[Modding] Homey Pro (Model Early 201x) Antenna modification

Nice job. Didn’t you want to do the 433 and maybe the 868 also? Or don’t you have any KaKu or similar devices?

I’m only running Hue, Nest, Xiaomi (zigbee) and 1 Zwave thermostatvalve.
So i did not do the 433mhz or 868Mhz

hello i did the homey athenna mod. because the case was i open i went to the next level. changing the case top.

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Great!

Very nice!

This what mine looks like after the mod:

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Mounted 4 antenna’s for Z-Wave, Zigbee, 868 and 433. Wifi is good as it is, so left it that way.
Top half and ring still have to be mounted, had to glue some pieces… :slight_smile:

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Would ik make any difference if the antennas were facing downward :thinking: then with the transparant top, would be great :space_invader:

I think it does. as far as i know, antennas mostly radiate the signals in a dome form, so sidewards and upwards. By putting it upside down, i assume the range to above gets less.

Wow. What an experience.
Looks great.
You need to have guts to do so

Or just some soldering skills, an old Homey and most important: plenty of frustration caused by the pathetic original z-wave antenna.
Then you’ll do the mod or else give it to that guy somewhere here in the forum that promised us a YouTube video smashing his Homey (cannot remember his name, thought)

You mean Kenneth? Moving on and ditching Homey! :innocent::wink:

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Will the proposed mod work on the 2019 Homey Pro aswell? I’ve noticed that the z-wave range is a lot less using the Homey as opposed to the Aotec z-wave stick. Devices are slow to respond, which makes the whole experience less than optimal.

There is no difference on the z-wave antenna in between all Homeys.
Sure will work, and also for sure the warranty will be completely void once you open it.

Maybe before you go ahead with the antenna, try learn what could cause the slow response as well as look at your z-wave mesh here: https://developer.athom.com/tools/zwave and try do a step by step device heal. (Plenty of info on this forum about this :grinning:)
As well as have as many mains powered devices as possible opposed to battery powered ones.

I’m a tinkerer and I’m fully aware of the warranty being voided once I’ve opened up my Homey; thanks for the reminder though :wink:
I’ve been looking at the developer tools extensively over the last couple of days and I’ve followed the heal instructions multiple times. I do have a couple of mains powered repeater devices which do have a direct connection with the Homey controller. It’s just that the battery powered devices prefer a path with several hops over a direct connection, which is what I’d like to improve.
Before I’ve got my Homey I was using self-written software (https://github.com/fellownet/micasa) which used openzwave to communicate with zwave devices. While I have never got a visual representation of the mesh back then, devices did respond quicker (much quicker). The physical layout of the devices haven’t changed, so it’s either reception or slowness of the Homey software that causes the delays, and by replacing the antenna I can rule out the first.

Then all I can wish is best of luck and look forward to hear from you once the mod is done.

I ordered two antenna’s. That was the easy part…
Still not sure if I will crack the dome open…

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Where did you get that dome!?!? :astonished:

Well, then you ordered them for nothing… :innocent:
Or maybe just for a cosmetic appearance… :wink:

Just in the process of getting brave enough to open Homey. Ali isn’t too fast, have some time :slight_smile:

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:+1::grinning:
For what it’s worth: both Homey’s i opened started reluctant, but after the first pop the top dome was easily separated from the ring because it gave way by the torsion.

With the first one i broke one plastic screw (that was easily glued together again). With the second one the ring gave up before the screw, but that was also easily repaired with some glue for plastic models.

Before you try to open it two warnings:

  1. be very careful not to break off one of the IR led’s while trying to separate the dome. They are positioned behind the open spaces and are sometimes a bit higher than the rim of the bottom half. So you can easily break one off if you try to separate and twist just above one.
  2. If you remove the top half, be careful not to pull it apart with too much force. You could damage the wires from the zigbee and wifi antenna which are glued to the top half.

The best way to get it loose is to squeeze the ball a little to see if a part is wider then the rest, squeeze in a dinner knife, shove it a bit to the tighter part (which should be near to one of the 4 screws but again, mind the IR led’s!) and twist a little. It is inevitable that you will do some damage to the housing, so preferably you should try it at the back.

A tip: Make a picture before you take out the print. You have to put it back exactly the same position else the IR led’s won’t line up properly with the openings.

If you want to get the print out, first free the lint cable (gently flip up the brown clamp) and push the cable completely through the oval hole. Then use a knife or a wide flat screwdriver in the same opening to gently lever the print up. Don’t apply too much force or it will break. Don’t need to mind cables, the lint cable is the only connection.

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The clear dome is actually a 12 cm transparent Christmas ball. I bought it from Pipoos.
https://www.pipoos.com/transparante-plastic-bal-12-cm.html

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