I have only used that radio for one node so far - one of the LCD clocks. Its only about 30ft from the controller but it does go though a couple of walls. Communication is pretty much 100% at that range. I used the larger antenna radios for the longer distances - e.g. the garage which is 50ft or so and about 4 walls but its very consistent.

Rich

My home sensor network is documented here:

part 1 - http://rheslip.blogspot.ca/2014/09/mysensors-internet-of-things-project.html
part 2 - http://rheslip.blogspot.ca/2014/09/the-mysensor-iot-project-part-2-some.html

I implemented a custom network controller using a Mega1284 (lots of SRAM and flash) and a dedicated Mega328 to run the sensor gateway code. A cheap ENC28J20 SPI ethernet module connects to my LAN and the internet. I monitor what's happening with a web page on the LAN and Twitter when I'm not at home. Works really well!

It was easy to get the sensor nodes working by modifying the example sketches. I used the sample node.js controller code as a guide to write the Mega1284 controller sketch.

Still lots of things to do and ideas for expanding the network. I would never have attempted something this complex from scratch - kudos to the mysensors crew on a fantastic project!!!

Rich