Rules and ZWave Best Practice

[habitat]

1 month into HE

I have now successfully got everything working (sort of).

I am seeing a trend where I have a Rule set for Goodnight where some items just do not complete, anecdotally seem to be zwave devices, I was wondering if best practice in HE is whenever you ask a zwave device to do something should you also run a check to see if it actually did it or not?

It will add quite a bit of work to put in but if that is what it takes then I can do it.

[thebearmay]

Assuming you’re using Zwave Plus switches, unless you have a lot of switches firing at the same time, it normally shouldn’t be an issue as long as you have a strong mesh. If you’re not using the plus version, or have a mix, you may need to add some polling to the non-plus to keep them awake.

[habitat]

@thebearmay Thanks for the response.

~30 of the devices are GreenWave Zwave not Zwave Plus (I think) they are polling every 5 mins.

I have done a full zwave repair and here I the topology. I do have ~10 battery devices (thermostats )

[habitat]

Also, if I turn a zwave switch on from the Device screen in HE it can take up to 35 seconds to respond, turn off and it can be immediate, back on immediate, back off 20-30 seconds.

I cannot understand the logic - they have all been extremely reliable and never had a delay issue for several years. So not sure why now.

[habitat]

Is this much chatter for a single device normal?

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:17.152 seqNo: 46, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-84 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:15.950 seqNo: 45, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-84 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:15.949 seqNo: 45, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 1ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:15.750 seqNo: 44, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-86 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:15.749 seqNo: 44, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 1ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:15.648 seqNo: 43, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-84 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Master Bed TRV2021-01-31 13:19:14.345 seqNo: 42, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-84 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:14.245 seqNo: 41, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-84 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:14.146 seqNo: 40, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-86 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:14.145 seqNo: 39, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-86 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.645 seqNo: 38, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-86 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.644 seqNo: 38, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 1ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs

Master Bed TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.544 seqNo: 37, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-84 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Master Bed TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.543 seqNo: 37, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 1ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.343 seqNo: 36, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-86 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.342 seqNo: 36, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 1ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.143 seqNo: 35, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-86 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.142 seqNo: 35, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 1ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.043 seqNo: 34, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-88 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:13.042 seqNo: 34, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 1ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs

Master Bed TRV2021-01-31 13:19:12.843 seqNo: 33, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-84 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:12.841 seqNo: 32, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-86 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:12.741 seqNo: 31, routeChanged: false, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-88 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

Kitchen TRV2021-01-31 13:19:12.642 seqNo: 30, routeChanged: true, transmissionTime: 2ms, repeaters: None, speed: 40 kbs, rssi: [-84 dBm, N/A, N/A, N/A, N/A], Ack channel: 1, Transmit channel: 1

[thebearmay]

Not an expert, but the Kitchen seems to be a little overly talkative to me - it may be having trouble hearing back from the hub and might benefit from having a repeater or two placed between it and the hub.

[habitat]

I am trying an experiment - All the TRVs are very noisy - so I am disabling periodic reporting.
Will poll once a day for Battery level of the ones running batteries - most have battery eliminators on them.

I am driving the TRVs direct - set target temp and Valve setting directly or the Eurospirits try to get clever and get it wrong more often than they get it right

They are all FLIRS so don't need a poll really.

All the Greenwaves are operating as relays so don't think that is the issue.

I will see if shutting down the reporting reduces chatter.

Then see if that has an impact on the other zwave devices response times

[habitat]

First indications are that appears to have resolved the issue.

Now getting snappy responses.

[bcopeland]

@habitat

30 of the devices are GreenWave Zwave not Zwave Plus

Ouch.. I feel the pain of your mesh

[steve.maddigan]

Yup. That’s a lot of red !!!

[habitat]

@bcopeland given that I am only actually using 1/3rd of the Greenwaves is it better to just disable the ones I am not using?

[habitat]

@steve.maddigan isn't that expected when 20 of the 50 devices are battery powered?

[steve.maddigan]

Yup if you have that many battery powered devices than I guess you are correct.

I kinda wish they would use a third color for battery powered devices !!

Or just view the powered devices separately.

[habitat]

Currently ~10 Thermostat Controller and ~TRVs

I have deployed the 4 TKBHome plugs around the house to improve zwave plus coverage, see if that help.

Waiting to see what @bcopeland says about the greanwaves I am not using - I had thought they would act as relays as they had done for the last 5 years - but seem to cause issues in HE

[steve.maddigan]

This is a useful app as well.

You can select a repeating device and it quickly shows you what devices are routing through it.

Also can sort on different things like the number of route changes per device.

[BETA] A Z-Wave Mesh Tool [C7 and 2.2.4+ Only]

I have been working on a tool to provide a way to explore Z-Wave Mesh Details. This tool can answer questions like: Which devices are acting as repeaters? How many devices are routing through a particular device? Which and How many devices are in a FAILED state? What devices are neighbors for a given device? [mesh-details-0.2.17-beta-filtered] [mesh-details-0.2.17-beta-details] I started developing this in ST earlier this year as a weekend project, and now have ported it to HE and have go…

[habitat]

@bcopeland given that I am only actually using 1/3rd of the Greenwaves is it better to just disable the ones I am not using?

Is it better to disable the unused Greenwaves than have them on and distributed around the house?

[habitat]

I will have added 4 more zwave plus mains powered devices by end of the day and spread them around the house.

Have replaced two of the Greenwaves with zigbee innr sockets, shutdown the zigbee HE hub for 20 mins and restarted.

Will probably add two more innr sockets tomorrow.

[habitat]

Zwave 500 is that zwave plus?

[habitat]

@bcopeland the Greenwaves are zwave 500, which I thought were zwave Plus.

So with 30+ zwave 500s around the house I should expect a decent mesh?

They have been solid for several years and only since moving to HE have I encountered poor response times.

I have placed zwave 500s - several in each room of the house is there anything else I can do to make a zwave turn on/off reliable, and once consistent, timely, ie not a 20-30 second delay?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[bcopeland]

@habitat

Greenwaves are zwave 500

Huh... Ok.. I though all their gear was pre-plus.. My mistake if they are..