Mounted vertical or horizontal

[Tomgru]

for a Z-net... not sure where the antenna is.... does it matter the orientation? was thinking of using the side mounting holes and mounting up on a wall in my wiring closet.

[kc8tmv]

Ever get an answer on this? I was kind of wondering the same thing. Also, what are all the ports (besides the ethernet) for anyway? Can't seem to find anything as to what they are / can be used for.

[lveatch]

Also, what are all the ports (besides the ethernet) for anyway? Can't seem to find anything as to what they are / can be used for.

They are usb ports. I have an RFXtrx433 plugged into my one of my 1st floor's znet usb ports. You then use ser2net (configuration file /etc/ser2net.conf) to expose the usb device on your network.
My configuration:

# rfxtrx433e
10001:raw:60:/dev/ttyUSB0:38400 NONE 1STOPBIT 8DATABITS

I then configured homeseer to connect to the rfxtrx433 on the znet's ip address on port 10001.

This is how the znet's z-wave board on port 2001 works too.

2001:raw:60:/dev/ttyAMA0:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT -XONXOFF -RTSCTS

[kc8tmv]

Ok. Reviewing my question, I did know they were USB, but didn’t know why they were there if this device is just supposed to be a zwave transceiver.


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[randy]

for a Z-net... not sure where the antenna is.... does it matter the orientation? was thinking of using the side mounting holes and mounting up on a wall in my wiring closet.

The antenna wraps around the GPIO controller in sort of a J pattern, so it doesn’t matter the orientation. I posted pictures in the 6th post in this thread that show the board. The antenna is a trace you can see right under “2015 REV E”.

[randy]

Ok. Reviewing my question, I did know they were USB, but didn’t know why they were there if this device is just supposed to be a zwave transceiver.


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For two reasons. 1) the device uses a Raspberry Pi board as its foundation and the board has USB ports and 2) Because the European versions of the Z-Net use a USB controller instead of a GPIO Carr’s.

EDIT: The earliest versions of the Z-Net were based on a Pi 2 board, which required a USB dongle for WiFi. Later models used the Pi 3 with built in WiFi.

[Guest]

In the frequency range that ZWave operates in, and the type of emission, orientation does matter. Based on the previous post, the designers tried to make it sort of work in either orientation, but my suspicion is that it will work better in one orientation over the other. Without actual testing, we cannot know how much difference it makes, though.

[randy]

In the frequency range that ZWave operates in, and the type of emission, orientation does matter. Based on the previous post, the designers tried to make it sort of work in either orientation, but my suspicion is that it will work better in one orientation over the other. Without actual testing, we cannot know how much difference it makes, though.

Theoretically it could make a difference, in practice it really doesn’t. I’ve had mine mounted on a wall vertically or horizontally and even just laying on a shelf and there has been no noticeable change in range. Understanding that the orientation of the antennas in the Z-Wave devices can be in a variety of positions, some even having an external wire, shows that there is no really proper orientation of the transmitter. The 1/4 wavelength for US Z-Wave frequencies is about 3-1/4 inches, which looks to be about the length of the J in the boards I pictured. So at best we have a folded 1/4 wavelength antenna.

Obstacles and controller placement are much more important than orientation.