Do you have any ghost devices.
These can appear if issues are encountered while pairing devices and they don't 'take' first time.
1 Like
GE Switches - I un-associated them with Vera and then re-associated them to Hubitat. There could be a mesh issue going on as many devices in the house are still connected to the Vera. The few devices I added might be too far without being meshed. Response time for the switches was a bit slow, like a second or 2... but the Hubitat was still responsive. It wasnt until I set up MyNextManager and added 5 Nest devices that the hub became unresponsive. Im getting a system message that the CPU load is high and radios could be turned off.
Im betting that app is causing my high CPU load. Not sure why yet. Is there any other clean way to integrate with Nest? or Google Home. I see I can talk from Google Home to Hubitat devices, but not Hubitat to Google Home devices.
You can look at stats from the Logs tab, check both the application and device stats to see what could be a possible app or device causing the slowdown:
I would also check your Z-Wave network as others have posted go into Settings / Z-Wave Details.
As for Nest or Google home I dont use any of those services but looking at the stats you may see something about the 3rd party integrations.
4 Likes
@microbmen I would remove the mynextmanager to start for the moment. Then go to settings>>z-wave details and look for ghosts (they won't have anything in the routing column). Likely when you were setting things up you had a failed pairing and a ghost(s) and it is hurting your mesh (having multiple meshes on different devices won't affect one another)
Now that said. The main reason for no native nest control is two fold. 1, Due to the original nest api being closed off and the google api taking so long to open up, it's not been a priority and it may never be. 2. Nest is cloud based and very little cloud based things are natively supported by hubitat. Why? Because they want all automatons to work regardless of internet access. This has been a core tenant of hubitat since its inception. Most cloud based integrations have come in the form of community drivers such as mynextmanager which hubitat is not responsible for. You need to post in the author's thread on that.
Once you have your mesh cleared up, readress mynextmanager with the author. I'm sure he will work with you to straighten up that issue
Note: If you have older non plus switches (as noted by @marktheknife below) Install z-wave poller as due to licensing, the switches won't send status. Only plus devices will.
4 Likes
You mentioned you’ve been using Vera for eight years. Are these older generation GE z-wave switches or relatively new devices?
I dropped smartthings like a ton of bricks over three years ago and haven’t looked back since. Hubitat is far from a piece of junk in my experience. My ST hub OTOH, literally is a piece of junk now because as a v1 hub it’s no longer supported by Samsung. That’s one (of many) problems with using a cloud-dependent home automation hub.
That is always possible, but probably far less likely than other explanations like problematic devices/mesh issues, or some issue with user-developed code like you’re using for your Nest thermostat.
7 Likes
I agree with others to solve one thing at a time. Remove the nest integration until you're satisfied with how z-wave is working. That's where I'd focus my attention first.
- Build your z-wave mesh from the hub outward.
- Keep watch to make sure you're not creating ghost nodes.
- If your devices are old and from before ZWave+, I recommend replacing them. That's not what some people want to hear, but it's still my recommendation. Before ZWave+, the zwave devices were pretty garbage, and hubs had to do a lot of workarounds to make them "work", and even if they did "work", they communicated slowly. They're just not worth nursing into the future. New devices will work SO much better.
Regarding the appearance of the dashboards... it's not my favorite. I use them only for diagnostic purposes. For day-to-day stuff, I set up HomeBridge, so that I can use the Home app on our Apple devices. I also integrated with Alexa for voice control. But 90% of all automation in our home just happens automatically. Manual control is an exception in our house. Everything generally runs on timers, and motion sensors, and door sensors, and presence sensors. It's not a "dashboarded house". It's an "automated house".
8 Likes
I use this community created app for Nest integration and haven’t had any issues. I only have the Nest thermostat though.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dkilgore90/google-sdm-api/master/sdm-api-app.groovy
1 Like
+1 on that FREE app, I use it also, works great. Has a slightly technical setup but once setup you never have to touch it. I believe the MyNextManager one of those third party apps you have to pay for?
3 Likes
@microbmen
One further point about Dashboards:
- If you have an Apple ecosystem, as @jwetzel1492 suggested, Homebridge is your ticket. You will need a RPI, but I just got that bridge working on a $15 Zero2W. Please see the great program from @tonesto7.
[RELEASE] Homebridge Hubitat v2.0 - If you have an Android ecosystem phone, I can heartily recommend the Joe Page Android Dashboard. Extremely easy, fast, and make great looking dashboards (I use it myself). Works great.
[RELEASE] Hubitat Dashboard - Android dashboard app
Those two alternatives are great, but first get your mesh in order. Getting rid of "ghost" devices is the key. An easy way to tell if you have those kind of devices, is to use Tony Fleisher's zwave mesh report, and see if there are any devices that you have that don't quite look right.
Patience is the key, and carry on!
4 Likes
Ok thanks folks. I removed everything and started over using the Hubitat Package Manager app. So far everything is working great. Zwave still responsive and Im using the Google SDM API package for Nest. Working great. Ill keep moving forward for now.
6 Likes
Just remember, any time you have a failed z-wave pairing, stop what you are doing and check for ghosts
4 Likes
So I think we all know by now that ghost nodes literally destroy the mesh, right? I wonder if this is a good opportunity for proactive maintenance. We know how to spot a ghost only because we all had something go wrong, had to search the forums, and learn. Why not show a red ! next to ghost devices on the list? Make it obvious to a new user that "this is wrong and you need to fix it", maybe even have a popup with instructions on how to remove a ghost device (up to and including a zstick),. Whether it's Hubitat, SILabs, or anyone else's fault, that really doesn't matter, the fact is ghost nodes affect many users or so it would seem from forum posts. It seems like a good opportunity to provide UX that guides the user to a solution instead of right now where it's up to the user to even know something is wrong. Thoughts?
4 Likes
I agree with you if it is possible to unambiguously identify ghosts.
Because sometimes what appears to be a ghost is not a ghost. Here's are two examples. These are button controllers that I have not used for a long time. So they appear as "ghosts" with no routes. But they aren't. And will work the next time I use.
1 Like
It’s not displayed anymore (not sure why it was removed?) but I thought the lack of in/out clusters was a reliable way to identify them?
2 Likes
I wish it were still displayed in that table as well. Someone (don't remember who) told me that because the cluster information was available from each device page, it was redundant to display it from the z-wave settings page.
1 Like
I guess it’s redundant. But so is pretty much everything else listed on that screen? But to your point, it was the only reliable way I knew of to spot ghosts.
3 Likes
I was able to spot ghosts by looking at the zwave mesh report from Tony Fleisher. Any device that didn't have a name was a ghost (because whenever I paired a device, I immediately gave it a name.)
As a bonus, right then and there was the node id, which I could use in PC Controller to "remove failed nodes".
I wish that there was some indicator that could be set similar to what @dman2306 put forth, that during a failed pairing a warning could pop up and notify that the settings page should be checked for ghosts. I think this would go a long way towards helping novices and advanced users alike
6 Likes
In case you didn't know, you can use Hubitat to exclude Z wave devices from any other hub (This just saves you from going back and forth between apps.) It's also a good idea to reset the device before inclusion to a new hub.
Also, The Smartest House still has Black Friday sales on their newest 700 Z Wave+ switches. You might want to try a few and see if you notice a difference from your old switches.
3 Likes
I totally second the advice about using your Hubitat to exclude devices regardless of which controller they are migrating over from. I never trusted my Vera to do a particularly thorough job of exclusion.
Secondly, do not discount the potential negative effect of having two Z-Wave radios in close proximity to one another. If your Vera was still plugged in throughout this process, you might benefit from having a little more physical separation of your controllers for the time being.
4 Likes
