Hubitat and ZWave - not reliable - what to do?

I really don't understand why Zwave with Hubitat is that unreliable. It works for one day or two, then no turning on /off switches or relais is possible any more for hours or half a day. Reboot of the hub does not help. Then all of a sudden everything works again. What's a good strategy to get this debugged and fixed? - the logfile is not helpful at all.

Platform Version: hub-2.2.7.128
Hardware Version: Rev C-7
around 60 zwave devices, mostly GE wall switches

Sounds like a mesh problem - possibly a ghost or two. So a couple of suggestions:

  1. Consider getting to the latest HE firmware (2.2.8.156)
  2. If you can post your zwave details we can look it over and see if anything jumps out
1 Like
  1. ok. Updated.
  2. in which form? Screenshot? (it's a long list)

screenshots are usually best as the formatting suffers when copying and pasting

1 Like









All those devices with a Discover button instead of a name can contribute to your problems.

They represent Include attempts that failed. Looking further along in the list, I can guess that most got Included eventually, 2nd or 3rd try. But those left overs can contribute to "Mesh Problems". The hub's going to spend some effort trying to talk to them BUT they don't exist anymore. The device has a Node address a few numbers along. The issue is that packets that do nothing, can't do anything, are just a burden on your mesh.

Most of the rest looks good... lots of 100k, few with hops, and so on. I'd suggest focusing on ridding yourself of those 'ghosts'. Click on the Refresh button a few colums left of "discover" and sit patiently. for 10-15 seconds. You're looking for that stack of buttons to include "Remove" and you'll want to click that when it appears. Again, wait... everything in this area gets done out on the Radio and is not fully visible to the hub... and us.

Just repeat the Refresh.... Remove process until your list is clean. It's not only important to be patient but to understand the Radio is built to avoid "accidentially" deleting live devices... so if it gets any hint that the device is alive, it will not Remove it. Try again if you are sure it doesn't exist.

6 Likes

..might have to power off the real device to get the others to let you remove…

3 Likes

I tried Refresh / Remove dozens and dozens of times since July. But don't get them removed.

How could I figure out what the real device behind a "ghost" is so I could power them off?

Node IDs: 0x13 (019), 0x1B (027), 0x1C (028) are showing as dead "POWER_SWITCH_MULTILEVEL" (aka Dimmer) yet the next one: 0x1D (029) is the same type. One can imagine you tried once, it failed, you moved on, then came back and tried 3 times... third time was a charm :smiley:

4 Likes

I agree on the ghosts.... Your z-wave table is in terrible shape. If you are having a lot of problems because you can't figure out which switch(s) or what not to disconnect power to in order to remove the ghost, you have the option of getting a usb z-wave stick and using your PC to remove them. The usb z-wave stick is added to hubitat as a secondary controller. I'd also consider re pairing all the switches without security (keep door locks and garage door openers with encryption though) This will lessen overhead. I think once you get those ghosts cleaned out, you'll be quite happy with the strength and reliability of your z-wave mesh

5 Likes

An option, since these appear to be mainly failed switch pairings, would be to put the hub on a UPS (not a bad idea anyway) and cut power to the house.

My guess on these though would be:

0x13 = 0x14
0x17, 0x18 = 0x19
0x1A = 0x1E
0x1B, 0x1C = 0x1D
0x25, 0x26 = 0x27
0x32 = 0x34
0x63 = 0x64

2 Likes

I turned off the electric this morning for Β½ hour (Hub and IP network is on UPS anyway).

Result: no removal possible :frowning:

After my wife complaint I had to turn on electric again.

I guess I'll better buy a Zwave stick. Which software do I need (Linux, Debian/Ubuntu)?

Read this... it seems daunting at first but thanks to the good work of the authors it really isn't a big deal. I do think, though, that your "ghost" device may still need to be powered off... read through the directions and see what it says.

Win10 will work fine. SiLabs software is free. Stick is $20. Enjoy!

Whenever I try to include a z-wave device and it fails I immediately stop and focus on getting rid of the ghost I just created before I proceed further. It's a pain but it will prevent the issues you're seeing.

Happy ghost busting... feel free to reach out if you have questions.

4 Likes

Sometimes you will have to hit discover or refresh several times to get the removal button. Then you may have to wait up to a minute for the force remove option to appear. If you can, take it somewhere else and attempt again

3 Likes

Love this... :smiley: Summarizes my life in one sentence. I need a t-shirt that has a fill-in-the-blank version - "After wife complaint I had to ________."

And just how did she become the boss of me!?! :wink:

5 Likes

LOL. It summarizes life for a lot of us !!

3 Likes

If Mama ain't happy, no one is happy!

4 Likes

I have a similar intermittent issues with zwave devices and consider my house is surrounded by metal beams, I think that could have caused it (faraday cage effect).

I moved most of my devices to zigbee now.

3 Likes

Now I got the zooz S2 stick 700 and borrowed a Windows Laptop from a neighbor (the Linux version of the Simplicity Studio failed).

What do I have to do now? - it looks all quite different to the "Hubitat UZB Stick How-To.pdf"

That Simplicity name is a bunch of hooey, it is far from simple.

You need to go to the Tools from the main (startup) menu, not the device manager.