to boost to a unrealistic distance or something?
Network rediscovery would be the first thing I would do. It is an often missed step, but can have a large impact.
Then, check power level on the batteries in the new lock, try new batteries.
You can rule out the location by taking the lock and moving it to an open air location about the same distance away but not near the problematic spot and checking if commands can reach. If so, you may have an interference/materials problem where it is currently installed.
The more locks you have, in general, the more repeaters you will want. Adding a repeater will never hurt.
would a massive aluminum cage do that? the 2gig window/door slim sensor works just fine literally 1 inch from the lock. i figured that thing would suck compared to the locks ability?
lock is also brand new, took out the 4 batteries included with the lock and put them inside and when i paired it they said 100% charged.
Actually it is the opposite. Zwave in general does not have near the real-world range as 345mhz sensors. Battery operated Zwave stuff needs the most help, like locks. A repeater or two may help. The appliance modules act as inexpensive repeaters and give another on/off node for automation.
However, might you be able to post a photo of this location you are referring to? Keep in mind the Zwave module is on the interior portion of the lock, so if it is set up like I imagine it is with the zwave radio inside, yes, that is probably causing problems.
It is possible that the gate & fence is attenuating the signal. Do they block line of sight between the lock and the panel?
It’s also possible that the radio in the lock is defective and just not transmitting loud enough. Does the lock communicate if you remove it from the gate and hold it next to one of the other working locks?
just to follow up anything battery operated inside that cage was not operating so I pulled a circuit over and put a repeater in the corner of the cage plugged into the wall and its able to talk to the panel through the repeater now. I had the repeater on the “front” side of the lock 3 feet away and it wouldn’t work, put it “Behind” the lock inside the cage and it works fine.
I guess the transmitter is on the “inside” portion and the mesh is trapping the signal. /shrug.
Keep in mind the Zwave module is on the interior portion of the lock, so if it is set up like I imagine it is with the zwave radio inside, yes, that is probably causing problems.
The cage trapping the signal is likely the exact problem in this case. Glad to hear you got it working.
