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My apologies for hogging so much space on the forum, but I'm fairly new to the domotica game and even google fails me sometimes [8)]. I have some reception difficulties within my house and with some units outdoor and have been slaving to find a solution.
Let's hypothetically state that one would have aquired http://www.conrad.nl/goto.php?artikel=190073
One for transmitting and one for receiving, placed about 60cm from each other (not that anyone here would do this, it's illegal [:D]). The antenna's would have been placed on the first floor in a wall-cupboard of a so called 80's Eko house (=cheap ass build). The outer walls to front and rear are wood with rockwool. The sidewalls and floors are 22cm reinforced steel concrete (all levels). In the cupboard also run the copper gaspipe, floorheating rubber piping and a aluminium airduct (all vertically).
My gut tells me this is not optimal, but t's the most central position I've (hypothetically)found. Reception outside is o.k. for all Oregon devices, but HE EU is trouble. I would place the receiving antenna on it's side, so the "dead zone cone" is facing my neighbours, and most of the devices are in the dougnut shaped receiving area. This (imaginarily) improved reception, but some HE units still gave trouble. Then I placed a 34,6 cm wire behind the troublesome units as a passive antenna. Immediatly the reception was o.k. for these devices but..... all other devices started to expose communications failures. So I (would) add passive antenna's there too.. but things only got worse.
Now I removed all of them, and I'm at the starting point again. Would placing a broad specrum TV amplifier right after the receiving antenna make my (virtual [;)]) problem go away (and is it possible to use a separate receiver per floor) ???

Would be nice if you could break the messages in paragraphs or something and also, you have a "." behind the url to conrad.. so the link wont work. I think bert would have the correct answer..

// Erik (binkey.nl)

I suppose that the Conrad antenna will improve the receiving range a little bit and certainly the transmit range. In fact any 50ohm - 70cm HAM antenna can be used even a beam
A broadband TV antenna amplifier will improve the receiving range.

If there is aluminum foil on the Rockwool it will reduce the RF signals.

I have found that some of the Home Easy UK devices have a very poor transmission range. The HE303 (PIR) and the HE305 (Mag switch) I found particularly bad. I suppose the HE EU equivalents will be similar. Oregon 433 and Visonic 868 sensors seem to have very good range by comparison.

I have played around with many antenna / amplifier combinations in the past with varying levels of success. I now use 2 RFXCOM LAN interfaces with the standard telescopic on the 433RX, 70CM whip http://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/acatalog/F ... tenna.html on the 433 TX and a 1/4 wave whip http://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/acatalog/8 ... tenna.html on the 868RX. One interface is located in the attic and the other is more or less central on the ground floor. All connections are BNC to the back of the interface enclosures and the antennas are directly connected, some with a 90 degree BNC adapter.

This setup has proved very good and also means that I don't need to have lots of unsightly antennas.

This also answers your question about using multiple receivers. With Homeseer + RFXCOM plug-in, you can have up to 8 receivers and 4 transmitters on the same system.

Paul..

Thanks for the advice Paul.... I allready concluded that the HE range is crappy (I've let my colleagues at the air traffic control have a go at them, their verdict was less than positive) but then again, the units are dirt cheap. Guess I'll be investing in a RFXcom Lan receiver soon to alleviate some of the range problems..

Alex

I guess it's not possble to combine the RFXmitter LAN with a 433.92 receiving unit, judging the RFXcom website. Can anyone confirm that ? (The preferred config for me would be a RFXmitter LAN with a 433.92 receiver module and a 868.95 Visonic module)

The RFXmitter can be combined with a receiver.
Select the 433.92 Ethernet receiver and add the 40079 Visonic and the 89031 RFXmitter modules.

Keep in mind that the HE and KAKU units, remotes and sensors are designed for use in short range of each other.

I figured so much, but since all signals have to travel through 20cm steel reinforced concrete, and I have a bunch of electronic devices and wiring it would be an improvement right? Before I order: can my commands be transmitted on both RFXmitters at the same time ??

The HE module is linked to a transmitter.
You can configure the HE unit in the plug-in you will assign the transmitter that is in range of this HE unit.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by DutchAdept</i>
<br />I figured so much, but since all signals have to travel through 20cm steel reinforced concrete, and I have a bunch of electronic devices and wiring it would be an improvement right? Before I order: can my commands be transmitted on both RFXmitters at the same time ??
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I asked Bert a similar question once before and the quick answer is, No.

There are repeaters available for HE UK (not sure if they are available for HE EU), but in practice these cause more problems than they solve because, if the repeater is in range of the RFXCOM receiver, it then picks up the repeated signal, causing more unnecessary processing.

A long way round, would be to add a second output device and assign it to transmitter No 2, then program the HE module to receive both output devices.

Paul..

I think I tackled the problem: Drilled a hole through the floor (Fun.....my hands are still shaking from the pneumatic drill). Receiver antenna mounted high sideways downstairs. Transmitter antenna mounted straight high on the first floor.
Now I receive all devices (more or less, there's allways external interference possible). Will test this setup, and if necessary add a broadrange TV amp. First test results look promising [:)]

Well, I'm gonna order a second receiver tomorrow, and split my signals (x10/kaku and HE eu/OR) between them. I just was wondering about another hypothetical situation (even my colleages at the air traffic control radar and navigation department had serveral opinions):
A omnidirectional ground plane antenna sends the signal out in a doughnut shape, aimed slightly upward. This would mean that when placed exacly in the middle op the house, a lot of devices would be in the obscured "no signal" cone area (an be relying on bounced signals).
Would it be wise to place the antenna upside down, slightly tilted on the extreme left or right of the house, on the highest possible position (keeping in mind that the top of the antenna is also a dead zone for signals)?

I'm not using HomeSeer but I'm using HouseBot and Meteohub to remote control my House in Portugal. For this I'm using 1 RFXcom LAN tranceiver for HouseBot and 1 RFXcom LAN receiver for Meteohub, both units receiving the signals from 20 Oregon Scientific units, about 20 KaKu units, 4 X10 motion sensors, 4 UK HE door switches and 10 UK HE wall switches, to receive the signals it cost me a lot of time to get a suitable antenna solution. On the moment I'm using 2 antenna's for each receiver, the Conrad antenna's http://www.conrad.nl/goto.php?artikel=190073 are doing the job. Each antenna is connected to a amplifier, Conrad 941142-89, direct mounted under the antenna.
The 2 antenna's for each receiver are coupled with a antenna splitter, Conrad 941606-89 and Yes I know that the amplifiers are 75 Ohm and I'm using a splitter as a antenna coupler but the result is allmost perfect, the only signals I'm missing some times are the signals of the door switches, about 1 of the 25 states are missing but those signals are very week.

For each receiver there is one inside and one outside antenna

Nice setup... I think I remember a topic where you where testing those HE305 doorswitches. In my opinion they're quite crappy because of their short range transmitting power, but then again: they're dirt cheap [:)]
Do I understand this right, you attach two antenna's to the single connector on the receiver? Interesting idea...

I finally realise why all radiowaves are so screwy in my house: all doorframes are metal... a slight detail I overlooked all this time (while worrying about insignificant metal objects in my livingroom...duh)
I guess I have to find some "sweet spots" for positioning my antenna's, without placing them in plain view. I'm sure this will give me many "enjoyable" hours of trial and error [:D]

I wonder if those amps you use would do my setup any good....

The metal door frames was also one of my problems, experimenting with antenna's inside and outside gives a good reception inside OR outside, all the outdoor frames are metal so I got the idea to combine two antenna's for one receiver and it works very well.
The working of the amplifiers is as far as I can see minimal or nothing but I wanted to try this, if I remove them the reception is still good so I advise you to save the money for the amplifiers, good quality of cables, connectors and splitters is a good investment.
From the antenna's to the splittes I use super quality satelite cable and from the splitters to the receivers I use the cable delivered with the antenna. I know it is a mix from 75 Ohm and 50 Ohm cable but it works very well.

A screenshot of sensors is attached, those sensors are mixed inside and outside the house

Henk