I'm moving devices over from Homeseer...I have about 50 done so far. A little over 50 more to go. I've tried the remove buttons and several soft resets already and they are still there.
I have 4 Ghost devices. I already have the Silicon Labs software and z-sticks from the docs say I need to delete them.
My question is if there is any harm in waiting till I'm completed moving devices over?
I may end up with more anyway, I've been adding about 20 a day and waiting for the network to settle before writing rules etc. as I saw that recommended here.
A soft reset does not touch your Z-Wave database, so that will have no effect.
The Remove button should work. If it doesn't, the first thing is to keep Logs open when you try and see what pops up as the reason it didn't work. Often, it's because the device was able to be pinged, meaning it can't be marked as failed, which is a prerequisite to removal. Some users have reported success removing power from the "current" (good) device that corresponds to this "old" (bad) device, even though from a Z-Wave perspective it's hard to imagine why that would matter since all it should know is the (new) node ID. But it can't hurt. If the device hasn't been reset or re-paired (and it's not sleepy/battery-powered), you definitely do need to remove power to it so this can happen.
Time might also help; patience is the next best thing for Z-Wave. It should be noted that ghosts are also not a guarantee of a problem, and it's mostly a concern for repeaters (mains- or USB-powered devices), not battery devices. Also, using a secondary controller like the stick is not officially supported, even if many community members have used one with success. So, I wouldn't start there personally.
If you aren't having problems, there's no harm in waiting (having problems is the only possible harm) -- aside from the fact that it will make it more difficult if you decide to go the nuclear option and reset your Z-Wave radio to start over completely. But hopefully you won't have to do that either way.
They have no name, and it says they are no longer in the failed node list. Of course, that gives me no hyperlink to the device, and they don't show up in the device list.
One shows a route. One doesn't.
I'd do the stick approach LONG before blowing away a couple weeks of work.
Is there some way to see/edit the failed node list? If I don't know what they are how do I remove the power. Nothing is missing!
Post your z-wave details page. Anytime you get a failed pairing, STOP. Go to your z-wave details page and remove the ghost. Reset the device and attempt to pair again. Remove any ghosts before pairing anything more.
Ghosts are created when a join fails to complete...so you try again and then the device adds and you continue on. So generally the ghost is followed closely in the Z-Wave Details page by a successfully joined version of that same device. So normall you have:
Ghost device
Succesfully joined device
So whatever device follows the ghost is the prime suspect to be the source of the ghost. Cut power to the device that joined successfully, and then try the Remove button on the Ghost device.
As Rick notes, seeing your Z-Wave Device page will really help to help you sort things out.
Thanks. I am new and not used to this with HomeSeer. I really came over for my locks to work better and they certainly have so far.
I’ve been adding 20+ devices a day so I have no idea anymore which ones in that sequence failed and I had to redo. I wasn’t familiar enough to even look there for ghosts at the time when I started.
Maybe once I learn a bit more, I'll just blow it all away after all. I'm going to learn how to discover lost DSK's first, since that will be a some add/removes I'm guessing to get good at it.
I just don’t want to be months/years in, and someone says I need start from scratch. While I love doing this, I want to work it on my own terms, not because something is wrong, and I have to fix it. After all, Z-Wave is almost 2 1/2 decades old. It shouldn't behave like its cutting edge.
Thanks for the help. I'm going to start another post to make sure I understand the full list of anything I can do wrong to jeopardize stability/speed.
Z-Wave ghosts are an issue that can come up on any Z-Wave platform, whether you run into it or not can be a bit of a random number generator. But good news is you can definitely do things that will greatly minimize/avoid potential problems like ghosts.
Rick has a good post on potential issues and how to avoid problems:
Can you post your entire z-wave details page for us to look at? (Use windows snip)
As long as you get rid of the ghosts you'll be fine. Leaving them in place will cause a lot of issues.
You can use a stick for this, or simply just pair with no security (recommended) except for locks and garage door stuff.
Sure but things come in to play. While it's all backwards compatible, there are issues like firmware. For instance, without a firmware update, you likely won't get a Schlage Fe599 lock to pair to a c7 or c8. Ok let's update the firmware. Schalge: No we don't provide firmware updates to the public. This happens quite a bit. With zigbee it's when companies don't adhere to the zigbee protocol 100% (older ikea, Sonoff, Xiaomai, Aqara etc) devices start dropping off the mesh. Lots of this could be fixed if they updated the firmware but sadly those that send out or provide access to firmware updates is a very small minority...
But hopefully you won't have to do that either way.
