Reliability Problem Again - What would you do?

OK- formerly SUPER happy HE customer... slowly being worn down. :slight_smile:

My most recent issue out of the blue is a Peanut Plug that the GUI doesn't seem to properly report current status on. Generally I can shut it on and off with the web interface but the actual status ("on". or "off"). does not update hardly ever.

I've "configured". and "refreshed" and still the status won't follow the actual state- and this messes up rules etc that do "toggles". The log for the device ("Events") also doesn't seem to always contain all the actual events.

I have the peanut set up as Generic Zigbee Outlet. - It is within 20 feet of another peanut - and it has worked find until this last week.

What would you guys do?

1). Remove the device and re-add?
2).Try a different Peanut? (seems like an HE issue though to me)
3). Other?

Also - the hub is rebooted daily.

I also noticed this in the Device Page

Does that mean anything? Seems weird... and maybe that explains why the Events log doesn't track the events I do for the device?

Did you just try a rediscover without removing the plug? Maybe it's on the cusp of falling off?

What Zigbee channel is your hub using? I seem to recall Peanut Plugs may not care for higher numbered channels. I use channel 20 and things have been very stable for my Zigbee network.

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@kv1 Peanuts don't like channels 25 and 26. They're fine on Channel 20. I have 7 Peanuts (5 on HE, 2 on Almond). None of them have failed, so I think its unlikely the Peanut has gone bad.

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THanks for the ideas, my hub is on channel 20. Device discovery yields nothing. I'll keep trying things.

Peanut Plugs have always worked well for me. I recently bought that cheapo HomeScreen router and flashed the 2015 almond firmware - was able to upgrade all my peanuts firmware allowing for proper power management reporting in HE. Dunno if that update improves stability or not but mine are working great.

For the periodic hub slowdown issue I've been using this which saves me from having to reboot every night:

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FWIW, an observation from @mike brings to bear how a malfunctioning, or possibly under-powered, device can cripple the hub.

@iharyadi reported a similar experience that was traced down to a Bosch motion sensor. Two posts after that @mike indicated that removing four sensors from his zigbee network restored stability.

Which brings to bear two things vis-a-vis hub stability/reliability:

  1. The device that displays instability or drops off may not be the one that initiates/causes the problem.
  2. I don't know if it is possible, but I wish that future platform versions would have some mechanism to stop responding to malfunctioning devices.

Edit - another "lesson" is that battery reporting is not reliable. It might be better to replace batteries on a regular annual schedule.

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I've learned regardless of tech or platform battery reporting is generally wrong or very off. I've taken the course of simply replacing all batteries once a quarter and being done with it. Treat it like a smoke detector battery change cycle.

Probably too often but I use rechargeable batteries so it's no extra expense after battery purchase and charger. With rechargeable and with regular I have found bad batteries but that's par for the course with batteries and sensors.

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I would also say that HE gives you "a lot of rope to hang yourself" as the expression goes. It's very easy to get into trouble and sometimes hard to detect - but that is also the reason I like HE. The ability to be flexible and try different things - not limited to what a company like Samsung (for example) might want to dictate.

Just had an issue with my door lock / door sensor rule not working - figured out it was because I had set my Aeotec recessed door driver to the new 7 version after an update thinking that it was for my V5 and then forgot that I did that. Totally my issue not HE's BUT at first it looked like a problem with RM. Stuff like that is really easy to do in HE but that just shows the kind of power available.

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I think it’s important for new users that have no prior experience with Hubitat, that when you post about problems with devices, you make it clear In the post title and body, that it’s a problem with the device.

Peanut plugs are very cheap. They have proven for many to be reliable, but that doesn’t mean that every single one is going to be 100% reliable. They are not on the compatible devices list. Regardless of anyone’s success with any device, your mileage may vary.

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I agree but I believe this to be a hub problem and not a device problem...

Remove power to the peanut plug and power it back up again. Something changed in your Zigbee mesh. I have 4 peanut plugs and get this sometime when messing with my mesh. Sometime I reset the device and discover again.

I feel your frustration. Peanut plugs worked well for me until the end of December when they stopped responding. I also couldn't get my Hue dimmer switches to stay connected via Zigbee.

I spent this past weekend resetting the hub to factor defaults and re-adding everything z-wave related. I tried to add a peanut plug after the full reset on Sunday and for the life of me I couldn't get it to join.

Change your hub Zigbee to channel 20 and add the plug. Change the hub back to your previous channel and check your peanut plug operation. I did this 2 weeks ago.

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After updating the firmware on my peanuts, I readded all 6 to my HE lights hub (Sylvania bulbs and z-wave switches only) on channel 25 and haven't had any more problems with them dropping off. This used to be a regular occurrence for me that caused me to remove all of them and put them in a drawer for a while (to think about what they had done!).

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This is really good to know @Ken_Fraleigh. I know that without the firmware update they are unstable on 25 and 26.

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I used the Homescreen router to update them. I’m using this driver with 5 of them just to see if it causes any issues, and I haven’t seen any so far. I had never tried channel 25 prior to getting the second hub, but my Sylvania lights have been doing well on it, with zero devices dropping off in the past 5 weeks. I added the peanuts back about a week ago.

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My original problem seems to have gone away- I did unplug and replug the peanut plug... perhaps it was getting a bad signal? Anyhow- happy to report that this aspect of reliability has returned!!

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You probably should read this thread