RF is driving me crazy

[DJF3]

In the last couple of months the wireless (RF) experience in my house is getting worse and worse.

Example: Out of my 12 Oregon temperature sensors, on average, 4-6 are in "communication failure"

Sometimes ALL RF seems to die in my house. I can fix that by changing the RFX receiver module setting from
- IP address 10.1.1.22 to 10.1.1.33 and back to .22

Using:
- RFXLAN+Visonic+RFXmitter, latest homeseer plugin

I really have no idea what to look for in troubleshooting these problems..

[b_weijenberg]

I can't explain why changing the IP solves the RF issue.

Is the receiver still active? Set debug level 1 on the receiver.
What happens if you disable/enable a protocol in the receiver instead of changing the IP address?

Have you installed new equipment a few months ago?

A spectrum analyzer can help to find RF problems if there are noise or unwanted signals are present:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EMF-RF-Radiatio ... 3a766d8f85

[DJF3]

I have the idea that changing the IP address in HS to something that does not exist and back to the correct IP
resets something or re-initializes the connection.. This only helps in case that no RF traffic send/receive is working.

I might know someone who has a spectrum analyzer.. Will keep you updated!

[richard naninck]

Not long ago most of my RF stopped working because some Oregon sensor had low battery. The low battery did not get reported by the device and the device (Wind meter) started outputting RF in a continuous wave thus jamming all the rest of the signals. You may want to stop all your RF sensors and switch them back on one by one.
If this is not your case, then I am at a loss as well why changing IP would solve this problem.

[labtec]

I had the same problem a few months ago, low battery on one of the Oregon temp sensors.
After replacing the battery the RF problem was solved

[Jeroen Bartels]

I had the same problems with low batteries on a temp sensor. Start taking out batteries from all sensors if you are not sure which one.
On the other hand I have also changed my IP range from 192.168.1.xx to 192.168.0.xx and I had big performance problems. Turned oit that I hadn't changed my jon00 network monitor scripts to new ip's changing that improved a lot but still some lagg on the system.

[b_weijenberg]

I guess it is not an RF problem. Changing the IP address will not change anything in case of RF problems.

To know more about this problem best is to enable debug level 1 for the receiver to see what happens on the interface.
If the problem exist again disable a protocol and save than enable that protocol again and save. Does this solve the problem too?

[Jeffrey]

I also have/had problems with RF and experience intermediate RF blackouts. I know it has a link with my Plugwise modules. Some modules are of an older firmware which causes problems because I cannot link them to the system. I had these modules powered on for a while to test them, but had forgotten to remove them. This is when the RF trouble started. After removing the Plugwise modules, the RF got better. Now the RF communication only fails sporadic. The blackouts are strange because the frequency of the two products differ.

Maybe a faulty Plugwise module is also causing your problems.

[b_weijenberg]

Plugwise does not operate at 433.92 so this is not the case here.

[Jeffrey]

I know what you mean Bert, but I'm positive that there is a relation. Removing the modules drastically improved the RF communication. I don't know why (433 vs 802.11 Mhz) but in practice it did for me.

[richard naninck]

When talking through my cellphone while standing next to an FS20 transmitter, the FS20 Tx simply doesn't get the data across. In other words; my 1800MHz cell signal jamms the 433 FS20. Nothing scientific, just something I notice..

[b_weijenberg]

A cellphone has a rather high RF output and harmonic signals can block another receiver.
As far as I know FS20 operates at 868.3MHz isn't it?

And it seems Telfort and Dutchtone are using the 880-935MHz band: http://www.frequentieland.nl/gsm/gsm_freq.htm

[AshaiRey]

Just a quick word on this. Most of the oscillators are working with a base frequency lower then the working frequency because of stability, design and cost. They filter out most of the harmonics and let the desired one through. Although each next harmonic its strenght is less they stil can distort the signal.
For example (this is not a real situation!)
The amateurband at 144mhz. Of they use a oscillator at 144 Mhz then the 3e harmonic will end up at 432Mhz (144.64Mhz -> 433.93Mhz)
Of course they filter out everything above 145Mhz but an transmitter close to a sensitive reciever isn't nice.

[richard naninck]

A cellphone has a rather high RF output and harmonic signals can block another receiver.
As far as I know FS20 operates at 868.3MHz isn't it?

And it seems Telfort and Dutchtone are using the 880-935MHz band: http://www.frequentieland.nl/gsm/gsm_freq.htm

My bad.. FS20 uses 433 x 2;)
Tmobile @ 1800

Narrow band vs broad band
My CADDX uses 433.
So many different freqs in my House with lots of devices and all goes well. Am I lucky?

[xanhoera]

Umpff, my oregon sensors are getting me crazy too last few weeks. It all started after changing some batteries about a month ago . After batteries were changed and codes reassigned in homeseer, I noticed a communication failure again a few days later. There were a few new codes to choose from (again), obviously I did not know which one was for which device. So I removed batteries device per device so I knew which (new) code to assign.

And now more recently the same issue for the same 3 oregon temperature sensors. Again 3 new codes available to assign via rfxcom homeseer plugin . What would cause the oregon devices to send out via a new code? Batteries are full and placed correctly, and reset button isn't touched obviously .

Crazy rf!