Older Leviton devices instant status failure with new 2.5.1 firmware

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1

Running a C-8 Pro hub, and updated to the latest 2.5.1.142 firmware over the weekend - overall the new release has been great, but I've noticed that the instant status update from my set of older leviton dimmers has stopped working. These are mostly old VRMX1 dimmers, migrated many years ago from old Vera controller to C-7 and then later to this C-8 Pro.

I've been using the Leviton DZ6HD Z-Wave Dimmer driver for these, as it supports the old HAIL mechanism they use for the status updates.

The updates do work but only very occasionally, and perhaps only after sending some zwave commands from hub to device. However i don't think it's a zwave network issue as they're in several locations, some very close, have only a single hop, and commands from hub to device show no failures. All worked perfectly until the firmware update...

Any ideas? I am running Z-Wave JS and I see that was updated in this release - maybe the most likely cause. I should probably test reverting to legacy z-wave and see if anything changes...

2

Try three things:

  1. A shutdown, followed by a power cycle. See if that fixes things. And if it doesn’t,
  2. Revert to Legacy z-wave. If legacy fixes it, post the outcome here. I’ll tag Hubitat’s z-wave SME.
  3. If Legacy also doesn’t work, use the diagnostic tool to revert to the previous platform version and see if it fixes it.
3

The hub itself has had a complete shutdown and power cycle since the firmware update - there was some odd behavior right after the update, and eventually I did this which made things settle down again.

I did just revert to Z-wave legacy and that seems to restore the old behavior.

Thanks!

4

Tagging @bcopeland

TL;DR - @gta has Leviton dimmers that worked with the old version of Z-WaveJS, but not the updated version in 2.5.1.142. Dimmers work with Z/IP.

5

Also returned to Z-Wave JS again and the problem came back - reverted to legacy and the instant status behaves properly again - just to double-check.

6

I can likely fix it.. But will need some detailed logs while on ZWave-JS..

@gta if you want to switch back to ZWave-JS
Go to /hub/zwave2/ccdebug/true
Then run your actions and PM me your hub id..

It would also be extra helpful if you could be running the z-wave logs at the same time.. And send them to me..

If I have all the information, it's usually pretty easy to fix..

7

Wait... Are these the switches/dimmers that used the old Hail command class?

8

Wow.. I glossed right over that.. You said it in the first post.. That's what I get for replying to posts before my coffee..

Ok... Hail is supposed to be handled natively by ZWave-JS..

So yea.. If I could get that ccdebug going and a z-wave log, this can likely be fixed very quickly..

9

For whatever it’s worth, they still work perfectly with the Generic Z-Wave Smart Dimmer driver.

10

Reporting too?

11

Interesting, I will be sure to try this out when I get home. My memory was that this driver didn't support the HAIL instant updates, but it's been years...!

12

Thanks so much! I'm in the office now but will get this going when I get home.
Is there a preferred way to provide the zwave logs - I can't remember if there's some kind of export option or if it's just screenshots.

13

Thanks..

I don't think it does.. But with ZWave-JS handling HAIL natively it doesn't matter..

14

Yes. Even back when using Z/IP, Generic Z-Wave Smart Dimmer has been the most reliable driver for the DZ6HD for me. I have over a hundred of them--too painful to swap out for the new 800 series.

15

Thanks, good to know. I'll switch a dimmer to the generic driver first, verify the updates work for me under legacy zwave (I do believe you :slight_smile: then revert to zwave-JS and test again.

16

and indeed the instant updates do work under the Generic Zwave Smart Dimmer driver (when using legacy zwave, still no joy on zwave-js).

Sending some zwave logs and hub ID to @bcopeland ...

17

Looking through them now.. Thanks

18

Ok.. So while ZWave-JS handles HAIL natively .. It seems to be doing it in a way that the device is not happy about..

Sill researching what can be done about it..

19

Ok... Problem solved.. Kinda..

What you need to do is update your firmware.. The fixed firmware is available in the ZWave-JS database so you don't have to find it somewhere..

But if you update the devices to 1.22 they will work properly on ZWave-JS..

20

Update the firmware on the devices themselves? I don't think that will work - it might for the DZ6HD which i mentioned using as the driver, but my devices are much older - VRMX1 and even a few VRI06 - old 300-series devices which I don't think have ever had firmware updates available (maybe not even possible).

Having said that I appreciate your looking into it, and it might not be possible to have them work with zwave-js. Though, it did work on whatever zwave-js release was present in 2.5.0. I briefly looked at the zwave-js github for "what changed" but decided I was out of my depth, as expected :slight_smile:

It's not out of the question I can just swap out the 3 devices where I rely on the instant updates to trigger other actions, but of course let me know if there's any other debugging actions I could help with.