I recently removed all my z-wave devices and had difficulties removing/excluding them. I haven't been able to add my previous devices, only a new Zooz one that was not previously paired. When I look at my z-wave network graph it shows the Zooz device (grey and not blue for a repeater). I also have a strange loop back to the Hubitat hub. Before I removed my devices I still had the loop to the hub and all my switches were not showing as repeaters.
Are you asking for help with the devices?
If you are trying to start over with Zwave, at this point I would do a Zwave radio reset unless you just did that before you added this Zooz device.
Then from there, it sounds like you may need to "exclude" all the other devices before you include them. It will say unknown device excluded. Work your way from closest to the hub to furthest out.
You can also do a factory reset on the devices before including, but exclude is good because then you know the device is within range and able to communicate with the hub.
Just trying to figure out if there isn't something wrong with the hub. The hub would not acknowledge that any devices (known or unknown) were excluded when I ran exclusion/remove. I have another C7 hub and that one does not have the looping connection back to the hub as shown on the z-wave map. I have done a z-wave radio reset recently. I also went ahead and updated the firmware for the radio as well.
Not sure what the loop means. The original user created Zigbee graph would do that sometimes also and was not an indicator of a problem.
If its a C7 and the zwave radio firmware was not updated prior, you will see a huge improvement now that you did that. I would take one or two devices that are close to that hub, and not connected to another hub right now, and try to exclude them. Have a live logs tab open as well in case you miss the message on the exclusion dialog. Put the hub into exclusion mode first, then put the device into exclusion mode. Should get Unknown device excluded within a few seconds.
I will test it out at home with an Aotec range extender I have either tonight or Friday. Thanks for your help!
My guess is they were not fully removed and you have a bunch of ghosts. And are getting network busy errors in logs. post your zwave details pages.
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I have made some progress. I started excluding and adding a simple Aeotec Z-wave repeater and got it to work. I had some stubborn z-wave devices as well as a range issue I wasn't aware of. I am having to rethink placements due to my home's construction. I am also paying attention to the RSSI more than previously as I slowly go along.
If you are having range problems and its a C7, you should be able to get a good improvement by either adding antennas or upgrade to a C8.
I am thinking about purchasing a C8 over Black Friday / Cyber Monday. I can then use my old C7 for hub mesh (I might use it in a detached building).
