Eithernet over power line and Z-Net

[langenet]

I'm wondering if anyone has their Z-Net communicating via EOP? Is it working reliably?
I've just tried implementing with with my pool shed. I'll work fine most times but other times not. I've got about 100 ft from router/switch and looking for recommendations.

[mulu]

I have no personal experience with EOP for z-net. I did read on this forum that some people has issues. I installed some some EOP devices for my parents as they have all brick and concrete walls and the wireless from the entry point just didn't make it all through the house. It's not like an actual CAT5e/6 cable but it works reasonably well if you don't have other options. There might be issues if you have a subpanel (no experience with this) or if you don't plug the device right into a socket or when you have "noisy" devices like motors and such. I would say buy a device from a place that allows easy returns like Amazon and see how it goes.

[outbackrob]

EOP usually just sucks if you are trying to go between buildings. Check out Ubiquiti's directional antennas. They have some that can go over a mile and still get decent speeds. A friend of mine started a business about a mile from his home and Comcast could not get internet service to him for 4 months. He set up some.....AirFiber? antennas on his garage and on top of his business and got enough internet access to run the business web page and video streaming! They are a little pricy, but not bad considering the performance.

[Pete]

I had a bad experience with first generation EOP...overheating and burning out over a couple of months. Pool pumps more than likely generate all sorts of power line noise which would not be a good environment for the EOP.

Best to go as suggested above by outbackrob . Wireless.

A reasonably priced system would just be a dedicated WAP (Ubiquiti) with directional antenna and a dedicated Wireless client with a directional antenna.

[langenet]

I've been using EOP for 10 years at first to talk to my rain8.nets via Itach IP2SL reliably. Mind you, not much data exchange is going on there. Last summer I placed a Z-Net in the shed and configured it to use sernet for the RXFCOM pool floating sensor without issue. This year, I replaced my X-10 control to a new GE 40 Amp switch as well as a zoozs Zen26.
At times I get these errors from RFXCOM and once in a while from the Z-Net. I replaced the EOP addapters about mid season last year because the originals finally died.
I put a metal sheild around the EOP device to help with the RF sheilding because as I understand, they emit hords of RF noise.

May-31 9:27:21 AM RFXCOM 41 (aConnectEnd) transceiver Home reconnected.
May-31 9:27:21 AM RFXCOM 41 (InitTRX) Connect Transceiver Home on TCP 192.168.1.58,10001
May-31 9:27:21 AM RFXCOM Error: 41 (Reconnect) transceiver Home stopped due to comm failure, try to reconnect.
May-31 9:27:21 AM RFXCOM 41 (CheckTransceivers) transceiver Home ping senddata with errorflag, reconnect done?
May-31 9:27:06 AM RFXCOM Error: 41 (SockDataArrival) TCP error
May-31 9:27:06 AM RFXCOM 41 (Close) Closing TCP Socket for 192.168.1.58,10001

I'm thinking if it gets worse I'll bury a cat-7 underground rated cable probably 150 length as I have to run it around the pool. I doubt my wife would be good with outdoor antennas...

[outbackrob]

... I doubt my wife would be good with outdoor antennas...

They aren't like satellite dish size. They do have dish antennas but also many different configurations based on the distance you need to travel. Fairly easy to set up, too.

If you must run a cable underground, you'd do better with Fiber. Fiber isn't ridiculously expensive these days and neither are fiber to copper converters. But, its still a lot of digging. If you use a copper cable, you are setting yourself up for grounding issues (as well as lightning hits). The ground at your house can be significantly different than the ground in the shed that is on the other side of your pool. This can cause a significant voltage between the two and a lot of noise. It may still work fine for your needs, but it just seems like a lot of extra work now that there are "airfiber" alternatives these days. IMHO.

[kenm]

100 ft outdoors isn't all that far. What about adding an outdoor AP and running the Z-Net on WiFi? In my experience, powerline networking and AC motors don't play nicely together.

[langenet]

After further analysis, I found two things. 1) I hadn't upgraded to 3.0.10.0 from 3.0.9.0. Once that was done, I wasn't getting any errors from Z-Net. However, I was still getting the error on occasion with the RFXtrx433 and my pool temp sensor. I moved the receiver high and away from the swtich and Z-net, placed an RF shield around my EOP and haven't seen any error since.

[Sgt. Shultz]

100 ft outdoors isn't all that far. What about adding an outdoor AP and running the Z-Net on WiFi? In my experience, powerline networking and AC motors don't play nicely together.

But honey, I bought the Kubota because I knew you wouldn't want an ugly antennae on the house...

[langenet]

Ha ha . I actually have a netgear WND3700 running DD-WRT in AP mode providing a SSID and hub/switching connected to the EOP for my Z-net and GC-Ip2sl for my sprinklers.