I have been fighting a dozen or so Leviton switches that constantly becoming "responsive". I had dealt with this for months via ST and is what primarily drive me to HE. After about a week I had the same issue with HE. @bobbyD has been a great helping, but finally I did more digging and thinking it cannot be a controller issue, it must be the switches! Sure enough there are all kinda of complaints and a Leviton Flash update that fixes it. However getting the update to the switches seemed to be a challenge (no OTA update for ST or HE)
Finally I found hope
They also have a kit that comes with a z-stick
Being impatient I decided to pull my Hubitat stick (I am sure it void some warranty but I had to get this fixed sorry team!) download some PC drivers, installed them, the software, and fired it up.
I recommend buying the stick which I read can easily join an existing network rather than pulling to HE stick. My migration is time sensitive and a business expense, so I had reason for going this route. Either way the flash takes about + minutes each each switch so don't be in a rush if you have a big network. It also detected the Aeon Labs MS6 but it was up to date. I am going to continue the migration and use this tool to update each device in turn.
Did it break your existing zwave network? Or can you plug it back into Hubitat and have everything ready to go? Also any word on if it comes with any GE firmware updates?
It didn't "break" anything I can see. I put it back in, booted up HE, and I still had control of the devices via web UI. I don't have a ton of automation in HE yet, but from what I saw it didn't mind/know about the change. Technically I did not change any configuration so I am not sure it would, but an AM NOT a Zwave expert and this is totally "as-is" info. From what I have read the Z wave network/device info is on the stick but automations and stuff are on the controller (again no expert just what I have absorbed).
As for GE they are not listed, in fact the list is small,
I always have to push the envelope so I used the "add to existing" network feature to jump on the ST network and update some switches from there. Again this worked, but can I go back? The plan is to "remove from network" and put back in HE. My guess is this might "break" it, but that is who I am and I am willing to buy another HE stick or rejoin as needed.
I just did this a few days ago as well. The Homeseer kit that includes the software and the zwave stick worked really well with Hubitat. It easily joined as a secondary controller, and synced all the devices. The user interface gives you the firmware version of all of your devices. The updated Leviton switch and dimmer firmware was, to my surprise, already built into the Homeseer software. It successfully upgraded the firmware in all of my Leviton devices, Somfy blinds and my HomeSeer switches and dimmers.
I don't want to hijack this Leviton thread but Aeon has a similar mechanism for upgrading their software. You go to their support website find and download the software. Using a ZWave stick, joined or pulled from Hubitat, you run the Aeon supplied .exe and it does the upgrade. It is more manual though, you have to find and download for each product. Minimote, Wallmote, Multisensor, etc.
I have used it specifically with an Aeon ZStick joined to the Hubitat network. In parallel, I'd pick the device I was wanting to upgrade and it would go through the process. "Rebooting" the device was needed at the end to actually use the upgraded firmware. Meaning, I did have to climb a ladder to click the button on the back of a Multisensor.
Actually what you did is that easiest / fastest / cheapest way to go about it, it should not break or damage anything as long as you are careful and properly shut down Hubitat before removing the USB stick. The downside is your home automation will be down while you do this...
The alternative is to buy the USB stick, it does not need to be the HomeSeer one, you can use the Aeon one or the Zooz one (this one is cheap and claims to be the first stick to support S2 which may be good in the future if you want to use it for something else). You then join the stick as a secondary controller to your hubitat Z-Wave network and begin upgrading...
All my problems with the Leviton switches / dimmers were solved once I did this upgrade which was a god send, specially the fact that now when I manually use a matching remote on a 3-way setup the status gets quickly updated in the hub, this was not broken before. That said, a couple of times after I upgraded I have had dimmers that just stop responding, even when pressing the paddle manually they just don't do anything and the only way to fix them is to use the air gap lever to restart it, so I'm much happier now but this new firmware still has some bug somewhere...
The big difference is that the Aeon software using a Aeon ZStick is device specific. The software that comes with the HomeSeer kit is designed to be able to update firmware on just about any zwave device, regardless of manufacturer. It has the latest firmware included for many devices from different manufacturers. If you are trying to update firmware on a device it doesn't have the update for, it prompts you for the firmware file.
It's not device specific. The underlying software is Zensys Tools and it is device agnostic.
I know I've connected the Hubitat stick to Zensys. Did I do an upgrade.. doubtful.. next time I need an upgrade, I'll give it a try.
The Leviton software looks great in comparison... having a "library" of upgrades avail, etc. But I only have one Leviton and therefore the upgrade software price doesn't feel worth it. If you have Leviton, I'd say go for the software purchase. I know I would if I had 3 or more. Over here on the Aeon side of the tracks though, I have to use Windows (shudder) and what they offer me.
I read somewhere I believe that the Leviton software will work with any .bin, so If I could extract a .bin from Aeon's offering.. wouldn't that be nice!
As I thought join another network does "break" it. Technically they were still in HE, but the status update was broken on all of them and only a few worked. I removed them all from HE and will reload them. Don't do it unless you willing to reload everything.
I am an installer, so knowing what is and is not possible is very import to me. While resetting these switches AGAIN is not great, if it is the last time, and I gained some knowledge, I'll be happy.
My most offending switches (3 of 9) are still not updating "Error getting version information for node 2" hmmm, anyone else run into that? This is off a fresh factory reset.
Get closer to them, I had to sit for an hour with my laptop on different places around the house until I was able to update all my switches / dimmers...
Is there a bit of magic to get the hubitat usb to connect to Z-flash? I have tried several installs, admin mode, etc. I did find the SiliconLabs drivers and it shows on com 3, but Z-flash will not connect. I keep getting: Initializing Z-Wave interface (Generic Serial Controller) on COM3The serial port (COM3: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
: Timeout looking for Z-Wave interface.
: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Z-Wave interface disabled
When I try to enable it. I also turned off power management for the device as well. still nothing. I have scanned the Homeseer site without any resolution. Any pointer appreciated.
I doubt it's related but I just plugged the Nortek USB stick into a Windows system running Zensys Tools. The tool isn't the same but the symptoms are. The first three times, Zensys Tools fails to find the stick. The Com port shows correctly, but the tool refuses to initialize it.
(My windows is a virtual machine running on a Mac Mini) and I rebooted Windows, Zensys Tools wouldn't use the com port.
I removed the stick, heard the ba-dunk sound of a removed USB device and counted to 5 and stuck it back in. ba-dink of an installed USB. Then it worked.
This is 100% normal for ME.. that the stick isn't found and I have to do every arcane combo I can think of to get it to initialize properly. Then it works. It's rarely the same particular thing that "fixes it."
(When I add 2-3 ZWave Devices I "backup" my Hubitat stick via Zensys Tools or OZWCP. Today I picked Zensys. I have two "spare" ZWave sticks... an extra Nortek and an extra Aeon Z-Stick. I do a backup to both when I'm going to all the trouble.)
Bottom line, yes, it can be frustrating to get the tool to talk to the Stick.
Thanks! I was able to finally get it working. I had found another post on installing Axail server and grabbing the HubZ drivers from there. (Z-wave Switches Failing) I had to install using the "Unsigned driver" procedure. Not sure if HE uses different sticks, but the drivers listed here did not work. (Nortec HUSBZB USB Stick Windows Drivers)
It would really be nice if Hubitat posted a link to the right drivers for the stick on their web site. I lost about 6 hours trying to get it working. Once I was able to connect and update the Levitons, all was great. I have set up all the rest of my devices and love the product. Glad I didn't give up on it. Love the rules engine, saves me from Stringify!
Yes, I saw that too and decided that was too complex for me. But I don't remember where I did finally find the drivers. Somewhere else Google led me to, I know that much. And of course, they are unsigned.
To anyone that has not updated their Leviton devices yet: they have now released the firmware in a similar way as Aeon does with theirs, packaged with an executable that does the work...
So, at least people don't have to spend money anymore on the HomeSeer Z-Flash license. I have not tried it myself as I already upgraded all of them but I'm sure you can use that package with the Hubitat stick (with the drivers and instruction on this thread)... Worst case, seems like they are also sending a free Z-Wave Stick if you do not have one to do the upgrade...
Firmware 1.20 for all Leviton Z-Wave Plus devices: link
Just found this topic and I am having trouble with my leviton dimmer plug being very inconsistent in HE when running Rules. I think updating the firmware might help this problem.
After seeing @gparra's post earlier this morning, I sent Jasco an email pointing out the Leviton was making it's firmware available and even providing an exe to to the update. I had emailed Jasco a couple of months earlier asking if they'd consider making their firmware available to the public and was effectively told no.
