So, I am going to post this as a support item in hopes that I can move forward with this platform. I have at least 20 GE switches that do not report state in HE when using the physical switch (one closest to me is ZW4005 - 1513 on switch). When using a button on the dashboard, of course the state changes immediately. I tried to set up the polling app and even tried to create a rule. Both did not properly report the status of the switches after an actual button push. I could not figure out why my lighting app was not working...turn out physical use of the swtiches did not report.
This thread seems to suggest that ST polls the switches every twenty seconds and that is how it tracks the physical button pushes. However, using one of the switches on ST to trigger on another plug in module (light switch turns on its lights and another light when pushed), the module triggers as soon as I turn on the physical switch. Thus, this tells me that the GE switch actually reports to ST as soon as the switch is physically pushed, because otherwise, the SmartLighting app would take different lengths of time to trigger the event based on when the 20 second polling occurred.
Can someone provide specific instructions to get the switches to work as they do in ST? Maybe I am just not setting up the polling app correctly. At some point I will learn to use Rule Machine properly.
What driver are you using for these? It shows as Type on the device page.
ST does run a background poll of all Z-Wave devices, polling one device every ten seconds. This is also what Z-Wave Poller does, although only on selected devices for two specific drivers (Generic Z-Wave Switch and Generic Z-Wave Dimmer). These older GE devices simply do not report physical events, and so have to be polled to report. The poll action simply asks the switch to make a basic report.
There are many variations of these issues, and sometimes the solution is to use a different driver. Sometimes the solution is simply to hit Configure on the device after it is joined. So far, by and large, everyone has gotten these older GE Z-Waves to work. Some people decided to replace them with newer Z-Wave Plus devices, but this isn't the only solution.
One other consideration is to be clear as to why you want physical events reported. For most automations, the idea is to make the switch itself irrelevant. But, there are many circumstances where the switch itself remains a relevant device as to it being manually operated.
My understanding is that the older GE switches, as an attempt to work around the now-expired Lutron instant status update patent, send a NIF (node information frame) when pushed, which a controller hub can use as a trigger to request a status update/refresh. This NIF is not forwarded by repeaters, so whether or not it's received and acted upon by the controller depends on how the mesh is set up. If the controller and device communicate directly, this will work. If not, it won't. Assuming that my understanding is correct (someone please correct me if this is wrong), that may explain the difference you are seeing between ST and Hubitat behavior. In my experience, this can change over time. I have a few switches that did not initially update, and some that did, and as I've done Z-Wave repairs or moved devices around (both of which have the potential to change the mesh configuration), their behavior has changed in some instances.
Ultimately, this is a device firmware limitation that different hubs are working around. I've contacted GE/Jasco and they are not willing to release updated device firmware to the general public. I also asked if I could send them my old devices and have them update the firmware in-house, and they said no to that as well.
I have 40 or so older GE switches and dimmers. When I really stepped back to see what I NEEDED the switches to do, it turned out that there were only 3 or 4 that I relied on physical presses to trigger other automations. I replaced these with newer Z-Wave Plus devices and went on my way. For the rest of them (the nice-to-haves), I set up rules to refresh one per minute in order to decrease mesh traffic.
Yeah I have a few of the zwave plus with older firmware that don't work with the double tap and was told the same thing. I just moved them to locations that were less important, but it was a pita and I still wish there were a way to update them.
Well, I need physical events reported because, the switches get used. In a few instances, a switch turns on the room lights the switch is intended to and another light(s). In many instances where there is a motion triggering, having the physical switch to be used makes the system wife-proof as she can just use the switch if the event fails for some reason or can't trigger because a motion sensor (perhaps older) only resets every five minutes.
I'll rejoin a switch again later today, provide the driver information and see if we can get it working.
Turn on debug logging and press the button to see what, if anything, is being sent by the device. you may find its trying to use crc16encap, which isn't supported currently. I have a GE switch and dimmer doing the very same thing. Its being discussed in this thread https://community.hubitat.com/t/inovelli-nzw37-not-refreshing-reporting-switch-state
The switches I adopted to test uses driver is "Generic Z-Wave Switch."
I hit the configure button after install on the first one. The switch actually seems to work now. I did move the hub to my office. Does having a ST hub and a HE hub next to each other degrade signals or anything. Also, it could be the one "hop" issue I read about as now the hub is adjacent to the switch.
The second switch also worked after hitting the configuration button. However, the third I added did not work. I attempted to use the polling app and that seems to work.
The latest off the shelf GE Z-Wave switches (and perhaps dimmers, don't know) are forcing crc16encap commands, The effected firmware version as shown on the back of the device is 5.0d, the 5.0 versions do not do this, this is preventing these devices from updating physical events in HE.
