Discussion about the C7

A lot of the problems I see can be fixed by yourself. Maybe provide some details and we can help. Screenshots of your settings details page would be a good place to start. A screenshot of your past logs, and a brief breakdown of your device type and manufacturer as well as forward of the devices if known. Pairing with S2 anywhere? Hub firmware build.

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Is the device working?

Sometimes yes and sometimes no, very unstable z-wave at the moment. Can't wait for the 2.2.4 update, hopefully that will give it a boost!

Not unless you have a strong Z-Wave mesh. See:
https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=How_to_Build_a_Solid_Z-Wave_Mesh

Read the thread! My z-wave mesh worked fine with both Homeseer and ST.

I have read the thread, have struggled with the C-7 issues like you have (and C-5 issues before that), and have made suggestions toward a solution. I have never used Homeseer, so I can’t comment on that platform. However, I came to Hubitat from Wink, with a brief two-week use of SmartThings until I grasped the train wreck that was in progress there.

But I do believe, and have experienced, that a weak mesh that may have worked in SmartThings won’t work with Hubitat. Possibly it’s because the antennas are weaker on Hubitat than on Wink and SmartThings. I don’t care, I just want my home automation system to work. If that means that I have to build a stronger mesh, so be it. My solution was to buy 4 Ring Extender 2 devices for my C-7, and sprinkle them around. That has made my C-7 solid, except I occasionally get “Failed” or Not Responding” messages for a couple of Aeotec Recessed Door Sensor 7 devices, even though they work fine. I just ignore the messages because they don’t affect operation.

I just made a suggestion that might help your situation. While the much-awaited 2.2.4 firmware update may fix many problems, it won’t cure a weak Z-Wave mesh.

I wish you the best of luck solving your problems.

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Have had the exact same experience as you and repeaters seem to really help stabilize the mesh. Not sure why exactly because other devices should be repeating and strengthening the mesh as well but maybe it has something to do with 500 series in the devices vs the 700 series in the repeaters.

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Thanks for trying to help but I do believe this is software related. I have read that the 2.2.4 will enable better repeater functionality which should help.

I'm not really sure what that means. There isn't really anything I would call "repeater functionality" in a hub. That said, there are a number of zwave specific fixes in 2.2.4, so hopefully it will work better for your, regardless.

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I agree with Jason Bottjen (@JasonJoel). Here is the relevant screenshot from this week’s Hubitat Live video on the 2.2.4 firmware update:

The hub doesn't have any repeater functionality, no. But what does? The first one who gets the right answer gets two points :blush:

??

The hub is a primary zwave controller. Are you asking if it will repeat if it is joined to a zwave network as a secondary controller?

All mains powered devices repeat. @672southmain suggestions are sound though mesh weakness is one of the two main reasons for issues right now. Second being messed up joins. Either failed pairs or s2 join fails because of device firmware due to bugs in the silabs 700 firmware as well as the device manufacturers. Ghost nodes can be found in settings zwave details. Just look for devices with nothing in the clusters field besides the first which is the hub radio.

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Correct. Are you on the Beta of 2.2.4? If so do think z-wave is better in 2.2.4?

I think the hub handles mesh errors better in 224 but not having those problems in the first place is better than any firmware update they provide.

Everyone is waiting to fix the hub but a vast majority of the problems I see around here are self inflicted issues from prior builds that didn't pair correctly and they've just been limping along waiting for a miracle cure.

The other is building crazy complex rules to do everything in as few rules as possible when doing the same thing in a few rules would greatly reduced complexity. Short simple rules put a lot less load on the hub even if you have 10 times more rules.

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I have 7 rules now on the hub, the craziest of them is running 5 z-wave dimmers turn on/off sunset/sunrise. With both Homeseer an ST I could tell the system to turn all 5 on/off at once. With Hubitat there is no chance, maybe one of them will work if I'm lucky. I have now added a delay(10 sec) between the z-wave devices and it works great. I have adjusted to the situation but I'm really awaiting the benefits of 2.2.4.

It's not a limitation of the hub, but rather a symptom of a weak mesh. I have a goodnight rule that turns off over 100 devices, locks the doors and arms the alarm.

When a device or hub doesn't hear an ack it resends. Do this enough and it can bog down things quickly.

So my mesh was better with the other systems then? BTW: All devices were removed from the old system and factory reset before joining Hubitat, which is were it could go wrong when changing hub/system.

Possibly better on the old system, but probably not. ST for example polls like crazy. Things update status with polling better but can slow down the mesh. Most of their processing was in the cloud so it was harder to bog down the hub but then you have to deal with the latency cloud processing brings.

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