Orbi Location Services

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RevHoney wrote:

If I connect an old Airport Express to one of the satellites, I get the location services back, but without that, nothing. None of my devices can determine their location. 

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This is because already the presence of a (known to the location service cloud) wireless device (SSID, wireless MAC address) in the vicinity is sufficient so the cloud based location services can create a correlation and provide location service.

At least your iPhones should be able to get the exact location from the built-in GPS/Glonass modules, unless the devices are located in the underground or to far away from the building hull/windows. If these can gain satellite location information while in the wireless range, and you have not decided for not sharing location data (that would be a show stopper!), the cloud location databases will be updated with your new Orbi wireless name, MAC address, and location. Of course, this process does take a while - and it has to happen for the Orbi router and the Orbi satellites due to the different MAC addresses. 

This is - among the re-config hassles for the possibly many wireless devices - the key reason why we suggest not to change the wireless name (SSID) when installing a new router or wireless system, and carry forward the existing name and wireless security key.

Regards,
-Kurt