When we opened @TedTolboom’s Homey, its PCB was pretty well stuck too. We managed to pry it out using one of the plastic screw holes, if I remember correctly (put a flat screwdriver through the hole between the PCB and the spacer that the screw screws in to).
Use a cutting knife for all-round cutting. You clearly see a few glue points. These must be broken. After that is simple to get the PCB out.
He is talking about the electronics board, not the outer housing…
Unplug the flat cable that runs through the board and push it completely through. Then stick a dinner knife in that hole and use some (careful) momentum to lift the board up that way.
Finally got my 45 degree angle connectors 2 weeks ago and fitted them to get all the antenna’s straight upright instead of angled. It looks a bit odd and futuristic but I must say after these 2 weeks that it seems to improve the range even more then before.
Especially for 433mhz this really makes a huge difference. All my 433mhz thermometers are now online (reachable) for 98+% of the time, even the ones in the backyard and in the far corner of the attic.
For Z-wave there is also an increase of reach and stability in the mesh network.
For Zigbee i see less longer periods of not reporting from the sensors, so it must also have worked out positive there.
11 Likes
Just did my mod, ordered two antennas, one 868mhz, for z-wave and the other, 2,4ghz for Zigbee. The zigbee has a nice connector to it and the z-wave needed to be soldered down.
z-wave now works. Can’t evaluate range yet, but at least it works. Zigbee however doesn’t seem to work. Which is strange because of the nice connector.
What can be wrong?
putting the homey back on the original location works for some of the zigbee devices…
…
Switching the appropriate antennas did the trick, stupid me… mixed them up apparently. Now lets see if it helps.
1 Like
Did my mod yesterday (zwave and zigbee). Significant improvement in zwave performance (most of my 90 devices). Reduced routing, more direct connection to Homey and shorter routes for mesh connected devices. Also performance of zwave remotes is better. Highly recommended mod!
3 Likes
Hey @Igy
Sorry, when you say ‘performance is better’, what exactly (in real world terms) do you mean?
Devices which previously were out of range are now in range?
Do devices which used to lag not switch now turn on much faster?
Or devices which used to not always respond now respond all the time?
When turning on multiple devices at once are the results now faster or more stable?
Sorry for the question overload but I’m still considering the hack myself.
2 Likes
In my opinion I had the same experience as @Igy
No delays
1 device out of range now in range
1:1 communication the last time I checked
It is so worth the upgrade
Some examples:
I have 7 venetian blinds with lamels closing and opening as a group. Before, you could see that there was a lag of s several seconds between the first and last blind to start operate. Now its almost instant for all of them.
Same behavior for lights group, much faster in terms of response to the action - you can still see one by one operation, but before it took 4-5 seconds to turn all 8 lights on one floor on, now it takes 2.
Remotes and distance - I’m using Fibaro Keyfob to open the car gate in front of the house. Before it took me several attempts 2-3 press of the button to make it work. Now its instants on the first try. Didnt measure distance exactly before and after.
I have also some screenshots of zwave routing before and after the mod where you can see as mentioned more direct routing.
For some of the devices I had up to 15% error rate in transaction, will report after a while of system usage whether this disappeared.
Thats what I call performance improvement 
1 Like
Thank you I am particularly interested in speed improvements. I find every time I do an action it takes a lot longer (assuming for mesh to find a route) sequential immediate updates are instant though.
Do it mate, and you won’t regret it! Simple as. (highly recommend the z-wave antenna from Core Electronics in Newcastle, see one of my posts above) Should you have no or poor soldering skills, I am happy to have it done for you.
Almost a week with mod. 0% error rate for all devices! Works like a charm
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The standard issues with devices not responding in a Flow with more than 6-12+ devices. Is this mod fixing this?
Unlikely. That problem typically needs to be solved by adding delays to each additional action card.
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Hi Peter, could you please list the weblinks where you bought the antennas and the angle connectors. Thanks in advance!
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Sure, no problem:
Antenna’s (All with the same seller.):
2.4Ghz:
868Mhz:
433Mhz:
Angled connectors:
And if you want better shielded and more sturdy pigtails than the ones with the antenna’s (in various lengths):
7 Likes
Thank you Peter for your quick response!
You’re welcome! 
sorry I’m not familar with the frequencies, which if them did you use for Z-Wave and Zigbee?
