Hardware failure?

Questions & Help
1

Hi,

I bought my Homey somewhere around 2016 i think, first batch.
I have had lot of issues with range with both Zigbee and 433mhz. I have read that many others had the same issues.

We are talking about like 4-7meters on 433mhz and about 8-10 meters on zigbee (free line of sight)

But now I tested my buddies Homey in my home and that works much better.
Also, If I pair my devices (xiaomi and ikea) with the xiaomi controller i have like 20-25meters range.

Q1 : Could there be a Hardware failure from the very beginning that makes my homey have such weak range? Can I check if it outputs enough power to the antennas or run any other diagnostic feature?

Q2: Could it be a software issue?

I have tried to change the channel on my home-wifi to channel 6 with no success.
I live in the country-side with no other wifis around to interfear with the 2.4ghz band.

Any suggestions?

2

I also have a 2016 Homey and live in a quite small house where Homey is located right in the middle. No more than 8 meters to the farther zigbee device. Yet, without the antenna mod, barely I could reach 3/4 of the devices. Now, I even have a zigbee door switch right outside on the main gate (which is metal, too) and no range issues anymore.

Another good thing to have is a whole hip of zigbee repeaters (those are mains powered devices) I have none of the by the way but the antenna mod helped.

See here: Homey Pro Antenna modification - #26 by danone

You should try setup your wifi on channel 11 as that would give you the least interference. See here explained Wifi and Zigbee: https://support.metageek.com/hc/en-us/articles/203845040-ZigBee-and-WiFi-Coexistence

Hope this helps a bit.