New to HE, just now and still migrating from Vera. Have come to discover that none of my older GE/Jasco appliance modules work on HE, no matter what generic z-wave outlet driver or switch I try. The "Generic Z-wave Outlet" driver that is ALWAYS selected when this device is included can switch them on/off, but if I switch them on/off at the outlet, nothing is reported back to the hub and its state is not changed. Z-wave log shows no activity when I manually switch them. There is no factory reset on these outlets, only exclude and that is working fine. I can include/exclude these things all day but they don't work. Frustrating to think I need to invest in all new outlets because these 7 outlets form the backbone of my z-wave mesh. What gives? I see a lot of problems with these ge/jasco devices out here.
The GE model number is ZW-4101-WCS. I don't know the Jasco number.
That is the key word. These appear to be 2009 era Z-wave (non-plus) devices going by the date code and the old Z-wave symbol. These older Z-wave devices don't send their status to the controller unless polled. There was a patent infringement issue with another automation protocol (Lutron?) where Z-wave could not include that instant status feature.
I wouldn't rely on that log, I don't find it particularly accurate or indicative of what is really going on. I would instead turn on logging on the device page, and use the main logs.
That said, this not reporting the correct status is the expected behavior for this device that drivers and the hub itself cannot fix. The best you can do is poll the device, which has downsides like consuming resources and potentially not being quick or accurate as a more modern device that does report its status.
"but why did it work with my old hub"
Because many hubs poll in the background for these old devices. The hubs are typically cloud connected (not sure about Vera) and can use the nearly unlimited resources of that cloud server to continually poll. That isn't the way a local only hub works, you will need to use the hub resources to do this polling -if you desire to do so.
I would advise moving these to non-critical locations, and consider buying more modern devices that do send their status for locations where you do need the status to be accurate.
I would advise doing a search for this device on this forum before purchasing those. This particular Zen device has had a troubled past. Maybe the newer ones are better, but I personally would not feel comfortable endorsing using them.
I like most of the Zooz devices, and own a ton of their light switches/dimmers, (almost every switch in my house is Zooz) so I am not a hater or shilling for a different brand. I just want to be sure you have done your research.
@TomS and that is done by installing the built-in app called Z-Wave Poller.
But it's a misleading band-aid. While the status will get updated by the Poller, it isn't timely. Trying to make automations that depend upon the status will be tricky.
I had a few older non-plus GE/Jasco dimmer switches. I was fooled by SmartThings doing behind-the-scenes polling on them, so it looked like the switch state updated when they were manually pressed. But it was impossible to make a webCoRE automation work reliably.
I eventually did as @neonturbo suggests - I replaced most of them (with Inovelli dimmers) and kept only one in a non-critical location. I don't care if it's state is up-to-date; it is never manually pressed where it is.
In the end, you'll be much happier with the backbone of your Z-wave mesh being plus devices.
Yes, I'm pretty sure Vera was background polling too. And I think I had to set that up. Too late to find out since I cleared it and took it offline. So I got some new outlets on the way.
