Connecting Main House and Detached Garage to Same ISY

[heyleatwe82]

I am beating my head against the wall trying to figure out how to solve a problem I’m having. I have one ISY but I have Insteon devices in my house and a detached garage / workshop. Unfortunately the garage is about 150 feet away closest point to closest point and I can’t seem to get a good signal. I have signal repeaters deployed but that doesn’t seem to be working like I’d hoped (not to say I couldn’t have done things wrong with them).

The two buildings share a network via a Ubiquiti bridge but I can’t figure out if there’s some way for me to leverage that to get the ISY to see the devices in my main house. (We started working on automation in the garage first which I now regret).

Thanks for any pointers in advance!

[violasims19]

We've been looking at a lot of houses lately. I like having an attached garage, but also like old houses, and most of them have detached.
Tell The Bell

[SeanM]

The wifi network will not help you here unless you are looking to bridge two ISY's. The UDI forum would be a good place to work through that.

The stated max RF range for Insteon is ~150ft, but that is open air, with no walls...basically a testing environment...so we are definitely pushing the signal. If you have any 2634-222, outdoor plugins, you could have a switch at the two closet points between the house and garage, and then place the 2634-222 somewhere outside for signal repeating, but chances are you will need a 2-3.

While doing this the beacon test would be helpful for you. It lets you know when devices can talk to each other. I would start that inside the house and then add devices to sort of build your way out to the garage. (Just tap the set button 4 times on any dual-band device)

If the electrical panels for the garage and house are close, you could try bridging a circuit so that the powerline signal makes it across. Something like a 2406H.

[cnwilson100]

The wifi network will not help you here unless you are looking to bridge two ISY's. The UDI forum would be a good place to work through that.

The stated max RF range for Insteon is ~150ft, but that is open air, with no walls...basically a testing environment...so we are definitely pushing the signal. If you have any 2634-222, outdoor plugins, you could have a switch at the two closet points between the house and garage, and then place the 2634-222 somewhere outside for signal repeating, but chances are you will need a 2-3.

While doing this the beacon test would be helpful for you. It lets you know when devices can talk to each other. I would start that inside the house and then add devices to sort of build your way out to the garage. (Just tap the set button 4 times on any dual-band device)

If the electrical panels for the garage and house are close, you could try bridging a circuit so that the powerline signal makes it across. Something like a 2406H.

Don't count on using the outdoor devices as an RF connection between the buildings. I have the same situation with 2 buildings, only mine are a bit closer at around 75'. I have the 2 outdoor plug ins on the exterior of each bdg, directly facing one another, with nothing but air to interfere in between. I cannot get a reliable connection. Sometimes it will work but most of the time it doesn't. I am in the country, 1/4 mile to the nearest house, and 10 miles to the nearest town (of 800) so there is no external interference, either. Quite simply the specs are exaggerated. Oddly, my wifi from the house works just fine from the other bdg.

[SeanM]

I have tested their RF range at ~220 ft in an urban setting so they are not exaggerating. However when dealing with electrical nothing is simple.

[BLH]

The 4 tap, communications or beacon tests (different models called the same basic test a different thing) in Dual Band devices may give you an idea of communications.

[LHaven]

Unfortunately the garage is about 150 feet away closest point to closest point and I can’t seem to get a good signal. I have signal repeaters deployed but that doesn’t seem to be working like I’d hoped (not to say I couldn’t have done things wrong with them).

The two buildings share a network via a Ubiquiti bridge but I can’t figure out if there’s some way for me to leverage that to get the ISY to see the devices in my main house. (We started working on automation in the garage first which I now regret).

When I started using Insteon, most of the devices were not dual-mode. My initial requirement was to control exterior lights at a barn 200' away from the house on one side, and a pavilion 150' to the other side. (Everything on the property is wired through the same transformer.) Before even trying this, I added an X10 signal bridge in the house breaker box and another in the barn breaker box for good measure, to make sure any signal got shunted onto both legs. The remote lights worked more often than not, though sometimes I had to press the buttons several times. And note -- this was before the RF capability.

As time went on, I added controller switches for the pool lights, gate opener, gate lamps, guest house, carport, and corral. Most of these were dual-mode as that had become standard rather than rare. I quickly discovered the truth about what I had read -- the more Insteon devices you had in your network, the more robust the reliability became, as all the other devices repeat your commands until the target device finally hears and responds.

"Build out your network" sounds like an expensive solution, but if you make a list of existing lights and the like that would benefit from some remote control, and install switches for them a little at a time, you can improve the reliability of your network considerably, especially if they are well distributed geographically.

I don't think our Ubiquiti gear is going to help you do anything here, as the protocols and frequencies used are not compatible with WiFi.