[INCIDENT] ZOOZ Double Plug (MODEL ZEN25)

Thanks for posting this. I realize my most recent post is contrary to my previous posts where I said, "they work for me", but once I added the 3rd ZEN25 into my network, everything deteriorated within 24 hours. As I reflect on the last couple of months, what you describe is consistent with what I experienced.

I have 1 left in the network which I replace shortly.

@bobbyD How do you detect that network being spammed?

I monitored the z-wave logs that are accessible via "settings->z-wave details->z-wave logs" and didn't see what appeared to be a lot of traffic from the zen25s.

Logs (past logs) is your go to place. But it depends on the driver if it has logging enabled to show the real traffic. With built-in drivers you have more insight by enabling debug logging from Device Details, some custom drivers don't have much logging, so you don't know what's hitting your hub.

When I did some zniffing watching my ZEN25 a while back, I tend to agree with bcopeland that the device might be restarting internally via a watchdog of some sort. Everything would be going fine and the device would then start rerouting and spamming all sorts of stuff in the mesh. These are routing commands that you cannot see on the hub interface. I could imagine when you have 3 going if they all start doing this it would confuse all the devices and grind everything to a halt. This can also be verified by checking the route changes metric. This device has many more route changes than anything else for no apparent reason. It is a comparable location to many other devices so the range should not be an issue.

I could add the parameter 18 to my driver, I never knew it existed, just noticed this thread recently. I will have to get the full details on it from Zooz so I know what options to present on it. I am going to set mine to 1 for now and see if it cuts down on the routing changes.

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Different results always depend on different scenarios and conditions. We were able to establish that adding the device without security and disabling as much reporting as possible usually helps with any network issues. Sometimes, if you have a resistive or incandescent load connected to the plug, the reports won't be as frequent because there aren't a lot of changes in the power draw. But if @jtp10181 can find anything else on the device side that we could change via a firmware update, we'll definitely have our engineers make the adjustment!

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Both myself and @bcopeland agree something odd is going on with the firmware causing the device to re-route constantly which spams the zwave mesh. Bryan thinks it might be the watchdog service (on the device) restarting the device internally. All I could do is get zniffer logs showing the re-routing but the engineers should be able to do the same. Without seeing source code for the firmware I don't think we can pinpoint the problem any further.

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Thank you for the quick reply -- I've done that with the stock driver and I don't see a lot of activity there.

I had no security, power reporting disabled, etc., and still had the problem. The logs did not have a lot of clutter. I will add that when I had this same problem in the past with my previous Smartthings hub & C7 hub, I did encounter the hyperactive reporting problem. This is why I have disabled all power reporting and set parameter 18 to 1. Interestingly, for the first time, I am not longer able to successfully set parameter 18 with the basic z-wave tool for the 1 remaining Zen25 I have in my network.

I suspect this is what I am encountering. The network became massively unreliable but the hub logs and hub z-wave logs did not show excessive activity.

@agnes.zooz I hope that the engineers at Zooz can help us out.

Marc

Me too. I still have my two zen25s in my extra box of stuff.

I guess the bit I don't understand is why we would need to disable features, and not use security to have the device work properly. I have a mostly Zooz switch network, and this is the only one that I've had to put in the drawer-of-retired-tech. It also seems like the kind of thing that should be relatively easy to reproduce: build a network with lots of devices, then add ZEN25s until everything blows up. For me the magic number is three ZEN25s, two works OK.

But, knowing that the devices cause network instability, even if it doesn't manifest directly in a noticeable way is troubling.

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I have 3 installed here all as S0 with no issues.

@tivomaniac

Which HUB are you using?

Marc

do they show a high number of route changes in the zwave info when acting up..
I have one paired with no security and no issues that i can see.
no route changes either.
Using the stock zooz double plug driver.

the childen are using the generic component metering switch driver




I do remember having trouble with it rerouting when it was actually TOO close to the hub.. Go figure.. now it is upstairs quite a distance from the hub.. Maybe the internal radio is too strong and causing interference?

Do you mean "no security" instead of "S0"? Since some are reporting issues with S2, having no problems with S0 would be even more amazing unless the firmware given the extra traffic. :smiley: (It would also take a bit more work to get it to even pair this way, especially on newer hub firmware versions.)

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Using a C7.

Yes, sorry. No security.

Seeing the discussion here made me curious. I've got 2 Zen25s. I have no need for the energy monitoring anyway, so I have every parameter set to the highest value and set parameter 18 to 1 like it's been suggested.

One of my Zen25s is under my bed and has 2 wall mounted lamps plugged in. One for my side and one on my wife's side. I have a Zen21 in the room with the relay disabled and configured as a scene controller so that a single tap up turns on just my wife's light, a double tap turns on both lights, and tapping down turns both off. Out of everything in my house I have setup, this is pretty much the only thing that randomly takes a long time. Most of the time, the light comes on a fraction of a second after hitting the switch. But sometimes, it takes 3 - 5 seconds before the light comes on.

Anyway, I turned on debug logging. This was generated from a single off command. Should there have been that many reports?

When I look at my mesh details, I do see this plug has twice as many route changes as the next, 24 vs 12. But I wonder what this time frame is? If it's from last reboot then that was only like 2 days ago when I installed 2.3.0.x. The node has plenty of neighbors available.

I tried to run a repair on the node, but it failed.

EDIT: The repair attempt generated the following debug log from the Zen25

dev:332021-12-06 08:43:51.238 am debugUnhandled zwaveEvent: VersionZWaveSoftwareReport(sdkVersion:411395, frameworkVersion:196865, frameworkBuild:52445, interfaceVersion:0, interfaceBuild:0, protocolVersion:328448, protocolBuild:43, applicationVersion:65537, applicationBuild:52445)

I have 3 of these and last year had turned off the reporting and set parameter 18 as directed. They worked OK last year for controlling the Christmas lights. Since then they have been left joined and plugged in but the outlets off. Now that they are in use again I'm seeing lots of z-wave slow downs, particularly when any of the outlets are turned on.

"Me Too". This happens with non-Hubitat as well. I see the same thing with ZWaveJS on a USB ZEN10-S2 (aka ZWave 7) controller w/Home Assistant.

Removing the 3x ZEN25s makes the network stable again. Adding them in (and doing the Param 18 dance) makes it unstable. 100% repeatable on Hubitat C5 or HA.

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Is this a C-7 specific issue? I am on a C-5 and have 2 of these plugs. My configVal18 is also 4 (I never set it to 1). Reporting is set to minimum (once per day) and my network seems to be fine :crossed_fingers:t3:.

Both plugs have lamps plugged in and are typically driven by lux automation or timing schedule. Other z-wave devices respond pretty quickly (I have 4 Inovelli switches, 3 GE/Jasco and 1 old Leviton switch, 2 Kwikset locks, 1 GE outdoor module, a Go Control Garage door opener and a few tilt/contact sensors).

I had 4 Zen25 and my network was a mess. I removed one: Same problem. I removed another one and then it is now stable for 24 hours. So right now with 2 ZEN25 it seems ok. I'll continue to monitor it.

Really getting disappointed with Zooz. This is the second device that I've bought from them that listed Hubitat compatibility which was removed from their list after purchase. The other was the 4-1 motion sensor.

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