So did the latest update break Z-wave inclusion? I’ve been working on swapping in a whole bunch of Zooz Z-wave dimmers and switches in our new house and all of a sudden I don’t seem to be able to get any of the newly installed switches to include. I’ve now tried multiple dimmers and switches in different areas as well as a couple of Enbrighten outlets and everything is failing to include. This started about three days ago.
I have 30 switches, dimmers, and smoke detectors, and door locks all linked up to my hub and working great, but I just can’t seem to get any new stuff to sync. Several of the switches I am trying to add are right next to a a-wave device that was added successfully a few days ago, so I don’t think signal or lack there of is my issue. Also since it is multiple devices that are failing to connect, I don’t think it’s on the switch end either. Anyone got any ideas? I’ve got 10 switches and two outlets installed that are all working as dumb outlets and switches right now until I can sync them up.
I have seen this happen under a couple of conditions unrelated to upgrades... (1) there's a ghost in there somewhere interfering with the operation of the mesh, (2) there's a device acting as a repeater that has gone south and is messing up routing.
No other symptoms. Everything is functioning fine, except I can’t seem to add any new devices in to the system. Looking at my device list I don’t see anything that isn’t supposed to be there.
If there are no ghosts (which will show up with a "discover" button and no routes) and everything else seems to be working you might try shutting down the hub, disconnecting the power (at the outlet side to prevent damage to the micro usb connector), waiting 30 seconds or so, and powering it back up. Apparently the 30 seconds w/o power gives the zwave radio a chance to properly reset or flush or whatever. That's helped me once or twice.
Those are likely ghosts. Removing them can be... an adventure. The first thing you need to do is ensure there is no power to the device (which is a pain with switches and outlets) and then click "repair" a whole bunch of times (repair the device not the whole mesh) until a "remove" button shows up. Then click that a bunch of times and with any luck your ghost will be toast! The trick can be figuring out WHICH device is the ghost!
@sdbmwbiker If you airgap all your switches (or turn off the breaker) that should help. Likely when you remove the ghosts your overall system will speed up a lot. Whenever you have a failed pairing stop what you are doing and go to your z-wave details and check for ghosts.
@rlithgow1's advice is spot-on. Also I've read don't ever use the "force remove" option from the devices tab. Apparently it deletes the device from the HE database but not the radio database.
Looks like this is my issue hopefully. I got one ghost to drop off using the above described method. Working on removing the other one then I will attempt to add one of the new switches and see if that solved it completely
Excellent! If you ever have the need to do ghost busting on a regular basis there's an alternative method for dealing with them involving using a zwave stick as a secondary controller along with the Silicon Labs PC Controller tool. I use it when I have a particularly persistent ghost. The stick is about $20 and the software is free.
I would also do an exclusion with your devices before doing an inclusion. The device may think it's included but it isn't really. If you get an "unknown device excluded" that was part of the issue. If nothing happens then likely not.
Not sure why these guys are so finicky... another thing you can do is if the include fails you can immediately do an exclude. Sometimes that will take care of your ghost with less hassle.
Yeah, you'll probably see a performance increase. Every few inclusions do a backup to your PC... When all is said and done I would also do a softreset and restore just to ensure a clean database. (That's just me though)
Yeah I don’t understand why I am having so much trouble adding stuff to the hub all of a sudden, the first 30 some odd devices were a piece of cake. They all added in perfectly. Now I’m getting failed to adds, ghosts, really long delayed additions if they go in at all, etc.
Granted I’m now in the rooms furthest from the hub, but I started building my mesh out from the third floor down for this exact reason. Hub is in the rack in the office on the third floor along with 6 switches and an outlet. Second floor currently has 3 switches and an outlet.
First floor I successfully assigned and installed 11 switches so far as well as a pair of door locks. You would think these new switches on the first floor would have no trouble latching on to the 11 other ones to route back to the hub. I did order a pair of Z-wave repeaters today too that I will put in on the second and first floor too just in case. But I seriously don’t think signal strength to the hub is my issue.
I'm still wondering if you have a misbehaving zwave device that has been successfully included but is not working correctly, or is disconnected. That has happened to me and caused similar issues. You don't by any chance have any Zooz ZSE40 4:1 sensors do you? They are known to be incompatible with HE and cause issues. I had a couple in my network and ripped them out.
(For that matter, I also ripped out all my zwave switches and went to Lutron Caseta, which I think @rlithgow1 also uses. Things are rock solid.)
It might be worth your posting a screen shot of your zwave details page here. Maybe we (or someone else) will see something that pops out. And if you still have issues it may be time to get someone like @bcopeland (Mr ZWave himself) to take a look.
No. No sensors. I’m using all
Zooz ZEN72 700 series dimmers
Zooz ZEN71 700 series switches
Jasco enbrighten tamper resistant smart outlets
First Alert series 2 Z-wave combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
Kwikset 916 series smart deadbolts.
Realistically it’s only the outlets, switches, and dimmers that would effect the mesh and network.
I had the Caseta stuff in my old house before I went to Hubitat. Just couldn’t justify the cost of them for this new house with the insane number of switches we have here. Also all the three and four way circuits I have to deal with. The Zooz are very 3 and 4 way circuits friendly.
If I can figure out how to change the screen size so I have more than 3 device listings per screen shot I’ll post them. Maybe if I log in from my iMac instead of my iPad i can get more on one screen.
