Z-Wave Long Range Now Working in Z-Wave JS UI v9.10.0

Thank you. I was able to connect my Zooz 800 series water sensor to my Zooz 800 series Z-stick following the steps you outlined.

Does anyone know if using Long Range will lead to a longer battery life vs routing a door sensor to a repeater a couple of feet away from it?

According to the documentation long range is supposed to have better battery life because the devices can adjust the power output at each transmission. My 500 series door sensors are at 95% battery after 16 months of usage. In my opinion thatā€™s really good.

How has this been working for you?

Anyone else have experience with LR? Iā€™ve got a chicken coop 160ā€™ away and through a wall or two and wondering if it might be in range. I havenā€™t been able to find much for real world reports of range.

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Iā€™ve been testing with a ZEN37 and a ZEN53. The ZEN37 lets me tests the range of battery powered devices to the controller and the ZEN53 lets me tests the range of my controller to an end device. I think I am getting between 300 to 1300ft. Controller placement does matter when sending and receiving. I have both the 700 and 800 series controller to test with.

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I canā€™t get over 75 feet. Really disappointed.

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Dang, thatā€™s way low. What is the environment like? ie. controller and node placement as well as obstructions between them?

@cornellrwilliams Thatā€™s more what Iā€™d hope to see. Whatā€™s your environment like?

any way to pin this as a solution? or put USA (Long Range) right below USA in the dropdown?

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My controller is close to a window, itā€™s in the attic so itā€™s high up, and the building materials are not brick so it doesnā€™t lose much signal. My first obstacle is at 300ft. There are obstacles in the way. Where the controller is going to give you better range. If you can see your house from the coop it should work.

There is a guy named Dr Z-Wave. And he posted this picture getting similar distances. https://drzwave.blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-1.png

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Thanks. Iā€™ll see what I can come up with. Might have to look into a longer extension cable and a capped PVC pipe so I can put it up high and outside.

Iā€™m attempting to add one of my zen76 switches via LR and in smart start info not see a button if any kind in the protocol column. Iā€™m using the Zooz ZST39 and a 800series Zen76 switch. Iā€™ve generated the keys for z wave LR and switches the region to say USA long range. I excluded the switch. Then scanned the switch qr code within smartstart and it just added it back in normal z wave mode. What am I missing that I do not see the long range button in the screens above?

You need to go to the Smart Start Page and scan the QR code from there.

brave_screenshot (1)

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Turns out my memory is bad and just forgot which switches were 800 series. once I identified the correct switch it worked as described above. thanks, shame this doesnā€™t work on 700 series chipset since that was also touted as being LR capable.

If devices included as Long Range do not act as a repeater for your non-LR mesh then I donā€™t see any added value to switch to LR as long as your network still has 500 range devices. It would avoid a few hops (delay) for the LR devices but it decreases mesh reliability. Certainly if you have a 500 range keyfob with which you move throughout your house, it will have difficulty finding a repeater.

The only interesting scenario imho is for devices that are too far away to reach your mesh, are battery operated (less battery usage + does not act as a repeater anyway) or if ALL your devices use LR.

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