Building a Solid Z-Wave Mesh

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1

Question. I'm readying to swap my C5 for a C7 and was reading the article on Building a Solid Z-Wave Mesh.

When reading #3 of Tips for designing your Z-Wave mesh, I got a little confused. For my clarity when setting up a Z-Wave network, I should:

1, setup repeaters first (working outward from hub)
then
2. work outward from hub with End Devices.

Or, do I just work from the hub outward for all devices?

2

Updated.

"Battery powered Z-Wave devices do not repeat signals. Non-repeating devices are known as End Devices, whereas Z-Wave repeating devices are Routers."

"When installing several devices, install Z-Wave mains powered Routers first, beginning closest to the hub and working outward so other devices will be able to use them to reach the hub. Once the Z-Wave routers are installed, add your battery powered Z-Wave End Devices."

So when the devices that are powered by AC voltage are joined to the hub, they form a Z-Wave Mesh for the battery powered devices to talk to nearby repeaters that will relay their signal back to the hub either directly, or via one or more addition repeaters (up to 4 hops for Z-Wave) until the hub (Coordinator) receives the packets from the end devices.

Battery power End Devices to not forward data packets and do not participate in the Z-Wave Mesh. So setup up the devices capable of repeating, working from the hub outward, then add your non-repeating battery powered end devices.

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3

Sounds good. From my understanding, the inovelli RGBW bulbs don't repeat either ... even tho they're AC powered ...

Hope I have that right.

4

LZW42? Those are not compatible with C-7, so if you have a lot and replacing them would be too expensive, you're going want to keep your C-5 active for them and use Hub Mesh to link them to your C-7 for the automations.

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5

Oh SH!T !!!

I had no idea. I figured the C7 would "grandfather" C5 devices ... big bummer.

Any idea why the C7 isn't compatible?

6

If I remember correctly, it was because they cannot be joined without S0 and so they are terrible to use (very slow) and couldn't support association.

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7

I just read the spec sheet:

Ilumin (Powered by Inovelli) RGBW Multicolor A19 Smart Bulb - LZW42 - Spec Sheet

And it lists the Hubitat as a compatible device:

image
image1068×401 13.9 KB

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What's S0

9

Z-Wave Security Level 0 (old and slow)

10

Have you tried the bulbs with the C7 @Ronv42?

11

Not yet, but I was looking a for some RGB lighting for another project and these were on my short list. Maybe @Eric_Inovelli can provide some feedback.

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12

discouraging. //

13

Hence, I feel your pain @ronv42 ....

I have a C5 (for legacy devices, noisy sensor devices that C7 cannot accomodate, select apps) and a C7 (for Z-Wave Plus, Zigbee, Apps, etc)...

I was hoping to consolidate from one ST Hub to my HE/C7 and power off the C5, but now I have a redundant HE environment & Network Mesh replicates device status where needed...

My C7's Z-Wave radio has been temperamental but getting better...

14

The compatibility list was updated to indicate they are not compatible with Model C-7

15

Ok thanks....

16

That makes me wonder if Hubitat devs have any intention of allowing "old and slow" devices for future hardware/software releases.

Sounds like a money suck if not.

I purchased my bulbs less than a year ago.

17

That would be great.

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This has nothing to do with the devs. The 700 chipset doesn't support not using security that was an option with the 500 series. Manufacturers were able to decided if they wanted to include security. With 700 series, security is enforced. There's not a way to get around it in the hub.

There's a trick the community has found, but it's not something anyone should expect Hubitat to offer support for it doesn't work right.

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19

Thanks for the clarification. ))

20

I had 5 of them on my C7 for a short while and had major Z-Wave issues that got better after I moved them (and other problematic devices) off to my C5.

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