Do all auxiliary repeaters need to be in the range of the main repeater?

[SparkyCoog]

I feel dumb for asking this question after 10 years of installing Ra2 systems, but I never had to line up aux repeaters in a linear way before (at least not wirelessly) but in light of a house having issues and now with Ra3 not having a MUX connection, I want to clear it up. let's say you have a distance of 200 feet from the main repeater and a ra2 dimmer. If you add one Auxiliary repeater about 60 feet in a straight line, that gets you there about 90 feet. Can you add 2 more auxiliary repeaters wirelessly in a straight line 60 feet from each other to get another 120 feet? Do they relay the system back to each other and back to the main repeater? In the cut sheet, it only shows that is possible if there is a wired connection, but does it work wirelessly too?

For some reason I thought that was possible but I noticed that on one job where things were working just fine before, all of a sudden one auxiliary repeater was not connecting. It's about 50ish feet away from the main repeater, but 40ish feet away from another auxiliary repeater and it would still not connect. I'm trying to figure out if it's because it needs to be in contact with the main repeater or it's because of interference. It's plugged into a TV cabinet but now that the customer has moved in, the cabinet has an xbox, cable box, and a bunch of wireless controllers. If I move it even 5 feet out of the the cabinet it connects just fine.

[randyc]

No. You can have an Aux Repeater 200 feet from the main as long as you have others in between.

When you activate the Aux Repeaters you need to activate them in order (distance from the main, closest first). You can always add an Aux later but you want to activate all the Aux repeaters before any devices.

It is possible that one of the devices in the cabinet is generating some noise that interferes with the repeater. Seems odd but that is RF.

[Imshea]

No. You can have an Aux Repeater 200 feet from the main as long as you have others in between.

When you activate the Aux Repeaters you need to activate them in order (distance from the main, closest first). You can always add an Aux later but you want to activate all the Aux repeaters before any devices.

It is possible that one of the devices in the cabinet is generating some noise that interferes with the repeater. Seems odd but that is RF.

My rule #1 based upon experience is to stay out of these cabinets.

[SparkyCoog]

Thanks for the reply and insanity check guys. I could have sworn that you could line them up but this house has had some weird signal issues.Another signal issue we had was trying add 3 low voltage landscape transformers installed outside to the system. Since Lutron found it wise to not let us use the Ra3 outdoor plug, we did it the old fashioned way by installing the dimmer outside in a weather proof PVC box/in-use cover.

For the record, this was NOT my idea- I took over this job after 2 other Ra2 companies got fired and we did not wire the house. I always keep the switches in the garage. It was just one of those "do whatever it takes to keep the customer happy" types of things.
The first 2 switches worked like a charm. The 3rd one was installed next to a gate opener and 20 feet away from a RA2 repeater and activated fine but then would only turn the load off but not on and it would not give the correct feedback on the status of the switch. We moved the repeater even closer and then it wouldn't work at all! As it turns out, the liftmaster gate opener uses 433 MHz so it's right next to the 434 MHz of Clear connect. So until we can locate a new spot for the transformer, we just put in a standalone astronomical timer for that one.

But yes, RF interference is a real threat even with Clear Connect. The products are supposed to be FCC approved and not maintain the signal but I doubt they've been tested thoroughly. We found out last year that MR-16 LED bulbs also interfered with an older gate opener. I guess I'll add TV cabinets to the list!