So after all these problems, I was going to move the Hub back to it's correct location. Powering down, plugging in network and power at the "new" (same as during most of the adventures in the other thread, just moved it temporarily) location.
Advanced Discovery - Find By MAC Address finds the hub at 192.168.1.124 [oddly enough, but I guess that is a positive sign somehow?] but I cannot connect to it.
And just as I had factory reset the SmartThings hub (that I bought as a replacement) and got ready to return it tomorrow.
What the eff can I do? Should I just give up the Hubitat and go with the Samsung instead? This is turning in to a nightmare!
Did you check the ethernet cable? Try connecting something like a laptop to the cable you are using with it and see if you get a connection.
Sometimes we overlook the simple things. Case in point, I changed our ISP on Friday. Swapped out the modem from the old ISP for the modem from the new ISP. DSL to DSL, so nothing else changed, but my router kept losing connection with the new modem. After messing with many settings in the ISP modem I suspected might be the culprit, my router was still was losing the connection to after a few hours. I suddenly realized that I had been flexing the cable at the connections when I was pulling the modem out to look at the status lights on top. Changed the ethernet cable an it's been solid for the last 2 days.
No activity light for the network port on the Hub AFAIK, but I get flashing lights on the switch port it's connected to, so traffic reaches it.
Just tried another network cable and connection directly to the router without any result
Rebooted the router without any result
All other network traffic works well
Tried port 8081 and could access it. After that tried port 80 and it worked!
Powered down and moved the Hub back to the correct spot and it still works.
Well, I'm not exactly sure what fixed it. Maybe it was the threat of unpacking the SmartThings Hub again?
Guessing, but it sounds like you may have had a bad ethernet cable. When you switched it, the router may have been slow to assign the IP, but once it did you got a connection.
Not really, when I moved it back to the current location, it uses the same network cable as when I had the fault. It's possible that a network cable could have a bad connection, but I have used the cables before, they have unbroken plastic thingies that hold them in place in the connector, and I tried jiggling the cable before I moved the hub and connected it directly to the router with the other cable.
Well, if it happens again, I'll be sure to try harder to jiggle the cables and replace them before blaming the hub. In my defence, I wouldn't have, unless I had all the other issues.
Btw, I am now trying without using the Google Home connection. Is that known to cause problems like my original problem (no control over devices, although they report energy consumption back)? I don't dare turning it on before I have seen that it works well without GHome for a day or two.
Is the hub plugged into the same switch both places? There are some switches that give Hubitat’s NIC difficulty. Do you have a long Ethernet cable so you could put the hub in the new location but plugged into the original switch port, just to try?
The tabs on the RJ-45 connectors hold them into the jack, but are not solely responsible for a good connection. Flexing the cable can exacerbate weak connections in the RJ-45 connector or a break in one of the wires in the cable, thus causing intermittent connections depending on how the cable is flexed. That can cause a whole host of issues, not just connection to the router.
My bad cable I described was “good” to the naked eye, and also tested ok for continuity with my cable tester. But replacement solved the problem I was having.
It has been in two different locations, using at least three different cables and ports in the switch (not to mention directly to the router) and exhibiting the same general problem (non-abiliy of hub to send commands to devices, as described in the linked post). I think it's fair to say that it's not a cable issue.
The issue in this post (no connection to hub at all) has been resolved satisfactory, probably a loose connection or other human error by me.
What is "too frequently"? I don't think any one of them is reporting more frequent than every 5 mins or so. In all, the log fills up at a rate of less than one item per minute, including the javascript errors. There has been no slowdown at all, just a sudden loss of functionality. The UI is just as speedy as ever, it's "just" that the commands does not reach the devices.
Sounds like the mesh is the cause of that. Explorer frames will eventually correct most issues with Z-Wave Plus devices as long as there are adequate repeaters and their signals can reach each other. You may have been also experiencing network issues simultaneously with an unstable Z-Wave mesh.
You should start to see improvement, but keep in mind that you have moved the hub, so the Z-Wave Plus mesh will need to rebuild the neighbor tables. This all takes time and can take longer than you might expect if a device isn’t awake or ready.
The Mesh is actually the reason that I moved it back.
The first move was when I decided to give up Hubitat and move to SmartThings; I moved the Hubitat to another room, to give the best place to the SmartThings Hub.
That's when the Hubitat started to work again. Some commands took some time, because the Z-Wave Mesh contained incorrect jumps/connections. Instead of rebuilding the Mesh, I moved it back to where I built the Mesh to start with and packed away the SmartThings Hub. And all commands executed quickly back in the original location, as expected, until it just gave up again!
Yes, indeed, this morning the Hubitat could not send commands again. It was a dark morning... So I decided again to throw the Hubitat out, turned it off and left it over the day. When I came home, I again moved it to the next room, turned it on to start excluding devices, and of course: now it works perfectly again (except that single device at the other end of the apartment which it has trouble reaching directly from the other position).
Now I'm at a loss at what to do. Try again and keep my fingers crossed that it's not gonna crash this time? Or just give up and have a go with the SmartThings?
Can it really be the "java.lang.NumberFormatException" errors that is the cause of the problems? If so, I might be effed since there seems to be no firmware upgrade path for the DIN Dimmers at all. I even tried the "Generic Z-Wave Dimmer", "Generic Z-Wave Smart Dimmer" and "Qubino Mini Dimmer" drivers, and they all give a slightly different error: "java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: toIndex = 8 (parse)". Maybe that is easier to understand for someone more versed in the Hubitat and Java than myself?
Could/should Hubitat rewrite/fix the "Qubino Dimmer Module" driver so it stops spitting out the java errors? If so, would that help?
Ok, so I read some more and just realized that the "Qubino Dimmer Module" actually refers to the "Flush Dimmer" and not the DIN Dimmer. The DIN Dimmer is NOT on the list of official supported devices. Which probably means that I'm effed either way.
Just wanted to let everyone know how this turned out. I was not able to get the Hubitat to work reliably at all. Neither was support able to help me. So I bought a SmartThings hub, which, although far less capable, at least works for turning the lights off and on reliably.
I'm still keeping the Hubitat up and running, but it is only because the SmartThings hub has minimal support for any Zigbee buttons except Philips own, so the Hubitat continues to control my single(!) Hue lamp+Aqara switch combo (which it does well).
I can only guess that the problem is the driver for my Qubino DIN dimmer (after all, it's not officially supported). Hopefully Qubino and Hubitat can work something out, in which case I will be back with a full Hubitat system.
So I decided again to throw the Hubitat out, turned it off and left it over the day. When I came home, I again moved it to the next room, turned it on to start excluding devices, and of course: now it works perfectly again (except that single device at the other end of the apartment which it has trouble reaching directly from the other position).
