I recently upgraded my setup from C7 to C8-Pro and found that my First Alert ZCOMBO (Gen 1) Smoke/CO alarm devices report in every hour but do not appear to update the battery level using the System "Generic Z-Wave Smoke/CO Detector" driver. Example:
Whereas, the same device & driver on my C7 will return the battery level:
Please note that I have several First Alert ZCombo-G (Gen 2) Smoke/CO Z-Wave Plus devices using the "Z-Wave Universal Smoke/CO Detector" user driver and seem to be reporting fine every hour with C8-Pro:
Is anyone else running into this issue, and if so, is there another driver that works with the C8 and ZCOMBO (Gen 1) devices?
I set up my first hubitat (C8-Pro) the other month and struggled to get the Gen2 ZCOMBO's connected to the hub. I gave up trying to get my remaining Gen1 unit connected. If you can provide exact details of your reset/exclusion/inclusion process I can give it another try and (if succesful) see if I get the same error.
However, I already had some Gen1 units reach end-of-life status and I'm surpised my last one manufactured in 2017 is still going. So depending on your manufacture date(s), it may not be worth you scampering too far into this particular rabbit hole
If you haven't tried it already, there is also a generic z-wave plus smoke detector driver that might be worth trying (my Gen2's are running on it), though I believe Gen1 was just regular Z-wave.
I still have two Gen1 units from 2020 and I'm cheap, but your point is taken.
For the C8 inclusion, I did struggle a bit with one of the Gen 2 units and both Gen 1 units were a pain to add but I finally got them added. I'm not exactly sure what did it because I tried so many things but here's what I believe worked:
I opened up Live Logs in a separate window so I could monitor what was happening.
I noticed ghost nodes kept being added, so to be safe I ran Exclude from the Z-Wave Details page (open bat door 5+ sec,, start exclude, closed bat door while depressing the test button and release after beep).
Rebooted the hub. While waiting for hub to come back up I ran a factory reset (open bat door 5+ sec, closed bat door while depressing test button for 10 sec. until I heard a long beep and then release).
For Gen2 I used SmartStart for the inclusion. Checking the logs, I waited for "SmartStart Join Started" before readying the unit (open bat door 5+ sec,, closed bat door while depressing the test button and release after beep). Main thing I think was just to wait for it to do its thing. I think maybe after several minutes, if there was no join entries in the logs I would open the bat door for 5+ sec and then close it again before waiting for another couple minutes. Then, if there were still no signs of it joining I would reboot the hub and begin the process over (noticing that a ghost node may have appeared after reboot).
For Gen1 units, I basically used the same process as Gen2 but using the Add device page (Find by brand, ZCOMBO Gen 1). Only, when I got a ghost node after rebooting the hub I would repeatedly press "Discover" while readying the unit (open bat door 5+ sec,, closed bat door while depressing the test button and release after beep). Took a few tries but it finally added.
Best of luck! Let me know how it works out and if you're seeing the same issue regarding Gen 1 not working with C8.
Will give the gen 1 unit another go tomorrow hopefully. Will update!
Ahh, 2020 - much newer than mine. I believe the Gen1 has a 7 year warranty so you should get a few more years out of them. I know the Gen2 doesnt have as good a warranty. Credit to First Alert - they replaced one of my Gen1 units with minimal effort when it failed early.
The original ZCombo devices I have seen various reports on here where even with multiple paired to the same hub, one will report battery regularly and another is very sporadic. Seems to be some sort of firmware bug in those devices.
I believe some people said excluding and pairing again fixed the problematic ones. Something might be going wrong during pairing and its not getting setup fully?
Check to see if you have a zwWakeupInterval value in the Device Info > Data section?
Thanks for your detailed "thinks this is what I did" notes. That's exactly my experience . I got my Gen2's on similarly, except I just finally included in the "regular" manner. The exclusion and device reset prior was necessary every time it worked. I have now tried adding the Gen1 in again without success - i suspect my 2017 unit may be different.
I hope you have success with @jtp10181's suggestions.
Discontinued First Alert ZCOMBO Smoke/CO alarms (Gen 1) are difficult to install/include on C8 hubs, and don’t appear to work with the pre-selected “Generic Z-Wave Smoke/CO Detector” driver. As these old units reach their end-of-life this post will become less relevant. But for those few of you still interested, here’s a solution that worked for me (somewhat verbose but detailed)…
Suggest to open Live Logs in separate window for monitoring actions during setup
Perform Remove/exclude of ZCOMBO alarm from Devices page if already installed. Else, perform a general exclude from the Z-Wave details page. Exclusion steps: Start remove/exclusion, open smoke/co bat door, wait 5+ secs, close bat door while holding down the test button and release after beep.
Reboot the hub. While rebooting, perform a factory reset on the ZCOMBO alarm (open smoke/co bat door, wait 5+ secs, close bat door while holding down the test button for 10 secs and release after long beep.)
Perform standard Z-Wave inclusion from Devices > Add Device page. Inclusion steps: Start z-wave inclusion, open smoke/co bat door, wait 5+ secs, close bat door while holding down the test button and release after beep. IMPORTANT: Let the inclusion timer run out before moving to the next step.
Reboot the hub. After restart you should now see a new node on the Z-Wave details page without a device (e.g. GENERIC_TYPE_SENSOR_ALARM). If not, repeat steps 3-5.
This step requires patience… From Z-Wave details page, begin inclusion on the ZCOMBO alarm (open smoke/co bat door, wait 5+ secs, close bat door while holding down the test button and release after beep). Select “Discover” and then continue pressing “Refresh” every second or so. Check live logs to monitor if device wakes up and installs. If you get a Z-Wave network busy message on live logs, wait a minute or two, reboot hub and then repeat this step over until you see the device install from the live logs. This can take several minutes and several tries. Once Live Logs confirms installing the alarm, you’ll need to refresh the Z-Wave details page to see the newly added device.
Go to the newly added device detail page (e.g. Sensor Alarm [xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]). Change the driver type on Device Info tab from “Generic Z-Wave Smoke/CO Detector” to “First Alert Smoke/Carbon Detector” that was installed from step 1. Save and close.
Ping from the Commands tab logs an error message (not working?). So, I perform a Refresh of the node from the Z-Wave details page after waking the alarm up (open bat door, wait 5+ secs, close bat door).
Once Live Logs confirms unit checked-in I perform an alarm test on the alarm while checking the “Current States” on the Commands tab of the device’s detail page. Should see “Testing” for alarm state, co and smoke while testing, and “clear” when completed. Battery % also checks in.
Maybe give it another go with the "solution" I just posted. I managed to get both my Gen1 devices working normally again on my C8 hub. Good luck and let me know if you decide to give it another go. It does require some patience.
Thanks for the advice. I'm not seeing a zwWakeupInterval listed for my Gen1 ZCOMBO devices, only Gen2 and yes, they're 4200. I have since managed to get my Gen1 devices working with my C8 hub using the solution in my updated post. It seems the default driver doesn't work with Gen1 and C8. That, and there's a bit of wrestling to get the Gen1 devices added to the C8 hub. Oh, and despite not seeing a zwWakeupInterval for the Gen1 devices, they do appear to be checking in about every hour now after the changes.
Its dependent on the driver retrieving and saving the value there, so not every driver will do it. Most of the system drivers do it that way and mine follow suit.
I'm not sure I have the courage, but as you've gone to so much trouble to document your process I'll have to give it a go Congratulations on getting your up and running!
I had admittedly given up on getting the old ZCOMBO alarm onto the HE and moved on to tackling other things. So I figured I'd give it another go with the new ZWJS update. Successful inclusion on the first attempt - back on the wall in 5 minutes!
That's awesome! I'm glad to hear you got it working again. I've updated my "solution" to include your update. "new ZWJS update"? I didn't know what this was until you mentioned it. Hmm... Now it's me who is lacking "courage". I think I'll wait on switching to ZWaveJS for now since everything has been *working smoothly. From what I hear there's issues and I think I'd like to wait until they get worked out before throwing a wrench into the works.
Regarding "working smoothly" - Just recently my front door lock has been randomly unlocking and delayed/incorrect reporting, but I think that has to do with the latest platform version (currently 2.4.1.157). Anyway, that's a different topic from this thread.
They're still out there. A couple of mine are technically good for another two years (manufactured Jul-2020 with a 7-year shelf life). But yes, as mentioned, this post will become less relevant as time passes.
The main issue I had with the ZWJS upgrade was really just waking battery stuff up so it would move out of "pending" communication status. I figured some of my stuff is early z-wave and the move seems inevitable so decided to get it done before investing time in rules requiring devices that might need to be retired. I think latency seems generally improved and some PIR sensor that had been a PITA before included really easily with ZWJS. If your system is stable and you're not actively tweaking things, I wouldn't be inclined to rush into it either
