Automating my home: Mesh wireless, great but still limited

Following my previous post on installing my Ring Floodcam I started walking around my house with a friend.  Putting up one floodlight camera caused us to realize that there were many dark areas of the house, and the inadequacy of the existing outdoor cameras.  This caused me to add two more Ring Floodcams.

During the previous implementation, I had configured a separate wireless SSID because the two access points were not handing off properly.  I was continuing to get deadspots, so I thought maybe it was an issue that the Unifi AC Pro couldn’t handle.  I decided it may be time to test out a mesh wireless system.  Since I have had some good luck with Unifi’s consumer product, Amplifi I decided to test that.

Setup was insanely simple.  In less than 5 min I had my new system setup, including remote access to the controller through my google account.  I moved the “extenders” to various places in the house, but continued to struggle with slowdowns in some areas.  After a day or two of testing, I ended up returning the Amplifi devices.  Through some trial and error I found that by moving the two Unifi access points I was able to resolve my handoff issues.

Digging into this with some radio signal analysis tools, I found the major problem was the number of devices in my home.  At over 40 network connected devices before any guests join, my home network rivals a small business.

Amplifi, is a great product for most users, but in my case, it just couldn’t handle the load.  While this does not speak to all mesh wireless products, it is a challenge which will have to be overcome as more connected devices come online in more homes across the world.

Automating my home: Mesh wireless, great but still limited

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