Guys, help me think outside the box.

Problem statement: My devices keep connecting to a weaker AP in the support building vs. the stronger signal in the house.

Background: I have WAP in the shed that I only need to use when I'm in the shed.
Shed is alarmed and has access control so the home automation controller knows if/when the building is occupied.

I'm using PoE switch to power the WAP.

Desired outcome: I want to have the WAP active (on) when I'm in the shed and deactivated (off) when I'm not. This should not be a scheduled event since I use the building at random times and for random duration.


Some ideas:
- The easiest thing to do is to installed controlled outlet, use PoE injector, and let home automation handle it.
- I'm trying to figure out if there is a serial to IP gizmo that could send PowerOff (& POn) command to a particular port on a network switch. I'm currently using Araknis, but could use something else if I had to.


Is there anything else you can think of?

just put the shed WAP on a different SSID?

Oh, it is.
And my devices still connect to it even though it's a much, much weaker signal.

What POE switch are you using?

Alarm all the shed doors and put PIRs in the shed. Alarm outputs turn on the power to the shed WAP and start or restart a half-hour timer. But the power will eventually turn off when you're in there and not moving around.

You can set up a foolproof power switch if the shed is built in such a way as to let you always enter the shed one way and then exit the same way. Put sensors in this entry. Sensor A is at the door (and can be a magnetic switch on the door) and Sensor B is a PIR, that's say, five feet inside.

Set up logic with the sensor outputs. When A, then B, are triggered, you're coming in and the power is turned on permanently. When B, then A, are triggered, a timer comes into play that turns off the power after thirty minutes. When you exit for the day, power is on for thirty minutes. This means exiting via that path for a moment gives you a half hour to come back in, turning the power on again.

Yeah actually you could pull that off with a PIR or two and a little Altronix timer board to interrupt a DC power supply feeding the WAP.

Put the WAP on a switched outlet.

Ruckus?

Use the excuse to upgrade to a system with controller based roaming?

Run just the power pairs of the POE cable through a relay of the automation system.

You may have the shed's SSID at a higher spot than your home's SSID. So since your devices are seeing both, it'll connect to the one that has the higher priority.

Or the first letter of the home SSID is a higher letter in the alphabet.

What are your devices?

KOT

I’m using AN-100-AP-I-N set to lowest power.

Building is 150’ away and yet my phone, laptop and tablet can still see the signal.

I’m powering the AP with AN-310-SW-16-POE.

Ok. What are the names of the SSIDs for each place? Would your devices happen to be made by Apple?

KOT

I'm assuming that since you have security and access control, you won't need any additional sensors. You can use the armed state of that partition to trigger.

Do you have any devices in your system that can issue SNMP commands?

This would be the easiest. when Shop is armed (assuming the shop and house are programmed on different partitions) relay on security system is opened and turns off power to PoE injector. When shop is disarmed same relay is closed to turn ON power to PoE injector. You will also require

You can also complete this using zones but as someone else mentioned if you aren't walking around or leave for a couple minutes to grab something then you will be losing WIFI a lot.

Guys thanks for all the input.
You confirmed that what I considered is pretty much what's available to me out there.

SSID's are different in the house and shed.
Main house - main network = MyName
Main house - guest network = MyNameGuest
Shed - main network = FBI Surveillance Van #6
Shed - guest network = FBI Surveillance Van #6 Patrol

As for security, I do have 7 areas in the house, all armed and controlled individually, with door/window and many PIR sensors.