Got a real lesson about wireless range from a house in the hills above Santa Barbara

I was setting up a system at a big place up on a ridge, and the main panel was in the garage like usual. The keypad for the master bedroom kept dropping signal, even though the spec sheet said it should work fine. I ended up having to move the main panel to a central closet and add a repeater, which added about 90 minutes to the job. Anyone have a good rule of thumb for judging signal loss in stucco and metal-framed houses before you start running wire?

3 comments

3 Comments

stellachen19d ago

Honestly this is why spec sheets are basically useless in the real world. Tbh stucco with metal mesh is like a faraday cage, it just kills signal dead. You see this same pattern everywhere now, where the perfect lab conditions never match up with a weird old house or a thick wall. Ngl the only rule of thumb is to assume you'll lose way more signal than they say and just plan for a repeater from the start.

henderson.oscar19d ago

It's the same with car mileage ratings. They test them on a flat track with perfect weather, but my old truck never gets close to that in real traffic. Or a paint can saying it covers 400 square feet, then you find out that's on smooth new drywall, not your bumpy living room walls. The specs give you a best case dream, not the messy truth of how things actually work.

richard_anderson15d ago

Read somewhere that stucco with wire mesh can cut signal strength in half right away. Makes you wonder why they even print those range numbers. What do you do when the specs are that far off?