The 800 series Z-Wave chips give you
better range in mesh mode vs the 700 series Z-Wave chip. This is why you see the 800 series range extenders.
Some people from Z-Wave did a test and where able to get 0.7 Miles range line of sight in Long Range Mode. Z-Wave is not dead - #120 by Hedda. I personally have been able to get 300ft line of sight in mesh mode.
Thanks. I guess I had a misunderstanding that 800 and LR were the same thing. I see now that ZWLR is a completely separate conversation and I doubt I’ll need it with the 800 series chips. Zooz has 800 series outdoor receptacles that should cover the distance easily. I would rather use the mesh network since I think that’ll make adding more devices later much easier.
The beauty is, you don’t need to pick one or the other. The 800 series controller supports both mesh and LR at the same time (see my picture above). So you could use mesh for most things and also have some LR devices in your remote building if needed (ie if the mesh can’t reach across that gap.)
But if I understand correctly if I set the 800 series USB stick to LR mode I’ll need another one for mesh. It can’t do both at the same time correct?
The 800-series controller (USB stick) can absolutely do both at the same time.
Any individual device (switch, sensor, outlet, whatever) can connect to the controller via only one method at a time: either standard mesh or LR. You set which mode a device uses when you set it up. (Of course, older devices can only use mesh, only newer devices, usually with “LR” in their name, have the ‘connect via LR’ option.)
But a single controller can happily and automatically connect to some devices using mesh and other devices using LR.
Very interesting. How can I confirm in Z-Wave JS that my LR devices connect directly to the 800 Series dongle (and not through a hob) ?
Thanks
You don’t need to. They won’t do that.
There are multiple ways to tell if your device is included in Long Range mode. Inside of the Z-Wave JS UI control panel you will a see a column called protocol. It will display a blue Z-Wave icon if a device is included in mesh mode and a purple Z-Wave icon if it’s included in Long Range mode. Also long range devices get assigned node IDs from 256 and above while a device included in mesh will have an I’d from 2 to 232.
Inside of home assistant you can view the node id by going to settings > devices and services > click on the number of Z-Wave devices > click on your device then expand Z-Wave info section. If you click the menu button next to configure then click statics and expand the last working route it will tell you if you are using Z-Wave or Z-Wave Long Range.
Re bridging between buildings: I have HA server (w ZWave & Zigbee sticks) in the house, & an outbuilding about 60 feet away. Which has steel siding & steel roof (i.e., Faraday cage). I was using ZWave in the outbuilding, via a pair of Aeon Labs ZW117 ZWave range extenders in the windows, providing a bridge. Worked pretty decently.
I’ve since moved to Zigbee out there (using a Zigstar UZG-01 Zigbee-to-MQTT gateway).