WGL W800USB RF Antenna Kit - Working

[Bauerlein99]

What I ended up having to get was a 259 to BNC adapter and a BNC to F-Connector adapter and put them together. So I took it out to the garage and mounted it about 1-2 feet higher than the original antenna. The motion sensor in the garage worked fine....the remote works fine from everywhere....but the front porch motion sensor does not activate. I took the antenna down and just laid it on top of my drill press and now the motion sensor works again. It is like there is a dead spot above a certain height. I will do some more testing. The front porch motion sensor is a Hawkeye, set about 6 ft. off the ground. Works fine withe RR501 and the antennas ONLY if the antennas are below 9 feet or so. To me it seems like something is kinda strange but this is all new to me. Hey learning is half the fun......Mike

[Bauerlein99]

Something is not right guys. The front porch motion sensor D7 is not working with either of the antennas now but it works with a RR501. I am missing something or doing something wrong. Now it's not even working with the stock antenna that came with the kit. The garage motion sensor works fine. Garage sensor is D5 and it turns on a workbench outlet. D7 Front porch sensor is not activating the chimeD7 in my office. Also D5 activity shows up in the log but nothing for D7. Not sure what to do next. Maybe walk away from it for a while.

[Wadenut]

If it's a ms12/14/16, sometimes you just get a weak one. It may work close to the antenna, where another one might be stronger. Then too, the battery might be getting weak as well.

[Bauerlein99]

Maybe that's the only option left for me now. I had to plug in a RR501 to have the front porch motion sensor work. Why would it work to the RR501 and not to the either of the antennas? They are almost touching each other....And the batteries are brand new. I'm sitting in my office typing this now and it's working great with the RR501 plugged in.

[JeffCharger]

Maybe swap another device to try......also try a different code for it...see what it does? You may have some noise on the power line causing problems

[Bauerlein99]

I will swap out the chime, motion sensor and change the code again and see what happens. I am using the XTBM meter from Jeff Volp and there is no noise on the line and voltage levels are great.
I can almost buy the idea that the motion sensor is not good except for the fact that everything works fine with the RR501 Transceiver plugged in.
The batteries are new but I will swap them out as well. Let you know how it goes....Thanks....Mike

[Bauerlein99]

Changed Hawkeye sensor, changed batteries, tried a different location for sensor, configured new House/Unit code, different chime in my office. All set for D8. Right now it is working. It just seems like antenna placement is really critical. I have the Radio Shack antenna just kind of hanging at about eye level in the middle of the garage. It just seems like if I try to place it high, it doesn't "see" the RF signal from the front porch motion sensor right outside the door. I will;l tackle it again tomorrow.

[Pete]

I have mine in the attic flipped such that it faces downward with the base on the top and top on the bottom.

I will take a picture of it and the mounting bracket I made out of PVC to mount it to the rafters and post picture tomorrow.

[Pete]

Climbed into the attic and took a couple of pictures this morning of my W800 antenna setup.

I have a large attic which I can walk around in. That said the top of the peak of the attic looks to be 8-9 foot or so.

The antenna is attached to a piece of PVC which I cut such that I could mount it on a cross member.

Note the BNC to RG6 adapter.

The RG6 cable runs to the basement two floors down via a chase and to the WGL-800 mounted on the "HA wall".

The first WGL-800 / WGL Antenna is mounted behind an in wall speaker in the middle of the main floor of the house. Before I put the antenna in the attic it worked OK for most of the house but didn't work outside of the house too well. It is still in place and I just configured Homeseer to talk to the two WGL-800's via two com port connections.

I can send out commands via my X10 Pro HR12A Palm Pad Controller from 2-3 houses down.

Here is the detailed log of the two W800's getting one signal from the palm pad. To "test" your antenna/WGL connection you can:

1 - Open a browser session to Homeseer on whatever wireless device you might have handy.
2 - watch and update the logs on your browser session while pressing a couple of buttons on your palm pad or whatever you are using as an x10 remote
3 - walk around the house testing
4 - adjust your antenna as needed.

12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 1 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48523.76:0:0:ApndA:1
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor *NOT Debouncing packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor --Processing Command from RF: X10 D 1 On
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor SetDeviceStatus: D1 On
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor Setting status for device D1 to 2 (On)
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 2 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48523.76:0:0 #Rp:1 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 1 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48523.85:0:0.1 #Rp:2 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 2 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48523.85:0:0.1 #Rp:3 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:30 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 1 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48523.96:0:0.1 #Rp:4 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 2 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48523.96:0:0.1 #Rp:5 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 1 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48524.06:0:0 #Rp:6 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 2 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48524.06:0:0 #Rp:7 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 1 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48524.17:9:0.1 #Rp:8 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 2 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48524.17:9:0.1 #Rp:9 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 1 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48524.37:0:0 #Rp:10 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor [Rcvr# 2 Type W800] Received RAW Bytes: 50 AF 00 FF At 48524.37:0:0 #Rp:11 Idx:1
12/9/2012 11:03:31 AM AC-RF2 Processor *Debounce of processed packet.

[Bauerlein99]

Thanks for all the info. I am really stumped right now. I replaced the motion sensor, the batteries, the location, the chime, the house/unit code. I installed a antenna signal amplifier. I used quad shielded RG6. I hooked up the antenna and nothing.....I took the antenna OUTSIDE right next to the motion sensor.....NOTHING. I plug in a RR501...works great. What is going on here? What am I doing wrong????
By the way, the guy from EBay got really nasty and sent me some threatening emails so I politely informed him to cancel his PayPal payment(which is being held up anyhow because my PayPal account is under a different email address than what I have for an EBay email address.), I contacted PayPal and laid out the whole misunderstanding for them. I also CALLED EBay and they were able to look at my account and see where I thought I had set a minimum price of $200.00. They told me not to worry. There is no problem and they also credited my $2.91 of fees. They were super nice.
So that is settled I guess. Very hard for me to understand someone getting so upset over $26.00....He really thought he had screwed me. Now what in the heck do I do with my RF issues???Go back to the RR501?

[Pete]

Good news on the Ebay stuff.

Don't give up. Turn on detailed logging on your ACRF2 plugin. You should see the data.

Be patient and do a little bit at a time.

I think the default when you change the battery on the motion sensor is A1. Its really not worth changing the code until you see that it works with the default for right now.

[pbibm]

If possible, you may want to try it outside on the garage roof. That involves a little more work, and possibly appearance problems, but it would be better that way. The antenna is rated for outdoor use.

Also, for the idea of mounting it upside down, you only want to do that at the top of a 2 story structure or higher. I have mine upside down like Pete's (learned that from him ) , but its at the topic of the attic which is over the second floor of the house. If you won't be mounting yours that high up,try it right side up, it will affect the reception.

Per Pete's comments, I struggled greatly to get X10 RF right, but once I got it there, its worked well and I haven't had to think about it anymore.

[Bauerlein99]

Good new. At this moment, all motion sensors are working without a RR501 being plugged in. I placed the antenna high in my garage right side up. I had to remove the antenna signal amplifier...when I tried to run through it, nothing worked at all. So I am not going to touch it now. We'll see what happens in the next few days. Thanks guys.

[JeffCharger]

Higher is always better. I found that a small location change could make a real difference. Tune for a trouble device and hope that it doesn't disturb the others.

[Rupp]

Higher is always better. I found that a small location change could make a real difference. Tune for a trouble device and hope that it doesn't disturb the others.

This is very good advice. I moved my antenna to the very top of my attic a few years ago and haven't had an issue with any added devices even as far out as my shed.