Moving Mac mini Location

Hi all. Looking for some advice based on experiences.

After a Stick failure, I ordered a new Mac M1 MM with 16 GB ram to get me through the next decade...

I am nearly complete adding all devices, but I want to ultimately house the MM in my server cabinet with good ventilation. This will be a location move of basically one level down, and ~ 25 feet diagonal from where I have staged the new machine.

Many devices are older than ZWave Plus, and my concern is the location move may break routing with no success optimizing.

I ordered an expensive active powered 50 foot USB cable to connect the Zooz 800 stick away from the server, but that would not work. Does anyone have experience using a USB extension of some length to insert the Zwave Stick / Dongle , and if so, what was the max length / Brand/ you had success with ? Any product links would be great!

I am thinking 2 scenerios:
1, is while the MM server will be in my metal server rack, I would want to permanently mount the Z-Stick outside the rack, so the length could be as short as 3 feet.
2, I am wondering if a gradual , room by room move of the Z-Stick on a USB extension would allow me to OPTIMIZE the network at each new location , until I am in the final server rack.

If I need to buy an inexpensive MacBook to do this, that is an option of last resort...Some Zwave devices are very very stubborn, as we all know, and like the older devices very close to include!

Appreciate the feedback / advice , other than, "Why did I not rebuild from the new location to start with? " ,

Thanks

I've heard reports of too many problems with using USB extension cables and USB hubs and -- while some have had success -- that's not something I'd do personally. If it were me I'd add a new Z-Wave device that's well within range of the server (even if it didn't control anything) to relay the signal reliably.

Our server is in an upstairs corner of the house. We have a modest number of Z-Wave devices and they're fairly well distributed to all corners (and on all levels) and we have had rock-solid coverage.

Another vote for just keeping the stick on the MM. As Dave says above it's easy enough to add a z-wave device nearby. Perhaps 10' away? At any rate, once you move everything be sure to run a z-wave optimization since the signal paths will have changed.

Thanks all, for the confirmation of what I know to be the best plan.

I may go the laptop route, copy the Indigo DB to the laptop, move the laptop slowly over the course of several days with an optimization each night,

Then I can move back the MM when the system is happy with the laptop near the server rack.

Follow-up question: Anyone have their Indito machine running in a metal glass enclosure with USB stick INSIDE ?

I included a photo of my rack , and hoped to install INSIDE, but I suppose the MM wont look terrible sitting next to the Lower UPS

I will try looking for some highly rated short USB cables to test, and share results with this community.

Never tried it, but I'd suspect that the signal would be seriously degraded in the direction of the metal sides. That said, the placement of your rack looks like the signal would be degraded by the walls of the closet (?). I'd think the signal would escape the glass fairly well. Take all of this with a grain of salt.

I have two installations. On one I use a USB extension cable to connect the Z stick. On the other I have the Z stick plugged into a USB hub. Both have been operating fine for years.


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Thanks again, for the replies. I received two types of extenders over Cat 6 and will share results.