Antenna type of Home Center 2

[dynek 0]

Hello All,

Some weeks ago I bought an Home Center and it's working great.

Now I'd like to move the box in my basement where all the components related to the network are located (modem, router, NAS, ...).

To avoid any transmission issue, I wanted to "dissociate" the antenna from the Home Center, using a long cable that goes from the basement up to the leaving room and put the antenna there.

Has anyone done this already ? What kind/type of cable should I be looking for ?

Thank you

[ Added: 2014-01-13, 15:19 ]

Would such a cable fit my need ?

Please login or register to see this link.

Also regarding polarity, any idea ?

Please note that this cable is Standard Polarity SMA. Most consumer-grade wireless products use a reverse-polarity connection

[Starbug 0]

Hi Dynek,

Did you manage to extend the Antenna? If so what cable worked and did you reuse the Antenna from the HC2?

I hope to do a similar thing

Many thanks

[chatting 1]

I'm running over 150 switches/sensors in my twin two storey houses with basement. Initially, I put the HC2 under the wooden table with the original antenna at the basement. But after inclusion and putting all switches in their right places, there were many dead nodes within an hour after waking up. After I moved the unit out and put on the top of the table, I found it getting better with only 8-10 dead nodes regularly. I then learned that the reliability of the network very much rely on the transmission of the signal to the first tier of the switches. Then I bought a higher gain antenna (which is longer than the original one). Now it's much more reliable than before, with just a couple of dead nodes regularly and it could be easily waken up. Those were the nodes lying far away from the HC2.

I think you can build the connection up to the top floor with a better position of the HC2 and a higher gain antenna. Of course, by using an antenna stand with extension cable allows you easily adjust the position of the antenna whilst your HC2 can still be close to your ethernet wall plug.

My house is a concrete building and transmission of signal is not that easy as per a wooden house.

[ydabbagh 0]

Hi chatting,

Where did you but the antenna from? I have the same problem, my house is concrete and the HC2's range is being limited as a result.

Appreciate the help

[Grzegorz 3]

Personally I use this combination:

Please login or register to see this link.

Please login or register to see this link.

HC2 is in the basement and my house has 2 floors + attic. I've been able to comfortably add modules to HC2 while being at the attic which means that I had a direct connection to the central unit.

[ Dodano: 2014-06-28, 16:59 ]

I've almost forgot to add that the antenna is placed on the ground floor (it has a 10m cable).

[ydabbagh 0]

Thanks!

Is your house concrete built or wood? It makes a whole lot of difference.

[remcoploeg 10]

Is this also supported by Fibaro ?

[Grzegorz 3]

It's a concrete house, so the worst possible case

Please login or register to see this image.

/emoticons/default_icon_smile.gif" alt=":-)" />

When I tried to pair new modules with standard Fibaro antenna I lost signal already one floor above. The one I use now works flawlessly and makes all my modules connect directly to HC2.

It's not officially supported by Fibaro, but was recommended to me by one of their official representatives. They used it several times and always got the result they wanted.

[remcoploeg 10]

Grzegorz,

Great news, I can't any please to order the antenne ouside of Poland (have to order at least 500 euro to send it to the Netherlands). Somebody any idea?

[jojo1967 1]

I bought this one in germany yesterday evening

Please login or register to see this link.

Maybe you can ask the seller, if he can send it to the netherlands too....

[chatting 1]

Sorry coming back to you late. I was annoyed by my HC2 recently because it's dead and I'm waiting for Fibaro Support reply for what to do next.

Regarding antenna, I have bought a higher gain one from internet which is about 3 times longer than the original. The antenna have a higher gain of about 7db. Before installation, there were dead nodes quite frequently. But after that, it ran smoothly with less than 1-2 dead nodes in my 150+ switches environment.

I ran the system in a dual houses, with about 2500 sq feet each floor (including basement total three). All are concrete walls. I put the HC2 in the ground floor (which is in the middle)

I have also thought of using extension cable and some unidirectional antenna box. But it seems to me the transmission power of HC2 is not that high and even the best high frequency cable has signal loss. The limited power will get lost in the cable and offset your higher gain antenna.

[ Added: 2014-07-01, 19:07 ]

Please see my antenna.

Please login or register to see this attachment.

[ydabbagh 0]

Chatting- can you send me the specs or the link of where you bought the antenna from. My house has concrete walls and the antenna that comes with the HC2 barely gives me any coverage.

[maydo 0]

hi @ all,

im using this antenna about one month, and it is really good, no dead nodes, compared to the original antenna

its an 100% recommendation.

Please login or register to see this link.

[j-t 0]

I use a normal dual band wifi antenna, bought this one, then an adapter locally so it would fit the hc2/hcl.

Please login or register to see this link.

[anonymous66 9]

I use a normal dual band wifi antenna, bought this one, then an adapter locally so it would fit the hc2/hcl.

Please login or register to see this link.

It's seems this antenna is not in 868.42 MHz range.

How is it working properly?

[m.roszak 763]

How is it working properly?

It won't work properly.

[j-t 0]

I use a normal dual band wifi antenna, bought this one, then an adapter locally so it would fit the hc2/hcl.

Please login or register to see this link.

It's seems this antenna is not in 868.42 MHz range.

How is it working properly?

No it is a normal dual band wifi (2.4 and 5 GHz).

Bought a 3 pack for my wifi router but since it only needed 2 I all of a sudden had a spare one so connected it while I waited for my +7 dBi 868 MHz antenna to arrive, oddly enough the wifi antenna works a whole lot better so switched back to it and been using that ever since.

I can only speculate the reasons why it works as well as it does since I do not remember enough of the theory when it come to wavelengths but the 868 MHz is the an old wifi protocol and probably the length, resistance etc of this antenna is a well enough match for it to function.

[anonymous66 9]

I'm running over 150 switches/sensors in my twin two storey houses with basement. Initially, I put the HC2 under the wooden table with the original antenna at the basement. But after inclusion and putting all switches in their right places, there were many dead nodes within an hour after waking up. After I moved the unit out and put on the top of the table, I found it getting better with only 8-10 dead nodes regularly. I then learned that the reliability of the network very much rely on the transmission of the signal to the first tier of the switches. Then I bought a higher gain antenna (which is longer than the original one). Now it's much more reliable than before, with just a couple of dead nodes regularly and it could be easily waken up. Those were the nodes lying far away from the HC2.

I think you can build the connection up to the top floor with a better position of the HC2 and a higher gain antenna. Of course, by using an antenna stand with extension cable allows you easily adjust the position of the antenna whilst your HC2 can still be close to your ethernet wall plug.

My house is a concrete building and transmission of signal is not that easy as per a wooden house.

Hi Chatting ,

can you post the link where you bought this antenna or its model?

I'm very inerested to it.

Regards

[chatting 1]

I lived in Hongkong so I bought from taobao.com which is in China. 1US$ around = 6 RMB$

Please login or register to see this link.