I'll give it some time. Just FYI the # of devices at 100, 40, 9.6 did improve slightly overnight from
100 32 -> 33
40 3 -> 4
9.6 14 -> 12
But still nowhere close to the last C-7 speeds of
100 39
40 3
9.6 7
So we'll see how it goes.
Also, just FYI, what seems strange is that Living Room Front Hall Switch and the Living Room Reading Lamp Switch are slower as they either have a direct line of sight to the hub, or at worst, 1 wooden door between them and the hub. But, as we all agree, Z-Wave is mysterious and let's see how it is over time,
I have 2 Aeotec Range Extender 7s that never seem to do anything (i.e. virtually nothing goes through them). I've tried to move them around from time to time, but to no avail.
Lotta good advice/help from @rlithgow1 - you're lucky.
It can/will take at least days to weeks for new Z-Wave routing to appear...when I went to the C8 it took a week at least after migration for things to seem like they were starting to settle down, and changes continued after that. Similar situation, 2500 sqft home, one level, hub almost centered.
You can do individual repairs on devices connecting at 9.6 to try to hustle them along, but you never really know if they will respond. I had a Switch at 9.6 on my C7 for I think at least a year...always worked, no significant delays, not far away from my hub. At some point it switched to 40, but I didn't notice any difference in its functionality at either speed.
Sometimes all the details available on the Z-Wave Details page can be almost distracting...I try to focus on whether my gear is working, if I have delays/slow-downs, then target those devices. Starting from the Z-Wave Details page (i.e., deciding I have a problem only because I looked at Z-Wave Details) is a bit bass-ackwards, and I try to avoid that. Hope that makes sense...
If so, does it need to between the slow switches and the hub? Should it be closer to the hub or the switches I'm trying to help?
Also, I'm not sure how a range extender could help, or even would be needed, for the two living room switches (they are in a 2 gang metal box) because I just measured it, and they are almost exactly just 25 feet away from the hub and they face in a direct line of sight or, at worst, have 1 standard wooden door to go through when it is closed.
I'm pasting in below a link to photos I took from right in front of the hutch that the hub situs on top of looking to the switches and from the switches back the other way. It also has 2 pictures of the hub sitting atop the hutch, if that helps.
Likewise the front hall light switch and Wegitorium light switches are only about 14 feet further away down an open hall way from the living room switches and the laundry room hall switch is less than four feet away from the living room switches, albeit around a corner (but right at the edge of that corner).
I get it that the Palm Room and Master Bedroom/Bathrooms and others have walls, TVs, etc. possibly between the hub and them, but those other seem to be about as unobstructed as possible.
Instead of the range extenders could different antennas be the answer? And if so, which ones?
It's z-wave and pairs directly to hubitat with their native driver. Interestingly enough it also has a back up battery and can be used as a trigger when going from mains to battery or battery to mains. (A lot of us use it to trigger a shut down sequence should power go out)
Thanks! So a couple of things. While the overall speeds improved over the last couple of days, overall it is still worse than the C-7 was. Just to recap, the number of devices at 100, 40 and 9.6 speeds were:
C-7 39, 3, 7
Now 2 days after the antenna swap:
C-8 36, 3, 10
But what is interesting in those # is that 6 are faster, 9 are slower and 34 are the same. And the slower ones often are usually going from 100 to 9.6.
What is also really strange is what is slower. One is Stuart's Den Inovelli Fan + Light. It went from 100 to 9.6 and what is particularly strange to me is that it is in the same room as the hub and in direct line of sight from it. And this is supposed to have a 700 series chip, so it should have connected directly. Instead it is going through the switch that is on the other side of the wall further away.
Likewise, another 700 series switch, the Wegitorium Fan + Light went from 100 to 9.6.
Also, the living room front hall switch went from 100 to 9.6 and it also is in line of sight of the hub and only about 15 feet away. (That one is in the pictures I posted a link to the other day).
So I don't know how a range extender could possibly help those devices that are so close and in direct line of sight. I just don't get how/why they became so drastically worse.
What thing you could try is create a virtual device... Lets say -temp hall swich and use device swap to swap that into any rules using it. Then exclude the switch properly. Factory reset it and then re pair it to see if you get a better route.
You haven't specifically said that you're seeing any slow-downs or problems with the devices showing slower connection speeds. If you aren't having specific issues w/those devices, then doing individual Z-Wave repairs and waiting at least a week or more is a simpler and easier approach that doesn't require you to do Swap Apps Devices actions and exclude/re-include a bunch of devices.
If the numbers are just plain bothering you too much regardless of any issues, or if you are having delays/issues w/those devices, then doing as @rlithgow1 suggests is a good approach.
When I first got the C-8 the farthest room, the Palm Room, happened virtually instantly, but now has fallen to 9.6 and there is a noticeable couple of seconds delay. Same with my (Stuart) den and the living room switches. Plus, I certainly didn't want to pay all that to get worse performance. So that is certainly extremely disappointing. I'm baffled as to how the new hub, with its antennas, can possibly be slower for a 700 series switch in the same room with a direct line of sight, and so drastically slower going from 100 to 9.6. I know Z-Wave moves in mysterious ways but this is just aggravating, especially as it seems I'm at the mercy of the Great Z-Wave in the sky.
I've tried doing Z-Wave repairs in the past with the C-7 and even a full Z-Wave repair once and it never made anything better.
I may try the exclude/include on individual switches. But I think if I do I would need to take the switches they are going through off line too so they don't just reconnect through the same pathway they were using before.
For now, I'll just keep monitoring it daily to see if it gets any better on its own or what.
Thanks for the details - I'd do the individual repairs on any of the devices you're experiencing delays with, or devices that are having issues that are routing through slow devices. That's a can't hurt, might help approach.
I'll see in a couple of days. As I said above, I tried to do the exclude/include routine before on several switches, but I never saw even one improve by doing it.
BTW, there was one major thing I forgot to mention that is really important for me, which isn't the speed itself, per se, but connectivity. I used to be able to routinely update the firmware on my Inovelli switches (which is the vast majority of what I have) but then had a terrible time doing them. I had to give up after I only got about 3 of them to upgrade - trying both the Updater app and the Updater Driver methods. That was a good year or more ago by now. So I was counting on being able to either directly connect, or at least have a fast connection, in the hopes of being able to do that.
Since several very close, and even direct line of sight, devices have fallen from 100 to 9.6 is it possible that the antennas could be worse for very close (i.e. 10-20 feet) devices? I sure don't know,
Let's see how it settles in over the next few days.
Thanks for confirming the actual performance issues. Overall I would say that if your first post date is when you migrated, it's only been four or five days and my mesh was updating/changing actively for at least two weeks after migration. I did do individual repairs on slower connected devices after a while.
Not that I'm aware of...I haven't heard any mention of an issue like that. In general, closer should be better. Sometimes higher power settings on Zigbee can cause problems w/more interference, but for Z-Wave there is no power setting, and the external antenna should help w/connection speeds/more direct connects. That's been the most common result w/the C8 deployment, and with the older community antenna mod on C7 hubs.
I understand it's not much help, but at this point waiting for the hub to "settle" is probably your best bet, and then if things are still not working well, then trying the exclude/re-joins. I still recommend the individual repairs at this point, but again, up to you.
