Desperately need help with z wave devices on a new C7

Hi I recently got HE C7 during the blackfriday deal. I have been using C5 for a long time and it has been quite stable. My plan is to move C5 to the basement and keep C7 on the first floor and join them using Mesh hub as old C5 does not quite reach my basement.

In the past week, I have been migrating all Z wave devices from C5 to C7 including Inovelli red, Zooz 77, Zooz 76, Zooz smart plug, contact sensors, and motion sensors. I think I followed the general guideline quite strictly (exclude from C5, start from hardwired devices, start close to the hub and work outwards, followed by battery devices). Regarding the strength of z wave mesh, I am very certain that is is very strong given I have 8 switches, 4 plugs, and one extender. Given that the wall plates of the switches are difficult to remove, I included the switches without S2 (probably too lazy there). They all work well for a day then I lost control on all S2 switches and plugs and only a few S0 the next day. So I excluded them and included them again numerous times in the past week but same thing happened again and again. I noticed that all S2 and some S0 devices are the ones that I have trouble with mostly.

I have read some topics and it seems like C7 has problems with ghost nodes frequently but I don't have much experience with ghost nodes. I looked at the Z wave setting and status states "OK" (attached) I currently, don't have a z wave stick (just ordered one just in case but not here yet) and has no experience with one so I tediously excluded all my z wave devices and included them back one-by-one. I also tried Z wave repair and individually repair but the problem persists (attached). At this point, I am quite frustrated and feel like I need to reach out for help since I have been doing this everyday for the past week.

My questions are

  1. Anything I did wrong here? is this because I should use S2 or Is this a problem with ghost nodes since I am certain by Z wave mesh is very strong. (please see attached for z wave table)?
  2. Would strictly using S2 inclusion for all S2 devices help with this problem?
  3. I am newbie when it comes to ghost node or z wave stick (since my old C5 had no problem with this). Any recommended on reading material? (I know there are several topics on this but it is very difficult to follow and they are very long. I am wondering if there is a concise and step-by-step instruction (I am not a programmer or anything and reading these topics can be overwhelming).

Thank you very much in advance for this community.



Check this thread which seems to match many of your devices and how they are included. Your added "bonus" are Inovelli bulbs included with S0. Those are known to cause problems in the Z-Wave mesh. Their recent firmware allows you to include the bulbs without S0 on C7 hubs. If you didn't update the firmware, you may want to do so at your earliest convenience.

Thanks for the quick response.
Yes, there are several similarities. I read several topics regarding similar problem as well but it seems to be from several problems.

I also have like 5 zooz 4in1s. They however work flowlessly with my old C5.

Regarding ghost nodes, I have excluded them and removed them but the problem keeps happening.

At this point I wonder if I could get c5 instead of C7.

I think this is a key piece of information that may have the greatest impact on your poor experience. Rather than going backwards, I would try to exclude these devices and include them without S0/S2 encryption.

Not that really helps at this point, but I bought a C7 with the same intention. Instead of a basement I have one on each end of the house. There is no good central location for a hub, so that seemed like the best solution. I had a few devices on the other end of the house connected to ST using Hubconnect and I wanted to get rid of the ST hub. I was waiting for the migrate utility to be available but they kept putting it off and I just decided to do it manually.

I thought I would put the C7 in place of the C5, but after some research I decided there was no advantage to putting the C7 in place of the C5. From what I read the C5 and C7 are the same in terms of CPU and memory. Only the Z-wave radio is updated. I also had a couple of the Zooz 4 in 1s and they were on the side of the house that would need to connect to the C7 and that was an issue. So I just left the C5 where it was and put the C7 on the other end of the house. I could remove and add devices one at a time. I could keep all the rules all setup and once the new device was added I just would add it back to it's rules with hub mesh.

Once import and export came around I did move some rules from the C5 to the C7 to balance things out. Hub mesh was one of the best options they have added since I came over to HE IMO.

Unfortunately, having multiple of these are an issue on the C7. I have 3 and my mesh improved when I moved them to my C5. I use both hubs together and share devices via Hub Mesh.

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Looks like @bobbyD has got you covered from an Inovelli side (thanks man!) -- definitely if you can, update the firmware on the bulbs and include them without security.

One other thing that will help while we're on the topic of updating firmware is to update the switches as well to 1.61. We've optimized them for the C7 and some 700 Series Z-Sticks to cut down on traffic.

Here's a link to our firmware files: Index of /firmware

For the Red Series, there are two files that will need to be flashed (.bin and .otz).

I'm working on re-writing the instructions for Hubitat, but these should work for updating the firmware: https://support.inovelli.com/portal/en/kb/articles/how-to-update-your-dimmer-switch-firmware-hubitat

As for pairing the bulb without security, here's a quick video on how to do that (I know it's a ST video -- but I wanted to show the cadence of how to pair it): https://youtu.be/OD4aS0F8oEY?t=22

Anyway, happy to help in any way I can!

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Thank you @Eric_Inovelli

Regarding firmware update, I have been trying to do it for the past week but it has been unsuccessful both the switches and the bulbs. I was able to update one out of 4 switches. I tried 3 methods 1) using fireware updater app, 2 using firmware update driver and 3 using a z wave stick via hubitat and without hubitat. But I have not been able to update the other three and any of the bulbs. I tried airgap at different points of the update but has not worked out for me.

Any suggestions?

Hmmm... I'm honestly not sure. Maybe @bobbyD can take a look at the logs to see if there's an issue with the network?

I've had a lot of success with both the updater app and the drivers.

@Eric_Inovelli

I tried using z wave stick again and I found that the z wave stick default update fragment to 40 and somehow this is what messed up the update process. I played around and changed it to 20 and the update went through for all switches and bulb

I got an email from zooz yesterday. They said they have removed zen25 and Zen40 from C7 compatible list. But they don't know when this problem will be fixed.

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@bobbyD

I tired doing this several times. I eventually found the culprit. Seems like zen25 and Zse40 killed the mesh. I got a response from zoom saying they removed these devices from C7 compatible list. They said 700 version of Zse40 should work with C7 but not 500 version.

Asa result, I had to move C5 back in place and keep my new C7 for basement. So sad T_T cause C7 works with my schlage BE469 much better than C5

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Many people run more than one hub, and connect them via Hub Mesh.

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The most common failure to successfully update firmware on devices, that I have seen, is when the mesh is super busy. Users should be aware that attempting to update a device firmware in a busy environment could not only lead to update failure but the possibility of bricking that device increases. Generally, bricked devices due to user error are not covered by the manufacturer's warranty, so folks need to be cautious when performing firmware updates.

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@aaiyar I tried. I just have too many of zen25 and Zse40 that I used in the area close to the locks I have. Two of these locks are at each far end of the house so even C7 won't work with both