Where to put stuff?

1

I am working on a smart home project for a customer (not my home) using Raspberry Pi 3 and Zigbee/Z-wave network. I wonder where is the best place to put everything once I’m done. I mean do I need an enclosure? Do I need to isolate Z* sticks? Where to put the router? And where to install things? Any idea would help!

2

I would definitely use an enclosure. They’re not very expensive.

I haven’t used Zigbee, but for Z-Wave it’s best to try and centrally locate it amongst the Z-Wave devices, to keep hop counts down. But if you have enough Z-Wave devices to form a good mesh, then you might get away with putting it anywhere. I started with it centrally located, but now have it in one end of my basement, and it still seems to work fine, since there are a few Z-Wave devices almost directly above it on the first floor. (That is, American “first floor”! :wink:)

If you’re going to connect via WiFi, then I guess that’s just a “normal” WiFi question. I personally have a WiFi mess network using Linksys Velops, so that isn’t an issue for me.

3

Thanks for the answer. What kind of enclosure do you suggest? Do you have a link on amazon or somewhere so I can buy it?

4

I bought a kit from https://www.canakit.com/, which came with the RPi, enclosure, power supply, etc. But I think there are quite a few choices. Just do some Google searching and you’ll be overwhelmed with the choices! :slight_smile: FWIW, the CanaKit enclosure is fine, but the top is only held on by friction. I had it mounted up-side-down under a cabinet, and it was fine. But if you want something more robust, then I’d look for a different option.

5

Thanks! CanaKit works for me!