Homecenter 3 with Z-Wave 3 Engine, has less Z-Wave range, than a Homecenter Light with Z-Wave Mesh devices

[Fabir 73]

Six months ago, I've replaced a Fibaro Homecenter Light, with a Homecenter 3 on the same location and started from scratch, no data takeover or migration from HCL.

Also all locations of the Z-Wave devices, are on the same location, as with the previous HCL.

 

All devices are Z-Wave Plus, for the Europe Region Frequency.

 

Currently there are only 9 Z-wave Devices included.

6 off them are Fibaro Z-Wave devices

All are with power supply. I've removed all Z-Wave battery Devices.

 

With HCL I've had no Issues with the Zwave Range. With Homecenter 3, I'm using the Zwave 3 Engine.

 

Now Z-Wave devices farther away from HCL3, lose connection to the HC3, all the time.

Nearer devices occasionally.

 

I've added an Aeotec 7 Z-Wave Repeater and placed it on various locations on the premises, to help the Z-Wave range. The Repeater is correctly included to the HC3, but it doesn't do any Mesh connections.

 

It seems the HC3 doesn't use Z-Wave Mesh at all.

If I run the Z-Wave Info LUA Scene, it does'nt show any Mesh Hops.

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According to the specs, the Fibaro Homecenter 3, should have a much larger Z-Wave range, than a Homecenter Light.

 

In my case, the Homecenter 3, has less Zwave range, than a Homecenter Light with

Z-Wave Mesh devices.

 

There were no improvements for the Z-Wave Range, trough all the Fibaro Firmware updates Beta and stable Releases, until now with Firmware 5.130.45

 

This is a very disappointing Performance, for such an expensive Device.

 

Any Help is very much appropriated

Fabir

[SmartHomeEddy 1,007]

First thing that comes in my mind is the question, is there a reason why you want to be on Z-wave 3 ?

[m.roszak 774]

11 hours ago, Fabir said:

It seems the HC3 doesn't use Z-Wave Mesh at all.

Generally - not true.
On ZW3.0 those are not filled in API, it is impossible to not use the network mesh  - it is defined on protocol level.

I am not sure why you have issues with the range as it is actually much better than in old HCL. 

Could you try range-test using any Fibaro battery-operated device and check actual range?

[Fabir 73]

@m.roszakOK I will try a range test. Thank you

 

@SmartHomeEddy

One reason to use the ZW3.0 with the HC3, could be the possibility to update the firmware of non Fibaro Z-Wave devices.

 

When I decided six month ago, to use ZW3.0 with the HC3, AFIK, there was no mention in the setup, that the ZW3.0 is still in Beta and therefore should not be used for a production Homecenter.

 

I've looked it up in the online User Manual for the Fibaro HC3. I didn't find any Info about ZW2.0 vs ZW3.0.