Join Inovelli Lzw42 insecure

How can I force an insecure join for the Inovelli Lzw42 RGBW bulb? It always joins as SO on my C7 which (1) is not working with a zwave association using an insecure joined switch and (2) is slower to respond that I expect, which I presume is because of S0.

Hi there, unfortunately, it is not possible to include these unencrypted.

I'm having issues with a couple of these too but I don't know if it's the blubs or the drivers. I have 2 on a motion sensor and about 5% of the time one or the other will not light or go off and I have to go to the driver page and click between off and on to get them to respond again. Just clicking on the dashboard only gives me an hour glass.

Yeah, I read up a bit more and see that C-7 removed the option to only secure-join locks. These light bulbs did join unencrypted on my C-4 hub, so they do support it but don't have a way to explicitly initiate an unsecured join like the few aeotec devices I have.
I did find a workaround. I noticed that other devices with poor signal have a hard time joining encrypted so I assume if the handshake doesn't happen during inclusion it falls back to unencrypted, so I did this: I initiated discovery with the bulb unscrewed (no power), then screwed it in ~3-4 seconds, then unscrewed for 2-3 seconds, then repeated about 4 or 5 times until the device showed as discovered but not fully initialized, then left unscrewed until the initialization fished. That seemed to be enough to mess up the encryption handshake and made if fall back to unencrypted. Worked on 3 bulbs I set up. Last one took a few times to get it right - kept joining secure so had to exclude and try a few times. Now the bulbs are much faster and the zwave association works.

Any plan to bring the option to join non-secure to C-7? If not officially would be a good debug menu feature :slight_smile:

2 Likes

The issue is that Silicon Labs removed that capability when they made the SDK for the 700 series chips. So it really isn't up to Hubitat.

Unless SiLabs adds that back in, any other 700 series hub will have that same restriction - not just Hubitat.

2 Likes

Me thinks Silicon Labs exerts too much control.

1 Like

Well, it is THEIR SDK after all. :wink:

going to give your workaround a try. I have six of these bulbs and stand alone they are fine but aggravating to use for what I had intended. I need to get one more to join insecure.

@tinypocket Thank you. Your work around worked first try. I just joined an lzw42 with security "none."

I'm having this issue. For me, probably closer to 33% of the time. Another observation: if I hit "refresh", the state is corrected on the hub instantly. I'm tempted to simply send "off -> wait -> refresh -> wait -> off-again" in my automation. I'd also wonder if the driver could be updated to be more aggressive with the status updates.

I might have to try this method too. I bet I may have accidentally done this when joining 2 bulbs in the same fixture with the switch - one bulb works great, the other (secure one) fails too much.

The two that I have still have one that will not turn off but it's much more rare now. Still wish it worked perfectly but it just does it every 3rd day or so and when it does it will sometimes do it 2-3 times that day. Hoping 2.2.4 might help but holding off on that still given some of the issues others are still having since 2.2.3 is working for me for the most part.

I'm wondering if the "on" signal isn't received, so the hub thinks the device is off and doesn't "re-send" the off signal. I'm pretty sure that's what I'm seeing, but I'm not sure how to confirm it.

I've got another unrelated issue now - no z-wave device is responding (zigbee/wifi work great still). I'm going to try a hard reboot. EDIT: shutdown, cold boot worked. I'll have to remember that one.

Just wanted to share a method I've been using to successfully join LZW42 bulbs insecurely to my C-7 hub using the Z-Wave PC Controller and a USB Z-Wave stick.

Disclaimer:

Proceed at your own risk.

Prereqs:

  1. Z-Wave PC Controller version 5.39 or greater
  2. Compatible USB Z-Wave stick. I'm using an Aeotech Z-Stick Gen5
  3. It's helpful to run the PC Controller from a laptop so you can be in close proximity to the bulb being added since there is an element of timing involved.

Instructions:

  1. Pair your Z-Wave PC Controller as a "Secondary Controller" with your Hubitat C-7. Inovelli has instructions for doing this with a Smartthings hub for the purposes of firmware updates. I found that the process both for joining and for updating FW works for me with my Hubitat C-7. You can review them here: https://support.inovelli.com/portal/en/kb/articles/how-to-update-device-firmware-z-wave-smartthings-secondary-controller-method
    To Summarize this process:

    1. Put your Hubitat in Inclusion mode

    2. From the Z-Wave PC Controller network management page click "Classic Learn Mode"

    3. On the Hubitat you should get the S2 security pop-up. Click OK

    4. The PC Controller will display a 5 digit pin. Enter this pin on the Hubitat when prompted.

    5. If successful you should now see a list of all your devices in the PC controller and your ready to proceed.

  2. If the LZW42 you would like to join has already been added to your Hubitat hub with S0 you should first remove it using the hubs exclusion mode and then confirm it has been removed from your device list.

  3. Make sure the device you'd like to add is not powered

  4. In the PC Controller network management page click the Add button. A status bar will appear at the bottom with a red "Abort" button. I like to place my mouse cursor here

  5. Power up the LZW42 bulb. Typically the bulb will flash twice quickly then there will be a pause followed by a third flash. Immediately after the third flash click the abort button on the PC Controller. I find this interrupts the security handshake and includes the device insurely.

  6. Verify you have a new device listed in the Z-Wave PC Controller list and that it's name is not preceded by [S0]. If it is or the device was not added try using the PC Controller Remove to exclude the device before attempting to include again.

  7. If you have multiple bulbs you want to add repeat steps 2-6 until all devices are added.

  8. At this point the LZW42s have been added to the Z-Wave network but will likely not be visible in Hubitat. To refresh the list I've found the most reliable thing to do is reboot the hub using Settings -> Reboot Hub

  9. After the reboot navigate to Settings -> Z-Wave Details. In this list you should now have a number of new devices with a "discover" button in place of the name. For each of these new devices click the "discover" button. My experience is that sometimes the details page will refresh faster than the discovery process. If you wait a couple sec and reload the page you should now have a recognized device.

1 Like

I did manage to get the bulb connected insecure, but about 30 minutes later, all z-wave devices became unresponsive. I gave up on the Inovelli bulbs for now and went back to cheap wifi bulbs.

Well this sucks. I bought 12 Inovelli bulbs just 7 months ago. Incredibility discouraged.

You still have the C5 though. Think of it like a bridge for the bulbs. Have you tried Hub Mesh yet? The bulbs will show up on your C7 and function exactly the same as if they were directly connected to the C7. Itโ€™s quite impressive.

1 Like

I haven't tried Mesh.

Thanks for the feedback. More time, more hardware. I'll take a gander. //

Lol. One little extra box and about a minute of work. Youโ€™ll see. :wink:

1 Like

For anyone following along, Inovelli is testing a firmware update for the LZW42 (RGBW bulb) that puts it in non-secure pairing mode with a special sequence, 3 quick power cycles instead of 1. Apparently ST was having (different) problems with S0 pairing and that was the impetus for this update, but it should work for Hubitat users, too--assuming S0 is the only problem:

5 Likes

If your goal is to include devices without security.. Uncheck all these before clicking ok.

You can skip this if your pc controller is included without security.

You can also skip this.. If you arenโ€™t aborting mid-inclusion the device will show up in devices and z-wave details without reboot..

PC Controller will send an update to the primary (the hub) when inclusion is complete.