House fan causing Hub flakiness?

This is all Z-Wave stuff, but the proximity to the router was definitely causing a differential performance response.

Cheers.

Adding a new post here even though it's not now related to the house fan. It's the same set of devices, though.

In this case, turning on the water circulator works. And the Simple Rules app says it sent the signal to turn on the light. The light, however, does not acknowledge this. This happens more frequently than I would like:

Outlet: Minoston MP21Z

Driver: I've used both Generic Outlet and Aeon Outlet. Both have failed at different times.

I have another rule to turn the light off as well. Sometimes the On fails, sometimes the Off.

Any no sources of RFI that I can think of (and the water circulator that is furthest away seems to do the right thing pretty reliably. It's just the light.

I have done a Hub reboot, and it did not help. Still on 2.2.6.140 as the 2.2.7.X release family was considerably more flaky.

I can't imagine that this Hub is really this flaky or that Z-Wave is this unreliable. Other devices work well, so I must be missing something here. Any suggestions?

Cheers.

To me, you’re describing a weak Zwave mesh and locating the HE Hub near another radio device, cordless phone or microwave oven should be avoided.

Take a look at your Zwave \ Settings page and maybe post some screen shots of it here.
Look at things like security pairing, RSSI and even device speed as indicators of your mesh performance.

Can you list your repeating devices, and approximate distances they’re apart / from the hub ?

Remember a goal of a Mesh is to ensure there are multiple paths back to the Hub. :+1:t3:

Thanks for the suggestions. This is a page that I had not looked at, but it does have some interesting information. In looking at the Topography Map, I'd have expected it to be somewhat more connected given the short distances. Also, I note that the problematic item is a single hope with good speed.

I've added a rudimentary map of devices and distance in the house, the list of devices and paths (most of them are in the image) and the topography map.

Interestingly, the water circulator is the furthest away and it is the one that is more reliable, as opposed to the indicator light.

I've also moved to the EVA LOGIK outlet controller as suggested on the Amazon page for this controller (yeah, I know, but I had used it some time back, so worth trying).

I definitely appreciate the insights from the very knowledgeable




folks here.

Cheers.

After working pretty well with the EVA LOGIX driver, it has started to flake again. Same behavior- the app sends the signal to the indicator light. It just never records the event and the light doesn't turn on (even though the circulator is on). No fan on, and this has already happened twice today in short order.

Open to any thoughts/suggestions.

Cheers.

I do not consider myself to be among the "very knowledgeable" but I have managed to produce a decent Z-wave mesh in my home. I have 21 Z-wave devices. Of those, 15 are connected at the full 100kbps, 4 are connected at 40 kpbs and 2 are connected at 9.6 kbps. One of the 9.6 devices is in the corner of my basement and has a lot of interference. The other device is a motion sensor on my back deck. There is a brick chimney between the hub and the sensor, so it routes through a repeater that is further away. Thus, I know why those specific signals are not robust.

You have one device with no connection at all. Three of your devices are connected at 9.6 kpbs, two are connected at 40 kpbs and three are connected at 100 kpbs. Thus, you do not have a very strong mesh.

You have three devices with strong connections to the hub. 0B is a switch that I assume has repeater capabilities. However, nothing is using it as a normal signal path. 06 is the plug that controls you coffee maker. It is serving as a repeater.

The other strong connection is with the garage sensor. However, that cannot function as a repeater since it is not mains powered. If you can add a Z-wave repeater/range extender somewhere near the garage sensor, it might help your mesh.

I think part of the problem may be the order in which your devices were paired. Typically, you start by pairing those devices closest to the hub and then pair those that are further away. The lower the device number in hexidecimal, the earlier it was included. However, you indicate that device 08 Grundfos is a considerable distance from the hub. Yet because it was paired early, 13 Dining Room Sconce is attempting to use it as a repeater. The sconce does not have a good signal. If it were attempting to connect through devices in the kitchen, it might be more successful.

You have some other devices that should be able to serve as repeaters such as 011 2-Switch Bedroom. Because it is not getting a strong signal, it is not effective in this role.

I know this is going to sound daunting, but I suggest that you exclude all of your Z-wave devices, reset the Z-wave radio and then go back and include your devices one by one starting with those that serve as repeaters. Begin with those closest to the hub and work outward.

Although switches do serve as repeaters, if they are installed in a metal switch box, they may not be ideal repeaters. You may want to purchase some Z-wave plugs with repeater capability or even some dedicated Z-wave range extenders to strengthen your mesh.

I purchased four Aeotec Range Extender 7 devices for my home. They made a big different in the integrity of my mesh. Placement of repeaters is also important. Do not underestimate the importance of adding devices to your mesh in optimal order so they will connect to the best nodes.

If you have to bring devices close to your hub for inclusion or you have to bring the hub close to the devices as in the case of permanently installed fans and switches, remember to allow them to find a suitable path once everything is returned to its normal location.

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Thanks for the detailed response and suggestions.

First, the unconnected device was something I paired and then put in a box as I'm not using it. I could plug it in and unpair. Not sure if that makes any difference?

As to the pairing, yeah, I paired things as I decided to add new capabilities to the system, and I did not know that that made a difference. Seems it does.

Some specific comments:

0x11 2-Switch Bedroom is at the "end of the line" in the sense that no other devices are beyond it away from the hub. In fact, only the problematic Ox14 Grundfos Light and the 0x11 2-Switch bedroom are in that direction. Everything is in the other direction from the Hub and, while the network is pretty weakly connected, as you say, all the other stuff (including the far away Grundfos circulator with 9.6kbps rate) works reliably. It's just the 0x14 Grundfos light (@ 40 kbps) that fails. This really is close enough that it should have a higher rate. But there a number of intervening walls.

Not sure why the Ox0B 4-switch kitchen is not acting as a repeater. it is ideally positioned for that in the physical world.

I could redo it all (and maybe I will). But with only one flaky device, I'm not quite right ready to re-pair them all. Maybe another outlet between the Hub and the problematic 0x14 Grudnfos light would suffice?

Cheers.

Nice one , @rwclements228 has outlined exactly what I would have mentioned and fundamentally I suspect 2 issues might be working against you.

  1. your mesh strength- bit of a read here that might assist you. Note the 4hop limit.
  2. resisting the urge to tweak, test and make changes. This was something that I did not take into consideration when creating my mesh - I would make a change and expect the devices to work within minutes or hours whereas some device only settled over night.
    I struggled a bit with this very odd behavior that didn’t make a lot of sense to me but I now make “waiting hours” to be part of making Zwave changes to my setup.

These devices have tiny radios and there’s a lot of “other” signals flying around so having multiple “paths” is HUGELY important

Remember that having a repeater device at the end of the line is not necessarily a problem. It might be a good thing. It is not just the physical distance that RF waves must travel, but the environment through which they must travel. Sometimes, a device will connect to a repeater that is much further away physically, but which has a better transmission path.

Ideally, you want all "mission critical" devices to have a 100 mpbs connection. They may work with a lesser connection, but the chances of failure are greater.

By the way, if you have physically removed a device from the mesh, it is best to exclude it from the mesh so other devices won't looking for it.

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Yes, especially repeating devices. Why not just leave it plugged in somewhere as a repeater (if it is a plug-in device)?

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I had thought about an intervening repeater above, and it makes sense to use that device. The only intermediate outlet would be in the laundry room and be somewhat behind the washer, in the same duplex plug, so not sure if that would impact its performance.

Cheers.

Remember that a repeater does not have to be plugged directly into an outlet. I have a couple of repeater devices that I plugged into extension cords so that I could locate them in suitable positions for good signal paths to and from the device.

Plugging the repeater into an outlet that is immediately behind a large metal object such as a washer or dryer is far from ideal.

Also remember that signals travel vertically as well as horizontally. A repeater on a different floor, in a basement, or in an attic might also be an option. If possible, try to get the repeater above objects like furniture and appliances that will interfere with the signal path. For example, in my garage, I mounted a repeater about 8 ft off the floor using an extension cord so signals to my garage door sensors would pass over the top of my vehicles. Use your imagination; think like a radio wave.

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Hadn't thought about the extension aspect. And the washer is definitely non-ideal, I agree. Just thinking about things in the path, this is the best location. We are single-story, so Z-axis is not helpful to us. There is a bedroom along the way that is in less of a direct-line, but the outlet is unobstructed. Cuts the distance some. Really the only other viable option, unfortunately. The Hub and problematic item are really not that far apart.

As a side note, with the EVA LOGIK driver, I can get this to work even with the fan on. There was just one day where, for no apparent reason, it would not turn on.

Cheers.

If that device is a repeater, it will cause issues with not being on the mesh because the system will keep trying to route through a dead space. If it's an edge device (battery operated) It's fine to leave it in the box unconnected..

Nah, it's a plug-in repeater, so likely messing things up sporadically. And, it occurs to me that this had been used for the same indicator light before I got this new outlet in its place, so that cab't be good :slight_smile:

For now I will just remove this one from the network. I do plan to use it annually for holiday lights, but I can add as needed or that time period and then remove to store for the off-season.

Cheers.

Does this fan have brushes? Likely so.

As the commutator rotates, the brushes will jump gaps in the commutator, and could be sparking. Recall that early shortwave radio was "spark gap" morse code, so I'd look at the brushes, and see if they need replacing, as worn brushes will spark far more than fresh ones, and brushes are cheap,

After that, you can reduce high-frequency RFI with one or more of a disk varistor, a disk capacitor, a rubber ring resistor (RRR), and/or a chip capacitor

At lower frequencies, electrolytic or ceramic capacitors and/or a choke coil would help, You see choke coils on all sorts of consumer electronics power cords, that's the bulge near the device-end plug.

Given that a whole house fan is a serious user of current, only the swapping of motor brushes is a DIY project. Sizing the right components for the other options is going to take some math, and knowledge of things like the inrush startup current for that fan motor.

I guess it is possible that the fan has brushes, but most ceiling fans have single-phase, AC induction motors that do not use brushes. This type of motor does not produce high torque; that is why the fan start up slowly. Once the fan is turning, it requires very little torque to keep it going.

An induction motor is not going to make much RFI at all, unless it has a broken rotor bar, and the most reasonable explanation here is "RFI from the fan".

Even with minimal RFI, given the proximity of the fan to the problematic status light (it's like 8' direct line), even a little RFI could cause intermittent behavior. Because even with the fan on, it would work periodically. And now, as I mentioned, with the EVA LOGIK driver it is more reliable even with the fan on.

I don't know if the source code fort the various drivers in the Hubitat distribution is available, but it would be interesting to look at the differences between thse various outlet drivers.

Cheers.