I have been trying to get my new Hubitat to work correctly in my home environment, but I am having some issues with the device.
For example, I can go into the dashboards I set up, and a Z-wave light switch will show as being on when the light is actually off. If I operate the switch through the dashboard, the light can eventually be brought into synch, but this is consistently happening. Also, when attempting to operate Z-wave switches that are set up in the Hubitat, I can hear the Echo device send the command with the audible cues, but nothing happens.
I am about to just call it a wash and go back to the Samsung Smartthings. It may be that it was a cloud solution versus local, but I never had these issues before with that hub.
They are the older GE Z-Wave switches. Most of them are at least 3 or 4 years old. I can look at the app you mentioned and see if that corrects the issue.
Thanks for taking the time to assist me on this issue.
Be careful with the poller. The solution to one problem is sometimes the cause of another. The poller can cause the hub to slow down due to the amount of traffic it generates.
What Z-Wave switches are you using? (Brand and model.) I'm asking because the problem you describe sounds a lot like the behavior of some older "classic" Z-Wave switches where the manufacturer didn't license a technique under patent from Lutron at the time and prevented the switch from sending physical status change reports back to the hub in real time. GE/Jasco Z-Wave switches were infamous for this, though there were others. Doing a poll() or refresh() on the device page manually and seeing if yours updates would be one way to see if this helps.
Most Z-Wave Plus switches/dimmers are fine here, and some "classic" Z-Wave ones are too. (The patent expired around the time Z-Wave Plus became required for certification, and I think Plus also introduced ways to make this happen that didn't infringe on the patent, but my history might be a bit off. This is the trend in any case.)
If this is your problem, the Z-Wave Poller app can help. (SmartThings polled for you behind the scenes whether the device needed it or not; Hubitat is opposed to that approach.) However, I'd only use this on switches where you care to see status changes in Hubitat or depend on this for automations for some reason, and do it as little as you can. You risk bogging down your Z-Wave network with excessive traffic otherwise, and some have reported it also bogs down their hub (not sure it really should, but it might).
If this is not your problem, then it's harder to diagnose. My guess is that maybe your Z-Wave devices are having problems communicating with your hub. Is your hub centrally located and do you have a good mesh network with enough Z-Wave repeaters in range of both each other and the hub? Have you run a Z-Wave repair (just to see if it helps) and possibly let your mesh "settle down" for a day or two (good advice after adding a bunch of devices, as you might do when moving from one platform to another) before trying all of this?
My Hub is centrally located, but I do not use any Z-wave repeaters. I thought that the switches were supposed to work as repeaters on their own, but not sure if that is actually the case. I have installed the poller, but it won't find any of the GE Smart Fan controllers, and did not find all the lights. I am going to test out those lights to see if the issue is occurring on those. Almost every switch I am having issue with are the older GE Z-Wave switches I installed when I moved into my house. So if I don't want to buy new switches, and the poller doesn't work, would it be better to just go back to Smartthings?
So I was using a V1 Smartthings Hub. Is it worthwhile to upgrade to a newer version of their hub? I was liking the features on the Hubitat, but if it can't control my devices reliably, I will switch back.
You would have to ask that on a ST forum. I went the other way and replaced all my non-plus zwave devices with plus models. My system has never worked better.
Yes, most powered devices are repeaters. This includes switches and dimmers. I said "repeaters" because "devices" would have been overly broad, with battery devices not being of concern for my question. Most people do not need the dedicated "repeater" devices that have recently proliferated on the market. Sorry for any confusion!
This is a question I have always had. Wink also seemed to do a decent job polling. I understand that they, and Smartthings, have unlimited cloud computing power to do this, but even then it didn't seem to bog down the Z-wave network.
Why does Hubitat poll so much it can "bring the hub to its knees"? Why can't they either adjust the time between polling to slow it down to a "safe" level, or allow users to adjust the time between polling events? Maybe Bruce or Mike could add some insight?
I think if you were to have polling run say every few minutes and then stop, with a duration that is just long enough to complete the job, it would be sufficient. Nobody should be turning off switches that often.
There are Generic "Smart" and just plain ol' Generic.
The Smart drivers are intended to be used on ZWave Plus devices. As a result, it doesn't recognize the poll action. Devices using the Smart drivers do not appear in the selection list for Wave Poller App.
My advice is: Verify the correct driver before trying ZWave Poller.
