I've got a few devices only, mainly to control my dumb airconditioners and lamp shade using zwave plugs.. i've got alexa setup w/ the hub as well.
everything has been perfect for months then suddenly starting a couple weeks ago it's been problematic.
Most of the time the plugs are just non responsive... sometimes i send out a command (on or off) and the plugs react after a whole minute or even more. It's really strange
I've tried sending command thru alexa (as i always do) as well as directly turning the plugs ON/OFF thru the hubitat UI (to rule out any alexa or internet issues)
I've tried rebooting my hub several times as well as unplugging and replugging the plugs.. i've moved some of the plugs closer to the hub as well, just to test, to no improvements.
I've not done anything on the hub at all and havent even logged in to it in months...
I tried to monitor the z-wave logs and this is what i got
basically, when i control the plugs thru alexa or directly thru the UI, the logs would show updates instantly... that tells me that there is no lag between me issuing the command and the hub receiving it and executing that command towards the devices - but the devices just dont do anything.
I'm stomped. Do i have to do a factory reset on the hub now? i'd hate to start from scratch
Looking at this I see several devices that don't have a route listed; if you've "recently" rebooted the hub and they are sleepy devices (battery devices with longer reporting/check-in cycles), not a problem, but if they are mains powered you may need to remove and re-pair them with the hub. Also see that you have an alert status in the upper right - may not have anything to do with this but probably should check to see what it is if you haven't already.
This is indicative of a change in your Z-Wave network. Even though you may not have added or removed devices from your hub, changes to your hub are made every second by devices already connected to the hub. If one device stops working properly, it will affect any other device that communicates to the hub through that particular non-functioning device, creating a cascading effect of multiple non-functioning devices.
Unfortunately every one of those actions can further make things worse. The only way out of sudden Z-Wave issues, is to identify which device is misbehaving and resolving the problem with that individual device.
Sure there is, but the explanation depends on the root cause. My personal solution when dealing with a misbehaving device is replacing it. I have spent countless hours troubleshooting bad devices only to end up replacing them, anyway. It's not worth the time one would invest in making a bad device work better. Any solution is temporary. In the long run weeding out bad devices will ensure long lasting stability for years to come, until one device goes bad.
I'd like to clarify.. Will bad devices going to affect other devices that are near the hub and did not need to go through the bad device (mesh network)?
Coz all 3 devices are near the hub and should be directly connected to it and not through mesh network of other potentially bad device.
And how does one root out which is the bad device? They are all responsive on the z-wave logs, they report their statuses periodically w/o fail. but turning them on/off just doesnt work well anymore.
Do i remove each plug one by one and see which device i removed improves the situation?
It appears you have a Z-wave firmware update, see the button on the top left, fourth one over.
That update is important to do, it can help prevent a bunch of issues. I am not sure it is good to do it now that you have problems, but keep that update in mind.
@bobbyD do you think it would be good to update Z-wave for @tj1
So i tried to do repair thing on LAMP SHADE first.. and this is what i got..
i dont understand what that failed node means but the plug is definitely still unresponsive after finishing the repair thing
Yes, 1 bad device can cause other devices, IF they are routing through it, to have issues. However you can read the forums here to see other's experience. (search Z-wave problems). Myself I've had issues, and it wasn't a bad device, I'm still using all the same devices without issue...so far. The z-wave stack had issues, most of which are addressed by the firmware update in the z-wave details page. You may wind up re-pairing many devices, as I've had to do.
There are also discussions about the hub changing the Z-wave DB to a more reliable format. However I've not clearly understood whether an existing DB can be upgraded to the newer format or if the Z-wave network needs to be rebuilt to take advantage of the newer format.
If it fails, then new route couldn't be established because the controller couldn't communicate with the device. So it will remain unresponsive until the connection is re-established. The reason is not recommended to run a full repair is that IF for example node 06 was functional better routes could be established, but since the device is non-functional, then less efficient routes are selected. Ensuring that all nodes are functional is key to best routing. Performing repair on individual device is best in determining a bad player. Once the repair fails, you have the confirmation that the device isn't communicating properly with the radio. In this situation you have several options:
exclude/reinclude hoping that what ever was the cause of failure will not happen again
add repeaters between the failed device and hub, to ensure the device can communicate better.
remove the device and replace it with one that can communicate with the hub better.
Other things you can try: update firmware on the controller and/or update firmware on the specific device,
Thanks for this. I was going thru ur suggestions, even moved some repeaters (plugs) around and things got better all of a sudden. I dont know exactly what fixed it but I'll observe and run thru these steps again if there are more issues.
