Did I receive a dud? [New C-7 Hub, Z-Wave Inclusion Issue]

I just received a brand new hub and 2 new Inovelli switches today. Plugged everything in but when I tried pairing nothing's discovered. I tried pairing the switches one-by-one and both report no Z-wave signal.

In hub settings, Z-wave Status is "Enabled".

Did I get a dud?

If I remember, don't you have to cut power to the circuit to get the velli's to pair? Or was that the early versions?

It happens, but that wouldn't be my first assumption. Have you tried doing an exclusion on the switches first? (Not usually necessary if they're new, but it happens.) See:

Also, have you verified that your Z-Wave region is set correctly (I assume US) in Settongs > Z-Wave Details and that you're following the inclusion (and exclusion) process for the device, which for these I think is three taps on the config (small) button?

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Hey .. BTW
:raised_hand_with_fingers_splayed:
welcome to the community. I hope you posted right away and didn't wait until you got frustrated. The community rocks. Soon, you'll be up and running.
Welcome to the
:hole::rabbit2:
see you on the other side
:grin:

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I have things set up on a testbed right now so I'm cutting power left-and-right. The switches have a signal detector that lights up green if signal is good and red if signal is bad. Well these switches are 1 ft away from the hub and they light up red. The signal strength function SHOULD be independent from inclusion/exclusion status. Besides, these are brand new switches, not refurbs. But I can find out how to do the factory reset.

The hub Z-wave region setting is USA. This is my first foray into Z-wave so I'm willing to entertain the idea that I did something dumb.

Hold the config button for 20 (or is it 30?) seconds and that should do it. But again, you may need to exclude a brand new device on occasion (and especially if you previously attempted an unsuccessful pair). I'm also not sure if Inovelli's rage estimator works when you're not paired to any network.

I'd try any or all of the above, then try again. Keep "Logs" open in another tab or window as you try to pair too to see if you see anything interesting there. It sounds like you're doing everything right, but Z-Wave can be tricky sometimes.

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After some fussing around, I got it to detect after power-cycling the hub. Not sure why it didn't want to do it the first time around. But looks like I'm on my way. Thanks to everyone for your tips!

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Just a note: I think you have picked the best switches and if you need help @Eric_Inovelli and @ericm are both pretty active here as well!

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They are some of the best out there, both from a physical quality (good solid clicks) as well as function. There are some firmware issues though, especially when it comes to S2. I have been having endless problems connecting my Red series 2 dimmers to Hubitat.. never had any issues with Smartthings (but Smartthings was only an interim measure when I moved into the house anyways, the original plan was Home Assistant or OpenHab).

That said, the switches would pair, even after the timer ran out, as long as the switch was discovered during the initial inclusion session, just had to leave it till it populated the switch found fields. There was apparently a known issue with C7 and the stock 1.35 Red Series Dimmer firmware causing S2 to fail and fallback to insecure mode. I went through last night and flashed all my installed switches with 1.48 beta firmware using an Aeotec Z Stick and Z-Wave PC controller (and side note, you cannot use VMWare Fusion on a Mac, even through you can pass through the USB, it will not work, I had to boot into Windows. It see's the Z stick, but nothing ever works, cannot pair or exclude).

That significantly sped up the pairing process, and everything appears to be S2 authenticated.
It's been an interesting experience...

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maybe this??? :slight_smile:

I am impatient.. it was taking too long for some of the devices further from the hub, and a bunch of timeouts with the firmware updater driver. It was just quicker to use the PC controller.

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