I have a home with approximately 150 Z-Wave devices. About 100 of the Z-Wave devices are Leviton switches. A combination of dimmers, rockers and fan controls. About 20 of the Leviton Z-wave switches are wired as slave switches in a 3, 4 or 5-way configuration. It is my understanding (and experience) that, when 2+ switches are wired on the same circuit, Leviton does not allow the slave switches to enter inclusion/exclusion mode.
The inability to include these switches does not affect the operation, either from a circuit standpoint or a Hubitat standpoint.
However, it has created about 20 "ghost nodes" on my network. Hubitat/network reliability issues have caused me to go through the troubleshooting motions of eliminating any variables to get to the root of my reliability problems. 20 ghost nodes seems like it could be a likely culprit.
I'm looking for any opinion on the next best steps.
I would get the companion switches and wire them in as 3 way switches (4 way and 5 way work as well). That way they will work without any Z-wave configuration and they are very easy to install.
Thank you for the quick responses. Maybe (not so) coincidently, the complexity of that exact dropbox PDF file is what led me to post in this forum. My fear is that, given they technically are part of my network, I will continually fight with those ghost nodes popping up. Even after following the steps in that document.
As for the companion switches, currently the circuits are setup as:
Leviton DZ6HD-1BZ / Leviton DD00R-DLZ (master/slave). No functionality issues relating to the multilocation circuits.
My reliability problems are VERY intermittent and revolve around completion of basic rules, slow node response times (greater than 10 seconds) and loss of connection to certain nodes on the network for a few minutes or more.
I will try the manual removal via the Hub > Settings > Z-Wave Details, and a hard reboot as mentioned:
If you follow the instructions in the guide and complete them successfully, the specific ghosts you remove will be removed and will not return. You can always run into new ghosts if you have additional issues pairing devices to your hub, but ones you successfully remove will not return.
It's smart to try using the options on the Z-Wave Details page before going to the extra trouble/expense of using a UZB stick. Specifically:
Hit the Refresh button on the ghost device line in your Z-Wave table. You may have to try it multiple times, but in many cases a "Remove" button will appear that you can then use to remove the device.
-- Recommended that you remove power from the device that created the ghost before you use the Refresh and Remove buttons. You can either disconnect it from power, or kill the circuit it is on.
If you do a full shut down from the Settings menu, unplug your hub at the wall, wait a minute, and then plug your hub back in and boot it up, you may increase your likelihood of success.
Quick Update: I cut the power to my multi-location switch circuits (a pretty substantial amount of my house) and tried the Refresh / Remove method for the 22 ghost devices on my network. It took a LONG time. The "Status" on the "Z-Wave Radio Devices" page went from "OK" to "PENDING" on most (not all) of the devices.
I performed the full shutdown from the settings menu, unplugged it and let it sit for about 10 minutes. After booting back up, I checked the "Z-Wave Radio Devices" page. Unfortunately, they were all still there AND I picked up 4 more ghost nodes. Lol.
instead of wiring it as a traditional multi-way switch, you could just provide power to each and use a mirroring app to link the switches together (or use a rule to sync them all). then when you turn one on/off, they all turn on/off. regardless of which switch on that circuit you trigger, the light will respond accordingly
Thanks again to @danabw . The instructions are thorough, making the process pretty simple/straightforward (albeit somewhat time consuming).
I successfully removed 29 ghost nodes from my network. However, I am still experiencing reliability issues with my Z-wave network. I will start a new thread to address that.
Wait a few days before doing anything further on your Z-Wave network.
What I would recommend now is the shut down/restart dance:
a. Shut down hub from Settings menu
b. Pull plug (from wall, hub connector can be fragile)
c. Wait one minute
d. Plug in hub and let it boot up
Then let things sit for a couple days. That will give your mesh a little time to settle, and then you can see what further changes may be necessary.
Ha. It was not a quick task, that's for sure. Hopefully, removing these along with updating the Z-Wave firmware through the z-wave details page (advice I received from another thread) will net some good results.
I'm really looking forward to the day I am done building out the network. It seems every weekend I am adding a sensor, switch, relay or something. I realize the implications this has on the rest of the network. The more I add, the more potential I see...Thank you again for the advice!
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