I'm migrating from a C-5 to a C-7 and am systematically making the rounds setting all my Z-Wave devices (~20 total thus far) back up on the new C-7 hub, running platform version 2.2.4.158.
All of my devices were successfully excluded from the C-5 hub and I've factory reset each device before including it on the C-7 hub. This process, while very tedious, has been working well up to the point that it wasn't.
I'm including each device unsecured where possible and only have two devices (Zooz ZEN20 power strips) that join with S0.
My issue started right after a troublesome inclusion/exclusion process for one of those aforementioned Zooz power strips and after the last exclusion process to remove that ZEN20 (which did appear to work, as it disappeared from the devices list and no longer shows in the Z-Wave details) I can no longer include any new Z-Wave devices into my network. When I put the hub into inclusion mode and attempt an inclusion at the device itself, the hub doesn't find the device and the inclusion timer will just expire. I'm attempting to join all devices within 5 feet of the hub, just to make sure there's not a distance factor in play.
I've looked at the Z-Wave details and have no devices showing as "PENDING" and the devices I do have joined (which so far are all Zooz ZEN15 HD electrical switches) are all working well (responding to on/off commands, reporting power consumption, etc.)
To point, I have done the following:
Multiple Z-Wave radio disable/enable - no change
Multiple reboots - no change
Z-Wave repair - no change (to be fair, I didn't expect this to fix anything, but did it for the sake of being thorough)
Safe power down the hub, pull power and wait over 5 minutes, power back up and try inclusion - no change
How can I better understand, troubleshoot (and fix) this inclusion issue?
Any help and insight on this would be greatly appreciated. If there's a better way to troubleshoot this than what I've listed above, then please educate me and I'll give it a go!
Do you have any “ghost nodes”, with “in:, out:” but nothing else? You need to get rid of them.
Your Z-Wave radio may be wedged. Do a clean shutdown, remove power (at wall outlet, not the mini USB plug, which has a fragile mounting to the PCB), power back up after 30 sec. That’s the only way to reset the Z-Wave radio.
I see you did the power down. Ok, try make a backup, download to computer, do a soft reset, restore the downloaded backup. That clears out any garbage from the database.
Thanks for the reply @672southmain - I'll give the backup/restore a shot and report back.
To your points, above:
#1 - as far as ghost nodes go, I don't think I have any, as all of my cluster "maps" look like this:
They all have in: values, but no device has an out: value.
All devices show as "OK" and there are no "PENDING" devices.
#2 - Yes - did that. I pulled the power adapter from the outlet, leaving the micro-USB plug untouched. Sadly that process netted nothing.
Ok, looks like no ghost nodes that are visible. The reason I suggested the backup/restore is that, yesterday I ended up, after removing (clean exclude) a ZSE18 USB-powered motion sensor that was acting as a repeater, I had several devices, still operational, that still showed as repeating through it even though the device didn’t show on Z-Wave details. Took a couple node repairs (not full z-wave repairs) and shutdown/restart to clear things up. Also, before that, had difficulty including an Aeotec Range Extender 7 that left a ghost node on each try, was able to get rid of it by doing a Z-Wave exclude on Z-Wave details page, got report that unknown Z-Wave device excluded. You might try that.
Ok, I don’t have devices that report power consumption, but I understand that they can swamp your mesh if generating too much traffic. Is it possible for you to turn down the power reporting intervals? Are you seeing Z-Wave busy messages in the logs?
@672southmain - I've looked at the logs, and there are no Z-Wave busy messages at all. The logs are acting just as I would expect and are receiving power status reports, as configured per each previously joined device. I've got my Zooz plugs tuned pretty well for power reporting, based on their intended use, so I'm confident that is at least set up correctly, and based on what I'm seeing in the logs, that seems to be confirmed.
It's like the Z-Wave radio - while partially functioning, is partially "locked".
I never saw this on my C-5 hub once.. it was always functioning and became even more stable and reliable as the platform revisions continued release.
Despite liking the features in tow with the C-7, to say my experience with it has been smooth or pleasant is a patent lie, unfortunately.
remove and exclude any and all zooz products (humor me) Make sure there is no power at all to any of them. Shutdown hub, unplug for 5 mins (humor me I know you did it before) Power up, check your z-wave details for ghosts and generic names (something may have been added that you didn't get to name). Go back and start adding stuff that isn't zooz and see if it starts adding again...If so, make your zooz the last to pair. Stay away from the zooz outlets at the momeny as they are creating serious issues. Zooz and HE are trying to work it out
@rlithgow1 - I wish I could exclude the Zooz products, but exclusion is in the exact same state as inclusion - as in it doesn't work. I can start the manual exclusion process on the hub and then go right to one of my Zooz outlets and click the button 3 times for the exclusion to start and the hub does nothing. And I'm doing all of this with the devices less than 5 ft. away from the hub.
So - I'm stuck.... I can't exclude and I cannot include.
Do you have any link that describes the current issues between Zooz and HE? I'd love to know what the official stance (from either HE or Zooz) is on that topic, especially since my entire Z-Wave network is 95% Zooz products (thus far).
Based on other posts, it's not just the zen25, its also 5 in 1 motion detectors and some other stuff. It's how it pairs. On c5 it's fine, but the requirements for c7 and the current z-wave standard are causing issues.
@rlithgow1 - no ghosts present... verified and confirmed that to be the case.
I appreciate the link to the thread above - that was interesting reading and I'm now following it so I can track the discussion.
At this point, I think my only viable solution is to reset the Z-Wave radio, start from scratch and try this all again... sigh... the amount of hours I've burned on the C-7 is just shameful.
If you do do a z-wave reset, make sure you remove them from the devices page as well. After 10 or so devices, manually download your config (easier to do a soft reset and restore)
Also before you do that maybe @bobbyD can take a look at your hub. Send an email to support with your MAC address and let them look at it. That way you may not have to go through hell.
@rlithgow1 - I've gone ahead and done the Z-Wave reset and just started over. I did remove each device from the device page and then did another Z-Wave reset, powered down the hub, waited over 5 minutes and then have begun the slow process of doing an exclude/include on each device. So far, so good.
I will take your advice and do a manual backup every few devices until I have the mesh completely built again, and I'm also going to wait for a bit to let the mesh build out and establish before I add too many devices back/back.
Just be aware that more than one or 2 zooz ZSE 40's (The 4 in 1 sensors) will crap out your mesh and cause radio lock ups and you'll be right back where you started.
@jtmpush18 - Appreciate the thought... I have multiple ZEN15 and 2 ZEN20 on my network and that's it (thus far). I did read the thread that @jtmpush18 linked and it was very insightful.
My free memory looks like this (as of a couple of minutes ago) Date/time,Free OS,Total JVM,Free JVM 2020-12-21 12:41:23,533408,236504,122156
I'll be staying away from them for the time being. I've only got ZEN15 and ZEN20 devices at the moment - and they worked flawlessly on the C-5 - so I'm really just trying to get back to where I was before I started this whole "upgrade" affair.
