Mesh Issue

[Manuel_Marinelli]

Hello everyone , I have created a Z-Wave network for testing purposes with a Razberry as main controller and Z-Wave.me as management software that contains five sensors: 2 Motion Fibaro and 3 Fibaro Door / Window.
I have issues with the meshing function of our z-wave network.
Unfortunately, each sensor in the network, has a neighbor list containing only the main controller.
This causes that the network behaves statically and does not exploit the typical meshing capability of Z-Wave network.
Basically, as long as the sensors are all present in the communication range of the main controller everything works fine, but when I put a sensor outside that range, the sensor cannot communicate anymore.
I tried to do several network reorganizations, several updates of the neighbor list, but the result is that every neighbor list contains always and only the main controller.
Did I miss something? Is there a parameter that I must set?
Is there anything else I can do?
Thank you

Manuel

[Hazard]

If I understand correctly none of your five Devices is mains powered and therefore will go to sleep and only wake up in well-defined intervals (lets say every 15 minutes). They will not receive any commands while they söeep and will not forwatd messages from or to other devices. You can use a wall plug - which is mains powered - as a range extender.

[klaif]

Hi,
I have a similar issue - I have a battery operated Danfoss Thermostatic valve which is in the range of the main controller, but a little bit further I have a FIbaro wall plug (mains operated) which is on the border of the controller range and frequently does not receive commands. I thought that putting the Danfoss thermostatic valve in the middle will solve the issue because of the mesh capabilities of z-wave, but it didn't.
As far as I understand those mesh capabilities are associated only with mains powered devices, is that correct?
My next question is since the battery operated devices wake up at certain intervals, will they pass the command when they wake up, or the command is lost?
BTW I tried sending an on command to the wall plug when the thermostat is awake, but the ON command was not passed.
Is there a way to configure the network so that the battery operated device (Danfoss) passes the command when it is awake?

Thanks in advance.

[pz1]

As @Hazard said, messages to battery powered devices are queued at the Z-Wave controller, and only sent once the battery device has send a "I am awake signal" to the controller. (Consequently it generally also does not make sense to send commands to battery devices more often than the wake up interval.)
Afaik, battery powered devices do not route messages to neighbouring devices (Maybe some FLIRS devices do).

Radio signals do follow strange and hard to predict patterns. I had to place two range extenders in my house. The Fibaro Wall plug does have a nice built-in network range tester that proved to be very helpful for me to discover weak signal spots. (As a matter of fact I wasn't aware of that function when I bought the device)

[klaif]

Thanks for the reply and the tip
Indeed this feature is described in the manual, now that I read it more carefully. Quite useful I'd agree.

Then I have another question - my controller is ~4 meters away from the wall plug. Is it normal that the transmitter range is that bad. When I was reading about z-wave it was stated that average/normal indoor range is ~10 meters. I am way below that and there is only one wall in the way.

[pz1]

It is not normal that the range is bad, but unfortunately also not completely impossible. I had a badly communicating fibaro universal sensor about 4 meter from the controller with only 9 mm plasterboard in between. At the same time I the Fibaro wall plug communicates well from inside a kitchen counter covered with a stainless steel board. The signal has to pass trough two wooden doors and a 3cm wooden floor, with 9 mm plasterboard underneath. Plasterboard is notoriously bad for radio signals, as is reinforced concrete.
Unfortunately the latest releases temporarily lack the timing information (Menu Expert UI/Network) which is a good indicator for network quality. Badly located battery powered devices tend to wear out faster, because of more frequent retransmissions of data packets.
So you have to play around a bit