New Bridge Device
I noticed an iOS update mentioned adding support for the Flair Bridge and I found this product page that appears to be a new bridge device: https://flair.co/products/bridge but there's not many details on that page.
I've got one vent in my home that often reports that it can't contact my puck so I'm looking for a device to amplify/augment those connections. Would this new bridge do the trick? I'd love to see some details about it.
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Yup, Google Assistant devices (hub, mini, etc.), ring spotlight cam, and neato vacuum are the main culprits on my network that attempt to use hardcoded DNS...hue bridge somewhat as well, but not reallllly hardcoded as it doesn't use a specific hardcoded DNS and instead attempts to connect to aliyun NTP servers from a secondary DNS server (if you have one advertised) when blocked on the primary DNS server. Unfortunately for Hue, it is getting blocked on both of my DNS servers.
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Maybe silly questions but does the Bridge communicate with the vents via RF or WiFi?
If it's RF, what's the advantage of the Bridge vs. a Puck? Like, if I have a large house with Gateway Pucks distributed around the house, and I buy a single bridge and convert my gateway pucks to sensor pucks, would I actually lose connection strength and robustness? Because instead of having several gateways a vent can connect to, it only has one Bridge that would potentially be further way.
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@JacobG I think it's safe to confirm that it was the pihole, haven't seen it drop out since the whitelist.
@Michael Cardwell it's RF. it has a much stronger antenna though. I had 3 pucks around house and would still frequently see vents report low signal.
I put one bridge in the basement around the center of a 2 story house, converted pucks to sensors and haven't seen any low signal yet.
I like that it's hardwired too, those pucks are pretty WiFi noisy. -
RF from bridge to vents. The bridge has a greater range than a single puck. If you have multiple pucks as gateways and no connectivity problems, it would be up to you to decide if it is worth it.
Since gateway pucks need to be powered by mains, one advantage of using a bridge instead is that you can then convert those gateway pucks into standard sensors which can be powered by batteries.
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I think you might be confused a bit. The bridge itself is a gateway. Since the bridge has a better antenna, and therefore better coverage, it can communicate with near and distant vents - if you utilize the bridge as your gateway instead of multiple gateway pucks, the vents will send their status / receive commands from the bridge where previously the gateway pucks played this role as an intermediary between Flair’s servers and your vents.
How well a puck does as a gateway will depend on the environment it is in. For example, my house built in 1900 is great at hampering RF signals. A vent situated in a room adjacent to the room I currently have the gateway puck in shows a signal strength on the lower end of the spectrum - the puck’s antenna isn’t strong enough to overcome my building’s construction. A bridge helps in such as scenario since it has a better antenna and can reach vents further away.
So, whether a user, that has pucks as gateways, will benefit in terms of improved connectivity with a bridge will depend on how well their pucks are currently doing when it comes to maintaining connection to their vents.
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Well, maybe I'm confused, but that's why I'm asking the question. Based on your answer though, my question remains unanswered. I think you may be confused about what I'm asking. To rephrase:
I understand that the bridge itself is a gateway. And I understand that the Bridge has a much stronger radio than a Puck Gateway. That being said, neither you nor anything else I read clearly state whether the both the Bridge and the Pucks can mesh and spread the signal around a large house.
Currently I have a big house with Gateway pucks spaced out to give the vents a strong signal:
GP1--------------------------------GP2-------------------------------GP3
What I am asking is whether:
1. A bridge takes over as a gateway (and effectively turns pucks into sensors)?
---------------------------------------Bridge-------------------------------
OR
2. A bridge operates as just another gateway along with the existing Gateway Pucks (that mesh to talk to the nearest vents)
GP1-----------------------------Bridge------------------------------GP2
Why am I asking? Because option 2 is obviously better than what I have now. Option 1 isn't, because even though the Bridge has a stronger radio, 1 strong, centrally located radio is not necessarily better than 3 (four actually) weaker but well dispersed ones.
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Michael Cardwell, the Bridge opens up another “gateway”. It’s got a stronger RF antenna and has a wider range than a Puck.
The idea is that if you add a Bridge to a system with Gateway Pucks, you can, effectively, switch out all the Gateways to Sensors (and they can use batteries) and the Bridge will take over as the single gateway.
All the best,
Finn -
Michael Cardwell, the Bridge opens up another “gateway”. It’s got a stronger RF antenna and has a wider range than a Puck.
So, to confirm, it doesn't stop the Pucks from also operating as gateways?
Because while some people might want to switch out all the Gateways to Sensors, I don't personally see the advantage in this.
1. You lose robustness in your mesh network.
2. You have to pay for and change batteries.
(yes, I understand that different people might prefer using Pucks as sensors with batteries, I'm just pointing out that you're better off clarifying you actually have the flexibility now to do either scenario).
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Yes, you can keep any gateway pucks as gateways when a Bridge is added (i.e., the bridge is a gateway while simultaneously your pucks are also gateways).
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I've added a bridge and it is up and running but is there anything that needs to be done on the vent setup to have it communicate with the bridge rather than the puck that was previously in bridge mode? There doesn't seem to be any setting or even indication in the app that shows if they are communicating with the bridge now.
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On the Flair app, open the overflow menu (3 lines in the upper left-hand corner), select Home Settings --> Flair devices. Scroll down to the vents section: when you expand a vent, you can see what gateway it is connected to by looking at the "Connected" line. You can also, from the Flair devices menu at the very top, run the "Network Repair Mode" option.
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Robert, you are correct in that I can see which vent is individually connected to which controller. I was looking for that from the bridge perspective. Since some vents are connected to the bridge and some still to pucks, I assume it is up to the vent to decide which signal is better. Any reason not to just let them figure it out or should I be forcing the connection to the bridge in some way?
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Just use the bridge, set all pucks to sensor mode. Easily covers 2k sq ft house, 3 pucks in opposite locations were not doing the job before. Pretty happy with the bridge, have’t seen a vent drop off yet. Just a tip, occasionally turn on Vent Identification Mode to see if all vents are responding, I frequently had to reboot vents once in a while, even those with the puck in same room as I would notice then being stuck and not opening or closing as needed.
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My bridge is working great. My house is 2250sf spread out over one floor, long not square. Two pucks would provide some spotty coverage but the bridge just covered the "dificult side" of the hose piece of cake. What is funny though is I can't get the one vent closest to the bridge to use it. That vent still connects to the other puck. But reading online flair supposedly will adjust over time and reconnect that one.
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