Enbrighten 700 Add-on switches turn lights on, but not off ... Jasco support says it's a "Hub Issue"

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C8-Pro. Latest firmware.

I'm having an issue with my 3-way and 4-way light configurations, all using Enbrighten 700 Z-Wave switches, along with Enbrighten (or UltraPro) Add-on switches.

The problem I'm having is that most of the time (but not all of the time), the add-on switches will turn the lights on, but not off. At first I thought it might be a wiring issue, but I've checked (and re-checked) the wiring and it appears to be correct. (Also, given the simplicity of how the Enbrighten add-ons are meant to be wired, I don't believe that I could have messed up the wiring on all of them. I also replaced a couple of the Enbrighten master switches, but the new ones exhibit the same issue.)

Speaking of the master switches, they continue to operate perfectly, on or off (or dim in some cases), and the hub controls them perfectly. It's just the "dummy" add-on switches (that take only a neutral and a traveler) that often won't turn the lights off.

Now here's the strange thing ... when I first installed them (making sure that the wiring is correct), everything worked perfectly. Shortly thereafter, I noticed that one of the add-on switches would only turn the light on, but not off. I then discovered that all (but one) of my multi-way configurations were behaving the same way. BUT THEN, mysteriously, they all started functioning properly again later in the day. I've noticed that all of the add-ons fail at the same time, and they resume working at the same time ... but there seems to be no pattern (or timeframe) in which that happens. And as I said, during that time, the master Enbrighten 700 switches continue to work perfectly, and Hubitat controls them with no issues.

I called Jasco (Enbrighten/UltraPro) support, and they immediately said that it had to be a hub problem, but couldn't (or wouldn't) give me any more information than that. End-of-Conversation.

So, has anyone ever encountered this type of issue before, and if so ... could it be an issue in the hub (or perhaps a configuration issue)? (BTW, many of my other devices are Zooz 800 switches, I'm only using the Enbrighten switches for the 3-way and 4-way confifgurations.)

Any thoughts?

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Odd issue.

My smart dimmers are almost exclusively Enbrighten and UltraPro, with most being 3-way setups with the add-on. I've never experienced anything like what you've described. Essentially, the add-on is a dummy and the master controls everything. So if the master is paired to the hub properly, and you can control it from the hub, that's not the issue.

I'd start by unpairing each master from the hub. The masters and add-ons should both work normally. If they do not, then you have some other issue going on. If they do work normally, add each back one at a time and see what happens. Leave one paired for a while and if all is good, add another and leave it, and so on. It's possible one of the masters is defective and causing the issue. Adding them back one at a time, may help narrow that down. Come back and post your findings after unpairing everything, etc.

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I know you checked, but I've found, as a non-electrician, that 3-way switch arrangements can be tricky.

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Does this happen with the hub shut down and unplugged? It seems like that would take the hub interfering out of the equation, for the most part.

That would be a good additional step to see if it is the hub.

I wonder if there is some type of radio interference or wiring issue in your house? That is very odd that they all would fail at the same time...

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To this point, @ttownsend I'd verify that your wiring is correct and that you are indeed connecting the proper traveler wire to the add-ons.

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You may also want to look at this post Enbrighten 58433-2 VER 7.0.2 ZWA4011 Issues With Add-On Switch

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This may offer a clue as well:

https://staceyoniot.com/how-to-fix-z-wave-flakiness-in-your-smart-home/

This mayalso help:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/race-condition-interference-in-z-wave/680668/10

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For a start, have you tried a power-down, wait 30 seconds, and then power up again?

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Basically the Add-On is a "short to ground" device. It is telling the Master Switch that the add-on is being pressed and that's it. The Master Switch then does all the interpreting.. how long it's pressed (dimming) or quick press, up or down.

The Hub can only interact with the Master Switch and it's likely that it's getting a message or 6 as the circuit is dimmed. IF..big IF... you have the hub rules set to interact, then of course it's the Hub.. your rules, that is causing this.

Best if you either Exclude one of the Master Switches so that the Hub CANNOT react to changes OR just power down the hub for the amount of time it takes to see the add-on fail.

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I recently replaced all my smart switches with Enbrighten, and all worked fine. Then I got the Hubitat C8 Pro and started adding rules. I learned that if a switch is already physically off, it does not trigger a "switch turned off" message to the hub when you press the switch to off.

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If you have confirmed that it's your rules that are causing this, perhaps asking this Community to review your Rule(s) might help to get you the results you desire. :smiley:

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Hi folks, thanks for the responses. I've gone through a few of the suggestions, but have had no resolve yet. I did try excluding one of the masters from the hub, and factory resetting it. Then, without including the master back into the system, I tried toggling the add-on ... same behavior. So I guess that rules out the hub.

I also checked out the link that CaptWoody referenced. That sounds exactly like the situation I'm encountering, but it offers no resolution other than making sure that the switch is in the Add-on mode (using the air gap switch). It was indeed already in the Add-on mode. (That poster also noted that they had previously had older Enbrighten switches using the same wiring, and that they worked fine. That's somewhat my case too. I had Enbrighten 500 Masters and Add-ons in the same fixture boxes, using the same wiring and they worked fine. However, that was also when I was using an older hub.) Unfortunately, like an idiot, I discarded those old 500 switches after believing that the new switches were all working fine, so I can't go back and try a regression test.

I called Jasco "support" back and told them about how the switches still fail when removed from the hub. They were very quick with me (sounding almost annoyed). All they would say is that it must be environmental ... and the conversation ended. No advice whatsoever.

(Side note: Just in the few hours since I posted my original message, one of the "failing" add-ons started working fine again, but not all of them. If history repeats itself, that won't last long ... it will be again failing to turn the light off sometime later today.)

Okay, so supposing it is environmental in some way that will be difficult (or impossible) to determine. Can anyone recommend any other ZWave switches that will work in three-way and four way configurations? Most of my multi-way switches are simple on/off switches (no dimming). However, I do have two multi-way dimmer configurations.

Alternatively, even though the problem doesn't appear to be hub related, I'm wondering if the switches are configured correctly. I noticed that the two multi-way dimmer masters are listed as type "Generic Z-Wave DT Multilevel Switch". The On/Off masters are all listed as type "Generic Z-Wave Plus Switch". Does that sound correct?

Thanks.

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I would switch the drivers to GE Enbrighten Z-Wave Smart Switch and GE Enbrighten Z-Wave Smart Dimmer, be sure to hit configure after changing the driver.

As far as other switches I have a couple Zooz Zen71s that work fine with a regular switch instead of an addon switch.

Zen77 would work for those dimmers in 3 and 4 way setups

Not sure if you saw the image here. It says to airgap and hold the top paddle..... Enbrighten 58433-2 VER 7.0.2 ZWA4011 Issues With Add-On Switch - #2 by velvetfoot

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From what I remember, the Zooz don't support remote dimming (Dimming via a regular switch)

On or Off work fine, but there's no "hold to dim" option. I just installed a Zooz 77, replacing an Inovelli and an Embrighten before that. None have worked 100% in the situation I have. I want REALLY dim for a middle-of-the-night hallway need. It's a 3-way and there was an Add-On originally and that didn't work at all with either the Inovelli or the Zooz. I now have a regular dumb switch connected to a Zooz 77 and it can't possibly dim at the dumb switch, for pretty obvious reasons...

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Yes, I saw that. That's how I learned about making sure it was in the "Add-on" mode. I did try switching that, and it does fix things ... somewhat, but not completely. When I reconfigure the switch for what they call 3-way mode (as opposed to Add-on mode), the add-on switches are then able to turn the lights on and off. However, instead of honoring the typical paddle down = off / paddle up = on, they work as state-agnostic pushbuttons (meaning that pressing the paddle up or down simply toggles the light to the opposite state). Furthermore, the add-ons will occasionally toggle a light but then immediately toggle it back ... so sometimes you have to press the switch a second time to get the light to turn on or off. Also, the add-ons in the dimmer configurations will not dim the lights as add-ons are supposed to be able to do ... they just turn the light on to whatever the last dimmed state was. Yes, that's certainly better than the add-ons not being able to turn the lights off at all, but when the master switch is configured in the default add-on mode (and when the add-ons happen to be working), the experience is so much better.

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Fortunately, most of my multi-ways are simple on/off anyway, so that won't matter. As for the two dimming lights (one 3-way and one 4-way), I can live with the secondary switches simply turning the light on to it's last dimmed state. I've almost acheived that with the Enbrighten switches by using the air gap switch to reconfigure them for 3-way operation, but as I mentioned in my other post, they're acting really flaky where a single press of the paddle switch will often seem to issue two consecutive commands in rapid succession (on/off or off/on).

None of this is the end of the world. I'm extremely happy with the Hubitat ... it's exactly what I wanted. I just hope that I can resolve these last few 3-way and 4-way Enbrighten add-on issues, whether that be finding a fix for them, or replacing them altogether.

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Not sure if you saw above about changing the drivers? If not that may help