I am trying to add 4 GE smart switches to my HE hub and I can not get any of them to exclude or include with my hub. I have a range extender that is in the hubs devices and it is 10 feet from the switches. Maybe extenders do mot repeat "exclude" commands? and therefore will not repeat the include part? At one time I shut down the hub and brought it out to the switches, but when I got the hub booted back up and green light going, then I couldn't connect to the hub to start the process. Anyway does someone know how I can get these switches on my hub? They have all worked fine on my previous hub which was both wink hubs, the original wink hub and the wink hub 2 when it came out until 1 to 2 weeks ago, when my wink stopped working and I decided to go with the HE hub. Last the switches are in a seperate garage and they were all four in metal gang boxes, but they worked that way with wink for around 6 years and with no extenders. I have taken the switches out and put them in plastic gang boxes a few days ago to help with the signal, snd I have added an aeotec extender to the hub and it is next to the switches. I can bring the hub out to the garage again if that's what it takes, I just need to know what steps I need to take to include these switches. Thanks for any and all help, it will be greatly appreciated.
Sounds like combined range and exclusion issue, but maybe a device issue too. I would try a factory reset of the device and then try exclude again.
If these are very old GE switches, they are likely just plain Zwave and not Zwave plus. They won't exclude or include very far from the hub. So you need to bring the hub closer to the switches.
That sounds like your hub changed IP addresses due to being plugged into a different port of your router, or a different router altogether. Hopefully you weren't trying to use the Hubitat wirelessly, right? It doesn't have a built-in Wifi.
You may have to figure out which IP address the hub was using if you move it, and access that new address.
And edited to say, once you get the switches paired, they will likely talk through the repeater or to the hub just fine.
I did that, but I'm not sure there is an actual factory reset for the original GE smart switches. Because I tried 3 to 5 different ones I found online with no results and the instruction pamphlet that came with the switches 6 or so years ago, states - to exclude and reset the device, follow the instructions provided by your Z-Wave controller. So apparently they have no factory reset built in? They are though the exact same switches that I have used the HE hub to exclude and include to it , for about 20 other switches in my home, so I know it's not that they aren't compatible, I believe it to be the distance to the hub and most likely the wink hubs had larger and better antenna, since they were 10+ times larger than the HE hub. I believe the exclude signal may have to be communicated straight with the hub, I don't know though. Anyway I am sure if this is the case, if I can get them excluded and included, by whatever means then I will be fine, because I am sure the repeater will do the communicating with the hub and the 4 switches.
You are exactly right, the ip addy changed when I moved the hub. I did use an ethernet cable, because I do know the hub is not wifi. I think I will try moving it the same way again, only this time I will plug the cable in the same ports, because I think that may have been the issue and why my router assigned a different ip. The cable I connected to is actually normally used for my RE7000 to put wifi in my seperate garage, so the 7000 can be like a router and not an extender. So I unplugged the ethernet from the 7000 and it became an extender ( untill I plugged the ethernet cable back in) and I plugged the vable in the hub, but it was assigned a different ip. Once I moved the hub back in the house it was assigned the original ip again. So I wil try and I hope this solves it, I will move the hub out to my garage again, only this time I will remove the ethernet from my 7000 and then go back in my house and swap the ports from where the ethernet cable fromm the 7000 is and plug that cable in the same port the hub has been plugged into, this I believe should solve me issue, because the router will see the sam mac addy in the same port so it should assign the same ip. Fingers crossed.
You can always dig around in your router to find the IP by the MAC address on the hub.
It has been a long recommended best practice to give the hub (and things like Alexa or Google Home or Lutron Bridge) an address reservation. This can help if the power goes out, the router firmware updates, or just changes in your network from adding or removing devices. An address reservation might also fix what you are experiencing, so I would do that if you haven't already.
I actually tried to do that when I was setting up the HE to begin with. Apparently they changed the interface around on my router and at that time I could not find the correct spot to assign a static ip and I got frustrated looking for it and never got it assigned. I will however get it assigned sometime, heck maybe sooner than I plan, if my plugging in the same port doesn't work. Thank you for your help , I do appreciate it.
You could post in the Lounge with your router name and model and someone likely can tell you where to find that menu.
It was the range that was the problem added with the switches never being on this hub so the extenders would not repeat the signal. When I shut down the hub and moved it to the garage and removed the ethernet plug from my 7000 on my router and plugged it into the one my hubitat was, and then plugged my hubitat into the other end ( which is in the garage) then everything worked great. The router then saw the hubitat as the exact same device and issued it the same ip and the switches were removed from the old hub and added to the hubitat hub in no time. Thanks for the help and suggestions offered, I appreciate them.
Make a test box with a plastic gang box and a 3 prong extension cord. Connect your switch in the test box. Then bring that to you working hub.
