I have 12 Enbrighten / Jasco / GE Z-Wave switches previously paired to an ADT Pulse gateway. All have been removed from that gateway and I have focused on connected the two newest devices to the Hubitate C8 Pro Hub with no success.
I have reviewed the community forums and how-to videos. I have performed multiple “Z-Wave Exclusion” processes and factory reset of the devices themselves. I cannot get either switch connected to the hub, and have even tried a Hub shut down process which also included unplugging the hub per the support forums.
The Hub is connected directly to the LAN through a TP-Link AV2000 Powerline Ethernet Adapter.
I’m not sure what else I can do before I just return this hub and try something else? Any help would be greatly appreciated - thank you.
How are powering the hub, are you using POE or the wall wart/cable provided with the hub? Using POE can cause significant Z-Wave problems w/C8 hubs.
https://community.hubitat.com/t/poe-and-the-c8-with-extensive-testing/133155
The hub is powered directly to a surge protector using the supplied cable. So, there are two connections to/from the hub: 1: Power is direct to a surge protector which is functional (green light is on the hub). 2. The hub is connected to my LAN through using the TPLink Powerline Adapter. The hub has one dedicated port on the TP Link Adapate, the other one (two total) is being used by the ADT Pulse Gateway
I would try two things just as a test:
-
Make certain that the ADT Pulse gateway is powered off.
-
Connect the hub to the LAN another way.
What is working for you?
So by this it sounds like you mean that your hub is connected via the included USB cord directly to a USB port on your surge protector? If that’s correct, I’d suggest you try using the included C8-Pro USB charger/power block to connect your hub to an outlet on your surge protector. If I was troubleshooting I would try the hub connected to its power block plugged into a wall outlet. If that worked then I’d try it w/the power block connected to my UPS. Start w/simplest first.
Confirming that the hub is connected to power using the included USB cord and the included charger / power block. That charger / power block is then plugged into a standard surge protector - the reason being that I only have one available outlet at the wall, and multiple devices plugged into the power strip.
I will try the suggested recommendations, first powering off the ADT Pulse Gateway, and then relocating the Hubitat HUB all together to where my cable modem and wireless router are located. The tradeoff here will be that the current location is closer to the middle of my home and central to all of the Z-Wave devices. If I move the HUB to where my Cable Modem / Wireless Router are, then the furthest Z-Wave device will be even further away (I estimate about 80 feet away from the HUB). I’ll report back in this thread ASAP, thank you for your recommendations!
It is not ideal to have your hub very close to your access point and other equipment. Use a 6 ft Ethernet cable or similar so you don't have to have the hub right on top of the other network devices.
Welcome to the community!
I recently ran into something similar with an older GE switch, tried all sorts of things to Reset it.
In the end it was simply a matter of putting the Hubitat Hub in Exclusion mode and a single Up press on the switch to get it excluded and ready for Inclusion/Pairing.
Does your Hubitat Hub confirm that it is Excluding a device when you run the Z-Wave exclusion process?
"Unknown Z-Wave device successfully excluded"
Also check out the custom drivers available for GE switches:
- I fully unplugged the ADT Pulse gateway from both power and from the TP Link Power adapter, nothing changed at all – still doesn’t work when trying to add an Enbrighten Z Wave switch.
- With the ADT Pulse Gateway still fully disconnected, I relocated the Hubitat HUB to my wireless router (Orbi RBR840) and plugged it directly into one of the available ethernet ports (several ports are occupied, but there are two free).
I noticed that the HUB interface seems to be working MUCH faster than before, yet I’m not able to successfully connect a Z Wave switch.
I can’t attach a photo for some reason — but during the “add device” process, I get a window the name of the device that I added and then under status is says “no included”. But from the devices bottom on the bottom menu row of the smartphone app, the dimmer switch is now showing under “devices without a room” and I can toggle the dimmer off/on, or use the three dots in the top right of the tile to adjust the brightness.
I will try to add another switch and see what happens.
Go to Hubitat and add yourself to the owners group then you can upload.
Well, at least the tests showed you something useful. If locating your hub near a wired Ethernet port isn’t practical, you could use wi-fi instead. Not rock solid like wired, but I’d say at least as good as the powerline solution.
Thanks very much for your help here – I’d say for now relocating the HUB close enough to my wireless router so that I could plug it in directly seems to have resolved the problem. I have all of my Z-Wave switches / plugs added to the HUB and all appear to be working.
I did find the pairing process a little clunky - maybe because Z Wave is an older technology or maybe because some of my devices are very new and others much older. In some cases, pairing was near instantaneous, in others it took multiple attempts and/or there was a lag.
I really appreciate the help!
If you have any suggestions on running automation within the HUB settings versus integrating with Google Home, I’m all ears. I use Google Home presently to manage a bunch of nest cameras.
One thing you should do now that you're finished including your switches, is go to the Z-Wave details at Settings > Z-Wave details.
Make sure that you only have one entry in that table for each of your switches, and also make sure you don't have any that show a Discover button on their row, or look like they have incomplete information. Just want to make sure the hub didn't create any Z-Wave ghosts during the repeated inclusion attempts, which could cause you problems over time.
Thank you for this recommendation!
Following the steps out outlined, I can confirm that I have eleven total devices (9 switches and two smart duplex receptacles). There are thirteen total entries on the “Z Wave Details” list, two of them BOTH do not have a unique device name under the “device” column, and both of those entries do have that “discover” button under the “actions” column.
The other eleven entries have specific devices names (that I created when adding the devices) and none of those has the “discover” button.
How do I manage these two device entries so they don’t create problems down the road?
TYIA!
You want to hit refresh on those devices, and then after that you should see a Remove button appear. Sometimes it can take several tries, don't rush it, wait between pressing refresh.
Info here, see section 3 (expand the Details).
Forgot to reply here to thank you for the recommendation and to let you know that it resolved quickly with only one “refresh” required for each device. Very easy. Thank you!