Hubitat ZWave Issues


Hub model C8 V2.4.3.171

I have a habitat C8 that has been plagued with Z-wave issues the last couple months or so. I bought the C8 when it was released and migrated my house to it. I upgraded the external antennas. I update every OS release for the Hubitat within a week. I have continued to change out switches in the house to Z-Wave switches without issue (for the most part). Previously I connected a Zen17 V1 as a garage door controller and no issues under C7. With the C8 I added some outlet Zwave plugs that worked. Everything was great for the last year and nothing new had been added (occasionally at 3am, when I have auto backup running, it freezes for 5-10min, but this was also the case on theC7). Randomly about 2 or 3 months ago the the Zen17 V1 garage setup stopped working fully and would take 1-5 minutes to start opening the garage after a button was pushed. So I tried replacing it with the newer Zen17 800LR but it wouldn't work, and ChatGPT suggested a range extender from Aeotec, So I bought and installed it. It still didn't work right. Next I moved to using the small Zooz zwave relay switch instead with a wireless Samsung zigbee contact sensor for a garage setup instead. It worked. Then about a week later all the Zwave devices started having issues randomly all over. Devices don't respond or take several minutes to respond. ChatGPT said to move the hubitat from the garage server rack to behind the tv and it seemed to work better for a few days, then issues again. I couldn't get a Zwave power switch to respond and another was spamming power information constantly. I couldn't exclude them and had to work hours to connect Zwave PC controller software in my windows laptop to force remove them and then unplugged and plugged in the hubutat and everything worked for a couple days and again today nothing was working. I noticed the Aeotec extender was connected but Hubitat showed communication issues and So I forced removed it and then unplugged the Hubitat and plugged it back in. The Hubitat usually begins responding on Zwave devices 10 minutes after a hard reboot, but the time it stays working varies from minutes to days. All this time all ZigBee and WiFi devices work flawlessly still. Most recently I can't add any zwave devices to the system. Also my Zwave logs are empty.

Here is my Zwave details page:
Node; Stats; Device Class; Device; Security; Route; Msgs

0x001a (26); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 12, Route Changes: 0 SPECIFIC_TYPE NOTIFICATION_SENSOR; Bedroom Door; None; 01 -> 1A; 0

00x001c (28); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 18, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_MULTILEVEL; Dining Room Dimmer; None; 01 -> 1C; 0

0x001d (29); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: 64dB Neighbors: 16, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_BINARY; Kitchen Light Switch; None; 01 -> 4C -> 1D 40kbps; 2

0x001f (31); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 8, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_BINARY; Sprinkler MultiRelay; None; 01 -> 1F; 0

0x0020 (32); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 17, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE NOTIFICATION_SENSOR; Kitchen Smoke Alarm (Detector) None; 01 -> 20; 0

0x0021 (33); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 19, Route Changes: 0;SPECIFIC_TYPE NOTIFICATION_SENSOR; Alarm Panel 2; None; 01 -> 21; 0

0x0022 (34); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 18, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE NOTIFICATION_SENSOR
Alarm Panel 1; None; 01 -> 228; 0

0x002e (46); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 18, Route Changes: 0;SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_BINARY; Garage Light Switch; S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 2E; 0

0x002f (47); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 17, Route Changes: 0;GENERIC_TYPE SWITCH_BINARY; Bedroom Light Switch; S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 2F; 0

0x0035 (53); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 4, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_BINARY; Outside Outlet (Front); None; 01 -> 35; 11

0x0039 (57); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 18, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE SECURE_KEYPAD; Ring Alarm Keypad G2; S2 Access Control; 01 -> 39; 0

0x003e (62): PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 16, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_BINARY; Foyer Light Switch; S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 3E;
0

0x0040 (64); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 17, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_MULTILEVEL; Livingroom Dimmer; S2 Authenticated; 0

0x0041 (65); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 12, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_MULTILEVEL; Downstairs Hallway Dimmer (New); S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 41; 0

0x0044 (68); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 11, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_MULTILEVEL; Game Room Dimmer; S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 44; 0

0x0045 (69)PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A
Neighbors: 15, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE POWER_SWITCH_BINARY; Stairwell Light Switch (New); S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 45; 0

0x0046 (70)PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 6, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE BASIC_WALL_CONTROLLER; Aeotec NanoMote; None; 01 -> 46; 0

0x0049 (73); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 10, Route Changes: 0; GENERIC_TYPE SWITCH_BINARY; Landscape Lights Relay S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 49; 0

0x004c (76)PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: 44dB Neighbors: 18, Route Changes: 0; GENERIC_TYPE SWITCH_BINARY; Fireplace Switch; None; 01 -> 4C 100kbps; 0

0x004e (78)PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 18, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE THERMOSTAT_GENERAL_V2
Thermostat; S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 4E; 0

0x0052 (82); PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: 18, Route Changes: 0; SPECIFIC_TYPE SECURE_KEYPAD_DOOR_LOCK
Front Door S2 Access Control01 -> 52; 0

0x0053 (83)PER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A
Neighbors: 2, Route Changes: 0; GENERIC_TYPE SWITCH_MULTILEVEL; Library Switch (New); S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 53; 0

0x0100 (256) LRPER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: , Route Changes: ;GENERIC_TYPE SWITCH_MULTILEVEL; H Room Dimmer; S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 0100 100kbps; 0

0x0105 (261) LRPER: 0, RTT Avg: ms, LWR RSSI: N/A Neighbors: , Route Changes: ; GENERIC_TYPE SWITCH_BINARY; Garage Relay Switch (Temp); S2 Authenticated; 01 -> 0105 100kbps; 0

Did you add the ZEN17 800LR in LR mode or mesh mode? (If you scanned the QR code using SmartStart, it's probably LR; if you did the inclusion process from the hub's regular web interface, it is not.) If it's LR, a Z-Wave repeater will not help. You do have a couple LR devices, but I can't tell if this is one.

What is the reason for this? Is the TV more central than the garage, or is the server rack metal? Central is generally more preferable, and metal inhibits RF transmission, so it's good to avoid placing the hub inside, but without knowing more about your particular setup, it seems like this is just a random suggestion.

What do you mean by this?

These only update in real time (i.e., no "Past Logs" like in regular hub logs) and on legacy Z-Wave, which you are probably using, will only show commands sent from the hub. So, they are generally not very interesting, and this is not necessarily a problem.

This is a bit hard to read, and some information appears to be missing. How long was the hub up before you copied this information? (Most will not survive a reboot, so it would need to get populated based on data since then.) A screenshot or few may be easier for others to read. A quick glance doesn't show anything alarming, unless your hub has been up for some time and Z-Wave non-functional since then, which...I guess most of this would be consistent with. :slight_smile:

Anyway, I think it's great you came to the Community for help! Rather than continuing to ask ChatGPT, I'd consider reading the tips here instead:

I don't see any S0 devices, so you can ignore those tips, but you might want to look at chatty devices or see if you can narrow down your problem to any one particular device (in a mesh network, one device can affect others).

Some other questions:

  • It sounds like you switched from the stock antennas. Have you tried reverting to see if your problems go away? (And in particular, did you get an antenna that is supposed to work well for Z-Wave frequencies?)
  • How are you powering the hub? If not the power adapter that came with the hub, have you tried that to see if it helps?
  • Do you see an "Update Firmware" button on the Z-Wave Details page?
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@hakarune

Can you post an actual screen shot from a pc browser of your z-wave details page in it's entirety? Use windows snip tool.

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