The infamous zwave ghost device issue

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If you power off the device, you should be able to get the ghost device to "failed" after a few refresh tries and them remove it.

It will never go to failed, and thus allow you to remove it, as long as the device is powered up as it will keep responding to the refresh requests.

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Yep. Unfortunately been there, done that. Device is powered off. Refreshing seems to get me nothing (still shows as PENDING, with the remove button). No luck to remove

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Once you get here hit remove, it probably won't work.

Shut down the hub and down power for 15s. Power up and go through and do the same again. Usually after the power cycle it will work on the 2nd attempt.

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No joy.

shutdown, pulled power, rebooted. came back up, refreshed device once to get the "remove" button back again. Tried remove button several times. no luck. Device has had batteries pulled the whole time.

Keep the ideas coming..

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UZB7 stick or a Z-Stick and PC Controller v5 been the best way I've found to remove stubborn ghosts.

Might also try loading the latest firmware .158

Could try taking a backup and then restoring the backup also.

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sorry, I mistyped the version.. I am running .158. The uzb7 is already on order. (-:

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I used the USB stick from my C3 hub with PC Controller to remove a ghost device (I did have to hunt down the driver for it, don't recall where I found it but I imagine it's in the forum here somewhere). I included "PC Controller" and it joined Hubitat as a "Device" (secondary controller). I was then able to remove the pesky device though Hubitat didn't show it until I shutdown the hub, pulled power and then powered back up.

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Well, I finally got rid of the device. As other people suggested, and picked up a uzb7 zstick and loaded up the software from silicon labs. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure it out, I found the right mouse clicks to pair the stick, identify the ghost device, and have it removed from the system.

I wouldn't say it was straightforward, but at least it was successful. Thanks for everyones help

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Wow, seems there must be a way to replicate this functionality on the hub itself. I’m no fan of phantom devices but it just doesn’t seem like I should have to buy a usb stick to fix this issue. I’m also completely unaware of how you’d tap into the Hubitat network from a third party device.

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The uzb7 stick was the best $19 I've spent on my automation journey. With 5 kids and all the other things going on in my life being able to fix issues in minutes vs chasing solutions in the forums has more than paid for itself even if I never use it again.

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You install the silabs software on a pc, plug in the uzb7 into the pc, select the usb stick then pair the stick to the Hubitat hub through the inclusion process on the hub and learn mode NWI (network wide inclusion) in the silabs software under the network tab.

Then in silabs find the device number that is the ghost and mark as failed, then when it goes red in the list select remove failed.

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Thanks for the excellent summary! Now I just need to get an Intel Mac or borrow one... :upside_down_face:.

This is what I get for waiting 11 years to update my laptop. Only two kids here. But understand completely.

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Installed Simplicity Studio 5 and the zwave is not an option in the Tools/add remove. I only see 32 bit, 8-bit, sensors, and xpress interface as option. So I’m stumped.

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I just last night de-ghosted my z-wave network so I know it works. I think that I got to the PC-Controller by clicking on the "add/remove" button without highlighting any of the options. The controller and sniffer were then added to the list.

I followed the guide provided by "danawb" which can be found at:

Mike M

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What computer platform are you using?

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Windows 10

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Ok, then you don’t have the problem I was suspecting. There is a version of Simplicity Studio for the Macintosh platform, but the Mac version doesn’t support PC Controller.

Here are the instructions:

Does that work? If not, I could provide a link for the separate standalone package for SimplicityStudio 4 PC Controller.

I don’t seem to recall that I had to have my Z-Wave USB stick plugged in to the USB port to complete the install. It’s been over a year.

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Thanks. I randomly selected a zwave device that they had listed as possible projects. Within that I was able to select advanced custom and found the pc controller in there. I got rid of ghosts other ways so I haven’t had to use it yet.

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