I have about 50 inovelli red series dimmers installed along a handful of their led strips. I recently started to install 7 Inovelli RBGW bulbs that I purchased. I've talked to Inovelli, and they confirm that I have the latest firmware and driver. The first issue I have is that it is rare to get one to finish inclusion without getting stuck initializing. I've tried the process of soft shutdown, unplug, discover noted for the dimmers, but there really isn't an option to kick off inclusion with the bulbs again. I tried turning power on to the bulb (which is the default way you start inclusion) after I clicked the discover button, but I end up with a ghost device on my network where I ultimately have to install a backup of my hub to get back to normal. No matter how much I click discover, repair, etc., I can't get to the option to remove the bulb.
The second issue relates to when the bulbs have successfully paired. I'm using the three click method to include the bulbs without security. I can see them in my zwave settings clearly noting "none" as the security type, and I'm able to interact with the bulb flawlessly. I can change colors, kelvin, on/off quickly. What I have found odd is that they will eventually become unresponsive and change to note S0 security later. This typically occurs after one locks up, and I try to interact with it in the Zwave network (repair and/or refresh) under the settings tab.
Any thoughts on something I haven't tried? Thanks in advance.
Can you post an image of your Zwave details page - the behavior described sounds like you may have a ghost or two…
Sure thing @thebearmay and thank you. I've gone through the network numerous times, and all the devices listed are ones that I recognize. The only one that appears to be a ghost right now is the last entry which is the bulb. I will have to load a backup file from prior to when I included it to get rid of the entry. During inclusion of other inovelli switches, I did get some stuck on initializing before I read the work around to get them to discover, but I typically would get a remove button in the zwave details and could get them out before factory resetting the device and beginning the inclusion process again. Last night I started to remove some inovelli switches that are S2. Inovelli recommended that I exclude the switches and re-include them without security to help with performance overall, so I'm trying that too. Let me know if you are wanting to see every entry. I'm down to just over 30 switches now.
When I initially include any of the bulbs (I've tried 4-5 of them now with the same results), I will get them in the zwave network with "none" in the security column even though they are stuck on initializing. At some point, they end up with S0 security even thought I'm doing the no security inclusion method. I noticed this week that one bulb that I was able to get included started with no security and somehow ended up with S0 later once it was unresponsive. I haven't been able to get to that point enough to really identify the steps that are leading to that result.
I have also tried doing zwave repairs, individually repairing any nodes that don't repair through the group repair, letting the network sit for some days, and then trying the bulbs again. I don't a number of zwave repairs at this point, and I ultimately get every node to repair. I can actually repair the bulb even when it is stuck in the state you see in my zwave detail.
While maybe not true ghosts it does appear that you have several incomplete pairings (incomplete routing, i.e. 0x62, 0x65, 0x66) that I’d recommend removing and re-including. They are probably operating okay on their own, but anything trying to route through them will probably cause you issues.
Last bulb may “discover” okay, but with with S0 I’d probably exclude and re-include without security anyway. With the bulbs I might consider pairing near the hub, and then moving to their final location.
Note: Unless you’re doing a full restore from the Protection backup, your backup doesn’t include the zwave radio data.
Note 2: If you’re doing a lot of include/exclude to the zwave mesh, it might be helpful to do a shutdown and remove the power from the hub (at the wall) for about 30-45 seconds to force a rebuild of the cached zwave data from the radio data.
Got it. I will work on those. Did you identify them by their "route" being blank? I will look for others and do the same if that is case.
That is how I have been including them. They start showing "none" in the security field and then change to S0 security at some point. I have even seen this with ones that actually did successfully include. I am still confused how this can happen.
I am making sure to check the radio box that resets the zwave radio each time. I check the zwave network detail each time to make sure, so hopefully I'm doing that right.
I tried this last night. I will probably do it again after I go through excluding/including like you noted.
Thank you!
If the route is blank right after the initial pairing I’m not concerned, but if it stays that way after about 20-30 minutes for devices that are repeaters (most mains powered; some bulbs are, some aren’t) then it’s usually a sign that the pairing wasn’t complete. Sleepy devices (contact sensors, etc.) that don’t repeat aren’t generally a worry as 1) nothing will be trying to route through them, and 2) they may not update the information until they wakeup again.
Thank you. I will try cleaning that up for any items tied to mains. Once clean, I will try to include again close to the hub. I'll reply back with results.
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I wanted to reply back to help anyone else that might end up in a situation similar to mine. I found that my issue was driven by a few factors. First, I didn't realize there was a known issue with Inovelli devices hanging up during the inclusion process and that there is a defined process for appropriately addressing those instances (soft shutdown process ending with discover). I found that information as I continued to read through the forum. Since I didn't follow the correct process when I had inclusion issues, several of my devices included without "routes" in my zwave details as a result of hanging up during the initializing phase of inclusion. I could interact with the devices fine through the driver, but they were causing issues with my automations, etc. Excluding and re-including the devices that didn't show routes resolved part of the issue. The other piece that was helpful was excluding all of my switches and bulbs that had security and re-including them without security. This change specifically had a big impact on my bulbs and it also improved the response of my automations overall. I did continue to experience issues with one bulb though. As I worked to troubleshoot the cause, I finally landed on that I had a hardware issue with that bulb. I've removed the bulb from the equation, inserted a new bulb, and all appears to be working as expected. These three factors appear to all have contributed to my situation. At this time, addressing each one has resolved what I was experiencing. I hope this information is helpful to others.
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