App and Dashboard Doesn't reflect Light Status

Only been a HE user for a few weeks, and almost totally satisfied. One issue, that I didn't have with IRIS or Vera, is the light status on the actual app under devices, or on the dashboard:
If a light is switched on/off manually from a smart GE/Jasco switch, it's status is not accurately reflected in either the dashboard tile, or the app itself under devices.
This is true as well with Hue lights, all connected to the HUE hub, with the Hue Bridge app installed. If the Hue app runs a routine that turns any lights on or off, their status is not accurately reflected in either the app or dashboards.
I did find one community board discussion on the topic of zwave and saw the recommendation for installing the zwave polling. But, if I'm not mistaken, Hue Bulbs are Zigbee.
Again, I find this odd, since the IRIS app, and the Vera app did reflect accurately light status without the need of installing any additional routines or apps.
Suggestions would be most appreciated.
Michael

Not an expert with the Hue, but I believe the integration should maintain the correct status. As to the Zwave devices it depends upon their age; the older ones due to a patent were not able to include the automatic feedback and required the hub to poll their status to remain current (Vera, Iris, and others do this automatically whether it is needed or not.) Zwave+ devices (March 2013 and on), sometimes referred to as 500 or 700 series devices, have the feedback to the hub built in and do not need polling.

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What is your polling interval set to in the Hue Bridge Integration app on Hubitat? You will have to wait up to this long before changes made to Hue bulbs outside Hubitat are reflected in Hubitat. This is because Hubitat uses Hue's longstanding, stable v1 API, which only provides polling for third-party integrations. (They are developing a v2 API that provides instant status, but it is not finished yet, and the built-in integration does not use it. Both currently-maintained community integrations I'm aware of provide an option to use it instead if this is crucial for you.) Hue bulbs are indeed Zigbee, but this doesn't really matter to the Hubitat hub; the Hue Bridge uses Zigbee to communicate with them, but they're just LAN devices as far as Hubitat is concerned because it talks to your Hue Bridge over your home network.

Besides the above, the best way to avoid this is to make changes to Hue bulbs directly from Hubitat whenever you can. You can also decrease your polling interval, though I think it's set to 1 minute by default, which is probably good enough for most uses.

Z-Wave is a different issue, and I also suspect that your issue there is with older devices whose manufacturers chose not to license the patent.

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Just to add to what has already been said. Unlike other platforms, Hubitat decided to allow users to dictate when they need to poll devices. Older platforms that were built when most Z-Wave devices required constant polling, implemented the process at the platform level. Today, the newer Z-Wave devices no longer require constant polling, but if a user has legacy Z-Wave devices, polling can be enabled only for those older devices that need it, by using a polling app.

Likewise for the LAN connected devices. Hubitat gives users the flexibility of increasing or decreasing the rate at which the state of a device is updated.

Polling in general comes with a penalty in hub's performance. So Hubitat's approach to this problem was not to limit the number of devices that can be connected to one hub, or the frequency at which all devices are updated, but instead it allows users to make the decision on how often or how many devices they want to run on a hub.

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thank you, Bobby. That's the one thing I love about HE community, even the support folks from HE even chime in. Lot's of experts here, which is reassuring. I might have been playing with this stuff for 8-9 years, but no expert on my side, lol
I have not changed any polling on any of the 40+ devices installed on the HE Hub. My attention to the HUE bulbs was this morning, when I noticed on my dashboard, that my bedroom lab was still on, but was turned off last night automatically by the HUE routine. I will check the integration app and maybe make an adjustment.
Super thanks and much appreciate your help, and feedback!
Michael

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Thank you for the info, much appreciate!
Michael

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What exact model are these? There seem to be so many of these, and with a proliferation of drivers to match. There have been times where a different driver better matched the hardware and worked better.

Changing drivers won't help with the really old Zwave stuff, as it needs polling to report back. Some careful use of polling with a few devices is probably OK but I wouldn't do a house full of these.

You might consider upgrading to newer hardware while Zooz is having their Prime day sale at thesmartesthouse.com Move the old Z-wave to closet lights, basement, or other places where it won't matter if they report back status in a timely manner.

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Hey thanks for the info. The Jasco switches are over 8 yrs old. But between the previous community members, including a HE Support person, my questions were answered and everything has been remedied. I was spoiled by the fact that IRIS and Vera had built-in polling, for zwave and zigbee. I simply assumed the same for HE. But I learned that this is an option, and with the explanation provided by Bobby, I understand why. All fixed, and thanks!!
Michael

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Your info most helpful, along with Bobby from HE. Assumed it was turned on, but now it is, with the Hue for the recommended 1 minutes, and only a couple zwave switches using the polling app.
Thanks!
Michael

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This is almost perfectly describing what I'm seeing as well. We just came over from wink, and I've (painfully) been able to exclude my first few switches after setting up the Hubitat, and got them joined to Hubitat. They work... but in the mobile app, if I turn a light on, it keeps flashing the green power button, and I can't turn the light off (with the app). If I close the app and re-open it, the status will be updated and I can turn the light off. But then its blinking green again - so I'd have to reopen the app every time.

These are all GE/Jasco switches. So maybe they need Zwave polling enabled? But when I look at that Zwave poller article (sorry, its saying I can't link in posts) it talks about how if the logs register a state change, you should not use the poller. When I look at the logs, it does register state changes

[dev:2] 2022-07-13 01:15:57.821 pm [info] Living Room Accent was turned on [digital]
[dev:2] 2022-07-13 01:15:28.684 pm [info] Living Room Accent is off [digital]

So, if I don't need the poller, what would the solution be? Or is the article just wrong, and I need the poller still? :slight_smile:

Which exact model? Like I said above, some of these work better with some drivers than others Maybe a driver change would help? Hard telling without knowing what

If you look at the device settings page in Devices tab for these switches, and scroll to the bottom of the page, there should be (at least) one model number listed there.

If you list the model number, and the Device Type (driver) being used, someone probably can advise you whether polling or something else would help.

I wish I knew - bought these from lowes so I can't search old emails, and would have to pull one out of the wall to take a look at the label :confused:

I see this under data in Hubitat;

  • deviceType: 18770
  • zwNodeInfo: D3 9C 00 04 10 01 25 27 73 70 86 72 77 68 23
  • deviceId: 12338
  • inClusters: 0x25,0x27,0x73,0x70,0x86,0x72,0x77
  • manufacturer: 99

@CTulloch The Ox25 gives it away. It is a Zwave, not a PLUS. It will require polling.

Hey, CTulloch, read what Neon and Bobby posted as the recommendation for me. Both of these gents provided great info for me, and the solutions work. Keep in mind, my switches are at least 8 years old, (GE/Jasco). Hubitat installed the generic zwave switch, which worked. Then per the recommendation, I installed the polling app. I selected the two switches, and enabled the polling. Now you may need to reboot the Hub, (I did), before you notice the actual reflection of the switch state.
Good luck, and have fun!
Michael

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I did setup the polling app as a try, and found the "start polling" button and I see the events rolling through. But the same blinking green behavior in the app is happening after I flip a switch.

I tried rebooting, still the same thing though. I made sure and checked the logs and refreshed the log, and let a polling event come through (several).

Update: I had stopped fiddling with it this afternoon, decided to come back to it later. When I went to bed tonight, excluded/added the bedroom fan, and it is updating after turning it on/off, like it should. I tried the other lights from earlier and they are now too. They give one brief green flash on the app button but that's it, status is reflected. I have not rebooting the hub or touched anything Hubitat related since earlier when the app device buttons weren't updating without closing the app. Strange :). But glad it's working now! Thanks everyone for the help and comments. Works way better and faster than wink ever did, just gotta work out the kinks!

Ok, now this is just weird.

One clarification; I had only ever added the poller to the first light I was trying to get working yesterday.

I added a light and fan last night, and they worked fine right away, and ALL were working fine at that time, when I edited post above. This morning, I added another room's light and fan. Now, all are back to working like yesterday, where I have to close and reopen the app before the status updates. Including the light I added the poller to yesterday - and the poller is still on that light, polling away, I can see it in the event log.

The fans show up as "GE Smart Fan Control", and they are having the same behavior. In fact, I also have an Eaton switch I added this morning, that also has the same issue. Button in phone app just blinks green after turning on or off, have to close and reopen phone app for it to update.

This seems like a phone app<->hub issue, not a zwave switch<->hub issue.... because its multiple switches of different brands and types, and either ALL are affected, or none are affected. AND its regardless of which do or don't have polling.

EDIT: Sure enough, an hour later, no reboots or any changes on the hub (I was working at my desk) I picked up my phone, brought up hubitat app, and now I can control everything, and status is updated instantly.