Outdoor Switches

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1

My all Z-wave system is working well... except for the 2 GE Enbrighten Outdoor Smart Switches that control my frontyard and backyard landscaping lights.

10% of the time, these switches do not respond to on/off commands. 40% of the time they properly respond to on/off commands, but do not reflect their new current status in my Dashboard. I am assuming this a Z-wave mesh issue. One that I have not been able to fix. As per normal, the Z-wave routing makes no sense at all. All of the indoor switches near these 2 outdoor switches (all within 20 feet) are Z-Wave Plus.

I have tried adding Aeotec 7 Repeaters, did a Z-wave repair and waited 3 days, but pretty much NOTHING seems to want to repeat through them. Given Z-Waves bizarre routing, perhaps if I moved them to another ZIP code they would work better.

How can I fix this problem? Despite the Z-Wave data, below, the frontyard switch is actually more problematic than the backyard switch.

Are there better outdoor switches similar to the GE switches?
Are there better Repeaters than the Aeotec 7's?
Might a different device driver work better?
Would removing the S2 security from these GE devices, or other devices, help?

Z-Wave Routing Details:

0x63 (099) PER: 0, RTT Avg: 386ms, LWR RSSI: 21dB
Neighbors: 23, Route Changes: 4 OK
in: 0x5E, 0x55, 0x6C, 0x9F, 0x22, out: Backyard Landscape Lights S2 Authenticated 01 -> 50 -> 3A -> 63 100kbps

0x39 (057) PER: 0, RTT Avg: 5ms, LWR RSSI: -2dB
Neighbors: 15, Route Changes: 1 OK
in: 0x5E, 0x55, 0x6C, 0x9F, 0x22, out: Front Yard Landscaping Lights S2 Authenticated 01 -> 39 100kbps

2

My first thought is to remove the lights and reinclude them without security (uncheck all of the boxes at inclusion). S2, while better than S0 seems to add something to the mix that doesn’t seem to play well.

2 Likes
3

Wow. Just wow.
I removed the S2 security from 6 devices, today.

I removed S2 from 3 Aeotec 7 motion sensors. Previously, these devices had a speed of 9.6K, 40K, 40K. After removing S2, the speeds are 40K, 100K, 100K. The Routes are now Direct or fewer hops than previously.

I removed S2 from my 2 problem GE/Jasco outdoor switches. It will take a few weeks to see how they work now. But, their speeds have gone from 40K, 40K to 100K, 100K. And one of them has reduced it Route from 3 hops to 2.

I removed S2 from my Aeotec 7 Repeater. I also moved its location. It is already repeating 1 other device. It will take a couple of weeks to see if it is really doing better.

I have a couple of other (Plus) devices that are operating at 40K speeds. I plan to remove S2 from those and see if that improves those devices.

3 Likes
4

Weather may be an issue.

I have the TP Link outdoor plugs. They usually work fine - - - but not when the temperature gets down below 30 or so. It turns out that they are not "all season".

Mike M.

5

I found the same after last month I invested the time to unpair all 40+ of my S2 devices and repair them with no security. My mesh has been performing noticeably better afterward.

6

Similar issue here, it was just too far away. Switched to Zigbee

Enbrighten Zigbee Smart Light Switch Outdoor Plug-In #43100

Worked like a champ, Amazon has them

7

What is the real risk with security anyway? Maybe so on locks, but on lights?

8

Think the security support is required for the certification from SI; my rule is that if it doesn’t directly relate to access or health and safety it doesn’t get security. As to why, somewhere there is a bored 12 year old that just figured out that s/he can control her/his neighbor’s deck lights and since s/he has nothing better to do...