Access Point range

Posted on
Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:27 am
Wanderin Bill offline
Posts: 24
Joined: Feb 12, 2010

Access Point range

I have a home with an attached efficiency apartment. The apartment has it's own meter out by the street. Can I jump to a wiring system on a different meter using just the RF part of a DualBand device?

Thanks,

Bill Nash

Posted on
Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:03 am
jay (support) offline
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Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Access Point range

I don't know of anyone who's bridged two completely different electrical services. You should check with Smarthome...

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:17 am
johnpolasek offline
Posts: 911
Joined: Aug 05, 2011
Location: Aggieland, Texas

Re: Access Point range

I'd agree with Jay about asking Smarthome about the range of the Dual Band devices, but I'd have to say that seperate METER doesn't matter as much as separate TRANSFORMER. At my sister's house, the house, the barn, and my mother's house all have separate meters on the same pole, fed from a single transformer, and X10 signals range freely throughout the entire area, except for getting too weak to be completely reliable on the 300 yard run to the lampposts at the front gate... but if the apartment is on a different transformer, that may be a wnole nuther can of worms.

Posted on
Fri Nov 11, 2011 12:26 pm
Wanderin Bill offline
Posts: 24
Joined: Feb 12, 2010

Re: Access Point range

I posted on the SmartHome forum as Jay suggested and got an unqualified yes. This was from the forum moderator however, not s SmartHome rep. This did raise the question to me as to whether two separate nearby homes could become connected and allow some sort of security breach.

BN

Posted on
Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:18 am
hamw offline
Posts: 1212
Joined: Mar 31, 2008

Re: Access Point range

My pool house is 150 ft from the main house, and is on a separate electrical service. I put an access point there and it controls the lights "pretty well". By that I mean that acks are unreliable and I have set up action groups to send multiple commands to ensure that the lights do what they are supposed to do. Not a problem at all, as it is only lights and nothing important. So my experience over the last few years is a definite, but qualified "yes". It might be necessary to use two access points in your apartment to bridge the phases.

If you are closer than that, I'd assume your performance would be better. Another thread suggests running some romex in a conduit to the outbuilding (or your apartment) if possible and putting the access points right next to each other. If you are close enough that is probably the best solution as there would likely be good communication.

Overall there is nothing to be lost by trying. Just don't put any mission critical devices on your system until you've had a chance to assess the signaling reliability.

one last mention: believe it or not the Insteon signals will in fact crawl up the transformer occasionally and operate the lights without a working access point. But it is really slow....

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