Limitation Home Start package

[Henk]

I ordered a home start package with one circle+ and a circle plug planning to monitor a number of devices in my home before ordering more units.

To my surprise this will not work if the distance between stick/plugs is more than a couple of meters .The formal Plugwise statement i received after raising this limitation is it will only work when both circles and the computer are in the same room. So i will be forced to buy more circles without knowing how many I may need for my home to have a good coverage. KAKU will do a better job .....

This limitation was not mentioned in the description of the package on their website.

Het Home Start Pakket is het pakket voor de starter die laagdrempelig kennis wil maken met het Plugwise systeem. Hiermee kunt u uw energieverbruik monitoren en controleren.

[Dickr43]

I have my 2 plugs from the home starterset in a closet under the TV and the stick is 6 meters away in the "meterkast". Works like a charm, no problem what-so-ever. I think that the distance between the circle+ and the other circle is to big. Just try it in different locations to find out what the maximum distance may be.

I disagree with you on KAKU will do a better job. It's much more unreliable then Plugwise. I'm waiting for my second set plugs to replace a few KAKU switches....

[Henk]

I did some more testing with distance up to 5+ meters and even crossing one concrete floor ... it was working but it is critical and depending on the location of each circle .....
I will testing with more than 2 circles ... and will see the behaviour of this mesh network technology ..... but it should be nice to have some guidelines beforehand ... it is missing now ....

Example

each cirlce should be within x meter of another circle.
the circle+ should be within x meter of the usb stick
crossing a concrete floor add x meter extra
a house with X00m3 will need roughly x circles .. distributed evenly

keep you updated .....

Henk

[Henk]

Update

I got three more circles (total five) and it was very easy to add them to the network no problem at all ... and the 5 circles are active thru the whole house .. so you need at least five circles to have a reliable network in a regular house.

Henk

[jheerink]

We use them to controll devices in a school and the experience for the max range is so far ok, We have ranges upto 10mtr with 1 concrete/brick wall in between and still receiving ok, The network worked ok on 20 plugs but now we increased to 30+ plugs and it is more stable. After some testing we only need 1 or 2 plugs on places were there is nothing to measure or switch but only for relay.The distance from the plugs far from the stick/computer is upto 50mtr,s (with several plugs in between of course)

[Hetwieg]

But is there a fomule to calc how manny plugs you neet for *M2 ?

Edit: Ad a mark to the M

[Reinder]

normally the distance between the plug can be up to 10 meters (even more but the reliability comes discussable). Also be aware that the network topology (ZigBee) needs alternate routes to communicate. So one plug must can "talk" to (more than) 2 other plugs.