All Z-Wave Door Sensors (Inactive). Show closed all the time, even when opened

steve1 · November 19, 2018, 8:40pm

Well, this certainly isn't comforting from a security standpoint. All of my Generic Z-wave door sensors, mostly GoControl, I think, are just inoperative.

I replaced one, with a spare zigbee sensor I had and it works fine. However, I didn't bother to check the others until now.

None of them are working.

Thanks for any help.

steve1 · November 20, 2018, 5:54pm

Does anyone have any ideas? Looking closer I found...

It looks like all 6 of my z-wave contact sensors and my z-wave door lock all stopped working on November 15. This seems too coincidental.

I could be wrong, but it seems like I may have upgraded the hub around that time. If I knew where to find update times, I'd check.

All of these devices are using the GoControl device drivers and worked fine for 4-5 months.

Is there some way I can make these work without resetting them all? That would be painful, given the apps they're used in, etc.

I spot checked some of the z-wave motion sensors and switches and they seem fine.

Help greatly appreciated here. My system is badly handicapped.

Thanks.

Navat604 · November 20, 2018, 6:55pm

You can try remove the battery and reinstall back. Look in the Z-Wave info page and these sensors usually report back almost daily for battery status. That's how I usually check them. Also there could be a mesh issue so do a Z-Wave repair as well.
The picture below shows some ofy GoControl door sensors.

steve1 · November 20, 2018, 7:05pm

@Navat604 thank for the tips.

I tried removing the batter for about 30 seconds and reinserted. Didn't seem to do anything.

I did a repair z-wave and that didn't do anything.

All of them still show no updates in logs since 11/15 despite all this.

Help. Please.

Thanks.

Navat604 · November 20, 2018, 7:07pm

Give the hub a reboot.

bobbles · November 20, 2018, 7:08pm

I would contact support.
support@hubitat.com

mike.maxwell · November 21, 2018, 1:01am

What drivers are you using for these?

steve1 · November 21, 2018, 3:42am

Thanks for your help.

I am using the GoControl Contact Sensor driver. I believe that is the correct one and it worked fine for 4-5 months, until 11/15. All of them.

-Steve

mike.maxwell · November 21, 2018, 3:57am

Please change back to the stock built in driver, if you are unsure which one to use, let me know and I'll look it up for you.

steve1 · November 21, 2018, 1:51pm

Will just switching make them work, or do I have to exclude, remove and rediscover?

Thanks.

dbmet · November 21, 2018, 1:53pm

I have switched drivers and then clicked save. Then I clicked configure. I didn’t have to exclude and include.

ogiewon · November 21, 2018, 2:10pm

Do you have any Z-Wave repeaters in your house? From what you've mentioned, all of the devices that are not updating their status are battery powered devices. That means they all have to have a direct connection to the Hub, unless you have some Z-Wave plug in devices that act as repeaters.

mike.maxwell · November 21, 2018, 6:57pm

yes, no need to re join them

steve1 · November 21, 2018, 7:30pm

Thanks Ogie,

I am not aware that I have Z-Wave repeaters specifically, but I do have a number of Z-Wave switches in walls that as I recall do act as repeaters. They are all around the house and they seem to be working fine.

Two other things. The battery powered motion detectors which are set up as generic z-wave motion sensors seem to be working fine, so I'm not sure this is some battery z-wave issue.

I tried changing the device type from GoControl Motion Sensor to Generic Z-Wave Contact Sensor. It didn't seem to do anything. I repaired z-wave, and that didn't help either.

Here are some other possibly related notes:

My Kwikset combination lock, which has used z-wave generic driver, also stopped working at the same time
Not all of the contact sensors which stopped working were GoControl. The front door is a Sensative Strip contact sensor. It is setup as a generic contact sensor. It worked fine, but like all the others has been absent since 11/15 like everything else.

At this point, I'm quite dejected.

Thanks for any help.

steve1 · November 24, 2018, 5:58pm

Well, it appears nobody has a solution.

I sent an email to support about 4 days ago. I suppose the holidays may have delayed any response. Not sure, but they've provided no advice.

At this point, I am thinking of just replacing them with SmartThings zigbee motion sensors. Hey what's another $100, but what will crap out inexplicably next month? Probably another $100 then, and more when something else goes awry.

Is there any need to somehow exclude these devices? It seems like if the hub can't see them it won't be able to exclude them? Not sure.

-Steve

steve1 · November 25, 2018, 3:45am

Going from bad to worse.

More Z-Wave devices dropping offline. Have restarted the hub, repaired Z-Wave. Tried removing a few and adding them back.

I can get no new z-wave devices to add.

Is my Z-Wave radio losing it?

-Steve

csteele · November 25, 2018, 5:17am

This sure sounds like radio interference.

ZWave is in the 800-900mhz region, Zigbee's up in 2.4gig where WiFi lives. Zigbee users know all about radio interference, but 900mhz area for ZWave is not as crowded.

Do you have a close neighbor that also has ZWave? (Your Hub is against your wall, theirs is against the same wall, other side: 6" from yours?" Lots of Insteon? Are you like me and have 4 ZWave machines (Hubs) in the same room? (3 of mine are now off, but once upon a time...)

steve1 · November 26, 2018, 12:03am

No, I don't have neighbors.

But, i restarted again recently, and that appears to have broken loose the issues. I had restarted at least two other times to no avail.

However, today I restarted for another reason, and things seem OK for now.

Very frustrating and very weird. Glad things are working though.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help.

Thanks.