The device itself with a Home Network number and a Node number, stored in the ZWave chip inside the device, both of which are sent by the Hub.
The ZWave chip inside the hub, which also has a Home Network number and a Node number, typically #1. It also has a memory slot for all 234 ZWave devices possible, many to most are empty.
The DB within the hub that retains the Node Number (DNI) and the various things we define: name, type, automations used by, data, current states, etc.
An Exclude works to remove ALL THREE.
A Forced Remove clears the DB row for that device. I think it tries to clear the slot in the Hub's ZWave radio chip, but it may not be successful. This leads to ghosts.
A Remove is only to clear the slot in the Hub's ZWave radio chip, and may not be successful.
Not successful is largely due to the protocol used to prevent accidental removal. A remove won't occur if the device itself is responding, so presumably during a working Exclude, the device's Home Network and Node number are cleared first, such that it no longer responds to the Hub's ZWave Radio at the Home Network/Node.
So.. the failure goes something like this... the Exclude is started and the remote device receives the "clear" command but doesn't do it. It has to have received it, otherwise the hub will retry. Now the hub thinks the device is cleared and starts the ZWave Radio slot clear.. but it fails because the darn device is still "pingable."
Then comes the Force Reset dialog box and that will only clear the Hub's DB. The ZWave Radio will still fail, and this leads to the device showing ONLY in the ZWave Details list.
I'm truly oversimplifying and rounding the corners to try and make the explanation match what we see, not precisely what happens under the hood.
Thanks for the explanation. I am still waiting for the z-stick to remove the ghost device. During the last few days, more devices start to fail and now I notice the node 01 is no longer in my Z-Wave detail list. When I check the Z-wave log, for the one that is not responding, this is the message:
seqNo: 134, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 761ms, repeaters: None, speed: Unknown
I am not sure what that mean but it appears on all the devices that are not responding. Also, I reach out to support and it has been nearly 2 weeks and I haven't heard anything from them. Does anyone know what's the turn around time for a response? Thanks. Hopefully the ghost removal method will solve my problem cause the recent update didn't do anything.
Have you updated your C7 to the latest firmware ?
It is very stable for me but I am on C4 hub so ymmv.
If not, Iād suggest doing so and then correctly power down you hub, wait 5- 10 or so minutes and then power the hub back up.
DO NOT just pull the power !
Thanks for the suggestion. I did the update but I didn't do the power down. I will power down and check back in the morning to see if that help. Thanks.
I believe they removed the hub node and it's "virtual" counterparts (1-5) from the details page to avoid confusion and attempts at repair/removal. It doesn't show up on mine now either.
Thanks for the info. I got the Z-stick and able to remove all 3 ghost devices. Once that is done, I am able to control all the devices with no problem. I did a z-wave exclusion to remove the stick and went to bed. The next morning I notice 3 of my switches are not responding (the same one I have problem in the very beginning). I also notice the z-stick is still in the device list and details list. When I try to do the exclusion again, it shown an unknown device has been removed but it still remain in the detail page. I finally just hit the remove button and it disappear. I shut down and power plug off and the problem devices still show failure. I can't control them and the log and event show no activities. I hit the repair key and this is the log:
.
I don't know what is the next step to fix those switches. Those switches are all wall switches and 2 of them is the GE enbrighten smart switch and the other one is Inovellis S2 smart switch. I have 24 switches in total and they are not that far apart. The mesh network should be pretty solid since this setup was used for the Smartthings before and I have no problem. Support from Hubitat has not response, any help is appreciated.
Safe shutdown and then pull power for one minute when it comes up everything should be fine. Check your zwave details page for any additional devices with nothing in clusters. If not any than you should be good. Just needed to shutdown again after clearing up the z-stick removal sounds like the radio was buggin out at the removal.
Thanks for the info. I end up just hitting the remove button and shutdown and power off. When I plug power back in, the z-stick doesn't show up anymore. However, the devices are still not working, I even move the hub next to those switches and that didn't help. I end up doing a general z-wave repair which shows nearly half of my nodes have failed. I then did a repair on each node that show failed. Not sure why it work but it did. I am now able to control all the switches through the dashboard. Hopefully tomorrow it still works. Thanks everyone for the help and advice.
