The following is the setup for my motion sensor routine. I have shut off power to the dimmer switch (GE Z-Wave plus Smart Dimmer). It seems to help because now the route changes have dropped down to 4.
I am able to remove 5 out of the 8 ghost nodes. I am having problem with the remaining 3. The log keep saying "Failed node 61 remove status: 0 SDK failure node is no longer in failed node list."
I plan to get a z-wave stick to see if I can remove them.
Also, I notice 2 of the nodes have blank under device name but the route is not blank. Do I need to remove those?
They could possibly be attached to powered devices, but if they are, you dont have them linked to a device on the hub so you cannot do anything with them. Sometimes the old routes just get stuck in there and never go away even on dead devices/nodes. Best to get rid of the nodes and if you figure out what device it was you can re-include it.
Using the Z-Wave stick, I am able to remove all the ghost devices and dead nodes. The light switches seem to response faster. The max. route changes so far is 10. Thanks for all the help.
The issue with the delay or no response from the motion sensor is still there. It has improved from all devices to only a few light switches not turning on when motion sensor is trigger. Checking the event log, it still shows command is issued but switch is not there to response. The following is when the motion routine is working correctly.
The command is there but the switch is not on the next line to execute. It will fix itself in a few minutes if I keep making motion at the motion sensor. It doesn't limit to 1 switch but all the switches that I have a motion sensor link to it. I can't find a pattern since it happen on different switches at different time. Will a Z-Wave repair help in this case?
If you just got rid of the dead nodes recently a repair might help, otherwise it should sort itself out within a few days anyway.
Can you confirm your z-wave firmware does not need an update? If there is an update the z-wave details page would have an "Update Firmware" button. If button is not there it should be updated already.
How many lights are you trying to turn on at once with this motion sensor?
Possibly putting them in a group with command metering enabled may help, then the motion rule would just turn the group on/off.
I am not sure what version of the firmware I am on. There is a button for update firmware but when I try to update, I got the following message "Z-Wave Updater: ERROR. This firmware target is not upgradable". I use the "yourHubIP*/hub/advanced/installZipgateway718" to update to 7.18 but I still have the update firmware button.
I have 13 motion sensors which control 13 different switches. Each motion sensor only control 1 light (switch). When the problem arise, some or all of the switches that activate by the motion sensor will stop working. Every switch event log will show a command was issued (motion detected) but the switch didn't response. It will turn on after a few minutes if I keep activating the motion sensor.
Since each of the motion sensor control only 1 light, I don't think grouping will help. However, I did try to group all the lights from downstairs and see what happen. I have turn off optimization and enable metering (set the delay to 50 milliseconds). I notice not all the light will turn on (23 switches and 7 dimmers). I have to hit the on button 2-3 times to have all the lights on. The same goes with the turn off button. I am not sure if 30 switches are too many for grouping.
I asked about the Z-wave firmware because your issues are exactly what happens on the old firmware, Z-Wave is very unreliable. I think your problems will mostly go away once you get updated.
Follow these instructions to get the firmware updated. Basically you have to downgrade the gateway first so the firmware can update, then update the gateway back to 7.18
Thanks for the information. I am able to update the firmware. After the update, the hub seems to work faster. However, I still have problem with 2 of the motion sensor routine still not turning on occasionally which is huge improvement . The event log show command being send and switch not execute. Furthermore, when I turn on/off group of light (about 30), I need to hit the button twice to have it all on or off. I already turn off optimization and set delay to 300 milliseconds.
I notice the speed of 5 devices is at 9kbps and 12 devices is at 40kbps. The total number of devices on the Z-Waves detail page is 53. Could that be the cause of the switches not responding?
If you turn ON optimization that will only send commands to devices that need to change. With that off it sends commands to all devices even if it is already in the desired state.
The mesh may take a little time to heal. You could try running a full repair from the z-wave details (once) to help speed it up.
The 9kbps devices is a concern, if you do a repair check back a few hours later and see if those device have improved.
Also, if you have not done this since the firmware update you might want to do a shut down from settings and unplug the hub for 30 seconds. This will fully power down the z-wave radio and restart it.
I look at each node that has 9.6kbps and repair those nodes. Some of them repair successfully but 2 of them get the following errors.
I decide to move the hub to different part of the house to see if I can fix the issue. After many attempts and shut down and power off. This is the best I get. Is it true that the closer the hub in the middle is the better for the signal?
This location only have 3 9.6kbps nodes. I am not sure what else I can do to improve the speed.
With group light on/off, I notice that once I hit the on/off button, all the devices status have been updated even the physical switch doesn't reflect the actual state. For example, if I hit all on but only 80% lights are on but the rest of the 20% will show on status while the lights are still off. The dashboard will also show those lights are on and hitting the button on the dashboard doesn't provide any result. I have to turn it on at the device page.
I have to turn off optimization in order to get all light off to work by hitting it the 2nd time to get the rest of the lights on. Motion sensor not turning on the light problem still remain but the problem now is more random on different sensor at different time. It could be working on day and all the sudden stop working for a few minutes and then back to normal again.
Is there anything else I can do to improve the group lighting or motion sensor problem?
This should not be happening, that is poor driver coding. What drivers are those devices using, custom or system? Normally a Zwave or Zigbee driver should only update the switch state once the device has responded back with a state change.
Add more repeaters in the paths of those devices. We would need to see your entire Z-wave details screen to understand it more.
I add the Z-wave devices and let the system assign whatever driver it chose. Most of the z-wave switches are GE Enbrighten Smart Switches. Some of the switch will show genetic z-wave smart switch while other show GE Enbrighten Z-Wave smart switch even they are the same switches. They are all z-wave plus switches, from what I understand they all act as a repeater. The following is the latest Z-wave detail screen.
How long since last reboot when you took those screenshots?
If you are sure they are identical models I would change the drivers all to use the GE Enbrighten drivers. Also I don't think those drivers will change the state unless the device reports back.
You should turn on debug logging for the switch and see if you can reproduce it to get debug logs. Also would like to see the event log again for when you are saying the state changes on the device page but the device does not actually change.
Is it possible you just have some switches that are going bad?
The screenshots were taken 20 hours after reboot. I have changed all the switches to GE Enbrighten drivers. I check the switches that didn't turn on/off with motion sensor or group lighting, they all seem to work fine. I have included 2 devices (there are more) that sometime won't turn on/off with group lighting while the status won't correspond to the actual physical state.
The first one is the kitchen sink light. I have included both the event and debug logs. It shows that even the button is press on the dashboard (group lighting), it won't turn on/off the switch.
The outside pantry light's log also show the command is sent but physical switch won't change. It show the status is off but the light is still on. Pressing the off button on group lighting won't turn it off until I press the off button on the device page.
These happen to more than 10 switches; I don't think all of them are bad. Because I turn on optimization and the status is not report correctly, I can see why the group lighting won't work after pressing it the 2nd time. I can't figure out why sometime the hub will send the command but the physical switch won't change.
This is showing that the switch was turned off.
Then after than two on commands were issues but the device never responded.
At that point the state on the device page should still be off, not sure if the actual switch was on or off?
As I said before, the state only changes if the device responds (or if the hub gets the response).
In your z-wave details this device has a route with two hops. Not ideal, but it is showing no route changes so that route in theory should be working.
The pantry light is showing lots of commands and the device never responds at all, the state (on the hub) never changed according to the event log.
This device if it is node 0x17 Pantry Outside Light is showing a solid direct route with no route changes. It looks like the device is non-response. I would power cycle the device at the circuit breaker and see if that helps.
What is your house made out of? Typical options would be, wood/drywall, wood/lathe/plaster, concrete/block, steel frame.
I have been checking some of the switches. For example, the pantry outside light, I notice the status of the light will not change even I physical or pressing the on button on the device page. The light will turn on but the current states still say off.
I have another switch that is turn on by door contact. When the door is closed, the light turn on but the switch status still says off. Since the status is off, when the door is open, the light won't turn off.
Both switches work fine with physical pressing and using the on/off button on the device page. However, if I use the button on dashboard, it will give me the hourglass symbol and the light will not turn off. Hitting the refresh button on the device page didn't change the status.
For those switches, is the recommendation to do a power cycle (turning off the fuse) to fix the status not updated problem?
As for the motion sensor problem, command being sent but physical switch not responding, does the Motion and Mode Lighting App has a way to double check if the light is on or off?
For example, the pantry light is trigger by motion sensor, if no motion is detected in 1 minute then turn off. As of now, sometimes it won't turn off if the command is not executed. The light will stay on for hours even no motion is detected.
Clicking the dashboard is the exact same thing as pressing it on the dashboard. The dashboard is a direct link to the device page commands.
That is my recommendation, I think you have already power cycled the hub a few times so now I would power cycle any problematic devices. It is the next step in trying to figure out what is going on.
No, all the system apps assume that your devices work correctly so they do not have any verification or retries.
You would need either a feature built into the driver or a virtual device wrapper and an app or rule to do retries.
Thanks for the suggestion. I have spent the weekend checking all the switches. I also power cycle all the one that seem to be problematic. I think I figure out what cause some of the problem.
The problem switch will not update the status. Everything work fine with the switch (dimming, on/off, setting level etc.) but won't update the status unless I press the refresh button. This creates problem for the door contact along with the dashboard operation.
The switch is all from GE/Enbrigthen brand and purchased all at the same time. Some of the switches are next to each other, one will work fine while the other won't update the status.
I already power cycle the switch. As of now, I use the rule machine routine to keep refreshing the status but I don't think that is the way to solve this problem.
Beside replacing the problem switches, is there any other way to fix the status not updated unless hitting refresh problem?
[RELEASE] Z-Wave Universal Device Scanner
You could try using this utility driver of mine (above), turn on debug logging, and press the Set Lifeline Association button. Check the logs and it should have replied back with a message showing it is set to [1]. The symptoms you have are what could happen if that somehow did get set when the device was paired.
You could also try physically tapping the switch a couple of time with that driver on there and see if anything gets logged. If any messages come to the hub it will log them.
Once done you can switch back to the other driver.
Also, can you provide the info from the "Data" at the bottom of the device page for both a working switch and non-working switch? Copy/paste or screenshot works. I want to be sure of what model they are and that they are both the same. There is a site I can look up the numbers in there to find the exact models.
The problem one has an item name syncStatus while the normal one has an item name pushed.
Not sure if that make any different but after applying your driver and switch back to the original one, the problem switch is now working correctly and the dashboard is now updating with correct status.
The fix doesn't work on the dimmer switches. All the dimmer switches are now having problem with not updating the status. Here are some of the information.
Some of the switch will not have numberOfButtons under Current States.
They are all the same switches and using the same driver.
As of now, all the dimmer switches will not change status until I hit the refresh button. This problem doesn't affect the motion sensor routine but will affect the door contact routine.
