I have a Wink hub that has died. I want to remove it entirely, and replace it with a Hubitat hub that I purchased on Amazon. My system is pretty simple...I have two GE 55258 fan controllers, and a GE 14294 dimmer. I simply want Alexa and Google Home to control those three devices.
I'm pretty sure I have reset one of the fan controllers to factory specs by quickly pushing the top button and then the bottom button, and seeing the LED blink five times. When I spoke with GE, they told me that this then automatically puts the device into "discovery" mode. However, when I go into my Hubitat "Device Discovery" page, and click Z-Wave and then "start Z-Wave inclusion," the Hubitat hub does not discover the device.
As @automation has said, an Exclude is a valuable tool. It pretty quickly tells you if the device can communicate to the hub. If you Include first, you have a good chance of creating "ghosts" (consumed Node IDs that don't have a functional device attached) and will have to make sure they go away or get aggressive and make them go away.
If you factory reset the device then go directly to Include and it doesn't work, you probably create a Ghost. So you try and Include again, but the device is now half Included and it won't accept a new Include. You have to Exclude first, then try the Include for the 2nd time.
By doing a Factory Reset of the ZWave device followed by an Exclude, you would see "Unknown Device Excluded" -- which is proof positive that the hub <--> device communications are working. They are close enough, etc. If you immediately follow with an Include, the odds are in your favor now.
Csteele - Thank you for this info. Still no luck. Here's my set-up.
The Hubitat is plugged into an Ethernet port. The green LED is on.
The Hubitat is about 20 feet from the switch in question, with line of sight.
The switch is a GE/Jasco fan controller, and I've done a factory reset several times where I click the on button three times quickly, then the off button three times quickly, and see 5 LED flashes.
I did what you suggested...a factory reset and then immediately to the Hubitat web portal to "Start Z-Wave Exclusion." It went through its processes for 30 seconds, but didn't give me any messages about success or failure. Nothing was listed under "Found Devices."
I'm stumped. I'd appreciate any advice and help you can offer.
Did you also start the Exclude on the Device during that time? I included my GE FanController (purchased in 2018, didn't crack the seal til a week or two ago,) and it included right away by clicking the On button once.
I Excluded Included multiple times.. I began that experiment by Joining the Fan Controller to my Development Hub, but after I got it "nicely packaged" I Excluded it and put it onto one of my Production Hubs and it's been responding to Temperature updates since.. night and day.
@SoCalHubitat Also just an FYI. I too am a Wink ---> Hubitat convert. The transition was smooth and the function and openness of the Hubitat platform way surpasses what I could have done with Wink. And it is local with NO subscription. I have not looked back and am very happy with Hubitat
@SoCalHubitat I'm sorry to hear that. This community is very active and there is a good technically diverse bunch of folks on here that I am sure will jump in (most likely this afternoon/evening).
I have experience with the GE wall switches but not the fan controllers. I would think that the hub close to the fan controller, factory reset, zwave exclude and then zwave include should work. If you can ever get the exclude to happen it will confirm that at least the Hubitat is talking....
I wonder if you changed the title of your post to "Help with Wink conversion" or "Need help pairing GE fan controllers" it might catch some attention
Assuming your switches are genuinely factory reset (including a z-wave reset), it is puzzling that they will not pair. What z-wave region is your new Hubitat configured to? And is the z-wave status Enabled?
@aaiyar, I have no idea what region it's set to, but I did set the time zone to Pacific (where I'm located). As to the reset, I triple-clicked the top button and then triple-clicked the bottom button, and got five fast LED flashes. According to the GE manual, that indicates that it has been reset to the factory settings. When I called GE Tech Support, they told me that the switch goes into discovery mode for three minutes after the reset, so I quickly tried having the Hubitat discovery the switch, but it did not discover the switch.
Something isn’t right - you should see that message. Either your devices are not entering pairing mode (so they can be excluded), or your hub’s zwave radio isn’t on.
I agree with @aaiyar -- there's something we're missing while trying to analyze vicariously. The Exclude process is the simplest, and is exactly why it gets recommended as a starting point.
The Hubitat ZWave radio starts sending packets with more or less "Tell me who?" wants to be excluded. The Device hears that and being the ONLY device waiting for such a message (It's in Exclude too) it responds. Then there's a quick conversation about resetting the HomeNetwork number and resetting the Node ID, and it's done. Usually you can see the LED on the device "breathing" to indicate it's in the mode and then it flickers/dances to indicate the conversation is ongoing, and finally it shuts off.. complete.
The Hub not indicating an exclusion occurred means (mostly) that the Device isn't being heard. Two causes... 1) distance/interference 2) frequency.
Clearly 20 ft of open air is close enough and probably overcomes most interference. However, really really old ZWave devices had a method to prevent interception called Whisper mode... the power of the radio would be reduced severely and that meant the device and the Hub had to be within a couple feet, even inches. It was initially popularized as a security feature since you could literally see anyone that was trying to intercept the signals. However, it was so annoying that it has long since been dropped. I hope you have a New fan controller, because even my vintage (2018) is not ZWave Plus but doesn't use Whisper. I connected it easily over 30 ft and 3 walls.
Next is the 2nd possibility of the GE being for a non-US region. The ZWave Alliance db of product conformance says it's correct:
DO any of the 3 devices you have work for this Exclude process?? They are all GE, so the simply placing the hub into Exclude and then clicking the paddle switch (either on or off) will cause them to listen for the Hub's message.
@csteele I just checked my Amazon orders, and the fan controller was purchased in August 2018. I'm assuming it's a US product.
I moved the Hubitat so it was, literally, six inches from the fan controller, ran the exclusion protocols, and still got nothing. Just for kicks, I tried it with another fan controller (we have two), and it worked. I was able to reconnect fan controller #1 to my Wink hub, but had to do a reset on #2 (presumably related to the exclusion process), and was able to get it to reconnect to the Wink hub as well.
