One device stopped working in SImple Automations, need some help

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1

I have a Honeywell Zwave light switch that suddenly stopped working with Simple Automations.

Works fine from the switch, turns on and off.

Was working fine for several days in two different automations - one based on motion (Iris Zigbee motion detector), one on a button (ST Zigbee button).

Now neither automations will turn on the switch. I can use the motion sensor to turn on another light, and another motion sensor to turn on a different light, so it's clear that the switch is no longer working w/the Simple Automation app and there isn't some general breakdown in automations.

The switch looks fine...

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I only have a couple automations as I'm just preparing to move to HE so I don't have Simple Automations or the hub overloaded. :slight_smile:

But this is not encouraging...appreciate help with this, thanks very much.

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Rebooted the hub and the automations w/the switch are working again.

Is this a "normal" occurrence, needing to reboot?

Is there a way to schedule regular reboots?

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The communication with your switch may have been broken, do you have any other zwave devices? To try and understand what is going on or at least when it may happen you may want to look at the hub watchdog app. I haven't been using it myself, but plan to set it up sometime soon.

In terms of reboots there is also an app for that.

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Five stars, thanks very much, @sburke781, really appreciate the help & suggestions.

I meant to add that I did a Zwave repair earlier today, there are only two Zwave devices (both mains powered) in my mesh.

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Could have been caused by mesh issues or problems with custom code. Could also be flooding your zwave or zigbee mesh somehow and caused the hub to get hosed. Power reporting devices can do this if the threshold is set too low.

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Can you provide a little more background on your comments, @lewis.heidrick?

Why would my Z-Wave mesh be getting flooded if it only has two devices on it? Are you saying that when I did dizzy weight prepare today that that caused flooding?

And when you say that power reporting devices cause problems when the threshold is set too low, what do you mean by threshold?

Thanks, I appreciate your help.

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A single device can spam the network multiple times a second. Check your logs and see if you are seeing anything popping up more than expected. Also turn on logging in the rule and see if it is triggering as expected.

Most power reporting devices let you specify how often they report power fluctuations in increments of watts. Sometimes this is default to as low as 5 watts. That's is usually too low and should be adjusted up to the point it only triggers when you would want to act upon the trigger. Each device you plug in uses different amount of power so that is something you would have to figure out.

Brian's watchdog app is handy for tracking down when the mesh is slowing down. The rebooter can be helpful if you can't figure out the problem but essentially is ignoring what is causing you to need to reboot in the first place. The hub can handle a couple hundred devices when it's all setup correctly but even 1 device can cause havoc if it's not.

If you have 1 device that is giving you problems sometimes it's just easier to unpair the device, factory reset the device, and then repair the device and add it back to your rules. Those switches have a tab that pulls forward with a small screwdriver to factory reset.

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Excellent, thanks very much for the context. Appreciate you taking the time to provide the additional information.

I had logging on already for the utility room light automation, and checked it quickly and got a laugh out of the entries w/the phrase "active anti-Turn On" (HE logging speak for turning off after the 3 minute wait).

Love the wording, mentioned it to my wife and she of course took the opportunity to note that my behavior is often an active anti-Turn On logging event for her. :wink:

[app:148](http://192.168.20.2/logs/past#app148)2020-08-09 08:38:43.256 am [info](http://192.168.20.2/installedapp/configure/148)Turn On Utility Room Light when Motion Utility Room active anti-Turn On

[app:148](http://192.168.20.2/logs/past#app148)2020-08-09 08:34:51.428 am [info](http://192.168.20.2/installedapp/configure/148)Turn On Utility Room Light when Motion Utility Room active Turn On

[app:148](http://192.168.20.2/logs/past#app148)2020-08-09 08:29:55.793 am [info](http://192.168.20.2/installedapp/configure/148)Turn On Utility Room Light when Motion Utility Room active anti-Turn On

[app:148](http://192.168.20.2/logs/past#app148)2020-08-09 08:25:34.765 am [info](http://192.168.20.2/installedapp/configure/148)Turn On Utility Room Light when Motion Utility Room active Turn On

[app:148](http://192.168.20.2/logs/past#app148)2020-08-09 08:21:58.123 am [info](http://192.168.20.2/installedapp/configure/148)Turn On Utility Room Light when Motion Utility Room active Turn On

[app:148](http://192.168.20.2/logs/past#app148)2020-08-09 08:21:06.029 am [info](http://192.168.20.2/installedapp/configure/148)Turn On Utility Room Light when Motion Utility Room active Turn On

Off to check the behavior of my power reporting devices, and I have Brian's watchdog app installled and will make use of that.

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Np

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