Hub Mesh

Amen.

I said that because big white button looked to have no route

the big white button is a battery device. It only shows up when used.

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Ok makes sense then

I really appreciate your assistance.

I do think there is an issue with Z-wave devices and Hubitat. My hub is running like a charm now that I have minimized my Z-wave devices.

I am curious if anyone else is having or had this experience?

A quick search of the community and I believe you'll find a much higher number of issues related to Z-Wave (especially on the C7 hub) as compared to Zigbee, Lutron, etc...

This thread seems to indicate that some users are finding much improved Z-Wave performance when using an external antenna.

Note: This will void the warranty on the hub, obviously.

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I can comment on this to some extent. I used to have an equal number of zigbee and zwave devices. However, upon finding z-wave performance to be somewhat inconsistent, I replaced several z-wave devices with zigbee equivalents (eg. locks). I was left with 57 z-wave devices and I believed my mesh to be stable and performant.

However, after the external z-wave antenna modification linked to by @ogiewon, the same 57 z-wave devices have been performing extremely well, with response times rivaling or exceeding what I observe with zigbee. Currently, 51 of my 57 z-wave devices are directly paired with the controller with no intervening hops. The increase in performance is so striking that I am no longer afraid to add additional z-wave devices.

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This a 900Mhz frequency and should not need an antenna for direct connection for most homes. An antenna is a nice to have but should not be required. I had 500 series devices that were direct and I had some 700 series devices that could practically kiss the hub going through a 500 series device 25 feet away. It made no sense (See above and example below).

Neighbors: 10, Route Changes: 2 OK SPECIFIC_TYPE_NOTIFICATION_SENSOR
Zooz Office Motion S0 01 -> 2A -> 0A 9.6kbps

It is like I have a new hub and I did that by removing every single 700 series device. I think the issue is in the security but I do not know or care to know. I will avoid Z-wave in the future and try to use Lutron or Zigbee instead.

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I am an integrator so I need hubs that will work forever with little to no attention. Reliability trumps all else. So far my non Z-wave Hubitats seem to do the trick. I am only at four hubs but more will come.

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Who knows. Maybe this is an antenna issue?

I can not personally do that because the hub is in a customers home or business.

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I actually am mistaken. I still have two 700 series devices unauthenticated. You can see that one device goes to another device that is literally on the opposite side of the home. So the device goes to a device about 40 feet away and then that device is about 25 feet away from the hub when it is about 10 feet away from the hub. Explain that.

So before I get the "do a repair"; I did and now look at the results. I has moved to pending; which was an early sign of trouble in my past experience.

Absolutely agree.. I am an integrator as well and your experiences while painful are very interesting, thank you for relaying them.

Longevity is one of the most important goals for any system I deploy so over-building - like using multiple hubs where appropriate, limiting devices to certain well known brands, limiting amount and types of apps on each hub + backup power etc. etc.

I have a client with a house full of Zooz V3/4 ZW+ switches (Zen23/24 - 500 series) - no 700's and not paired with S2 security (NO security vs unauthenticated). Things have been working okay for over a year now.

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I may have to nuke the link sensors in favor of Zigbee ones. My Z-wave nightmare does continue.emphasized text

I really believe it has something to do with this 700 security stuff.

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You mentioned having devices paired "unauthenticated".. not with "no security" - there is a difference.

If you have to use z-wave direct connection is the way to go. If you are choosing a switch then choose Zigbee; you will happy with results.

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That is the 700 series way of authenticating. I was able to chose no security when pairing the device. 700 series security only makes it worse.

Yes I understand - so when you paired them you hit "skip" and they should show up as security "none" instead of "unauthenticated".. I noticed you had a few "unauthenticated" in your early screencaps.

That is correct.