I recently added another outlet plug to my network. The primary function is to control some low voltage lights. I can operate everything on my network decently until I click (by phone or pc) to turn off the unit connected to the low voltage transformer, then nothing operates ( non responsive or extremely long lag times up to a minute).
To fix that I reboot (unplug and plug back Hubitat) and things start working again until I go to use the unit again on the transformer.
So I figured to myself, that plug just doesn't like Hubitat, but when I switch out that plug for one from a different brand, the same problem arises, everything is cool until I do a command ( on or off) to whatever plug feeds the transformer and then it stops all the other z-wave devices from responding. All other devices are about 50ft away.
Welcome to the Hubitat Community!
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What brand and model are these outlets?
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Can you please post a screenshot of your Z-wave details page in its entirety?
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Not the exact scenario you’re describing- but similar -
AND after things were back to normal I just added another device (plug this time) and had a more of the same (devices slow to respond or not at all, both individually and groups)
If I’m speaking specifically about my experience I could say every time I add a new device I upset the apple cart w the existing zwave devices/mesh
No magic bullet to correct- just fiddling with each device to make sure it’s receiving and sending communication (config, save pref, save device… confirm- rinse and repeat …. Sometimes power cycle the device.)
Many reboots/power cycles/zwave repair of the hub don’t seem to make a difference…. For me anyhow
I had serious problems a couple months back that were similar, zwave devices and rules using them were all but useless.
I had to cleanup ghost devices using a USB zwave stick, updated firmware on 3 devices, and replaced batteries on 2 devices.
I also excluded and re connected 2 switchs that should have had S2, but didn't. These were running slow at 40kbps before, now all at 100kbps
Since, everything has been rock solid, even added a few more zwave devices without any problems.
What kind of plug is it? Is it by any chance a Zooz Zen25 double plug? Also, look for ghost nodes (devices without a route)
If you could post some screen shots of your Zwave details someone may be able to help.
@user2357 @lcw731 is giving good advice. I would also add to make sure that power reporting on all your devices are at a minimum or completely off.
What model of devices do you have?
Recently I discovered by zooz temperature sensors flooding the network with reports. Ended up upgrading the firmware on all of those devices and it cleared it up. Not sure what triggered it but it was causing general slowness.
Over the years I've run across a number of devices that caused issues. Its not z-wave. Its the manufacture either having a bug in the code or doing something not recommended.
As others have eluded to power monitoring on zwave devices can be a very tricky thing to manage with the limited bandwith of thr zwave network. Generally you want to keep that to a minimum so it only reports what you need and no more.
Many devices have parameters for report threshold and/or interval. Many decices can spike power draw and cause excessive reporting if threshold is set to low. I have experienced a zen25 flooding my zwave based on report threshold being set to low and triggering multiple reports per second. You want to set the threshold close to the expected load so it wont trigger multiple times during normal use. Ie If it is a tv and it draws 100 watts to 125 set the threshold to lets say 80 or 100 watts.
I have a zen04,zen15, and a zen25 and i assure you setting any of then with very low thresholds or intervals will cause issues on the network.
I love the concept of the Zen 25, but every time I include them they drag my mesh to a crawl within a matter of hours, and that is after updating the firmware. I really wish there were a way to just turn the power reporting off, not just max out the time between report. I honestly believe that would solve the problem. Also, I never had those issues with the C4, its just the C7 that seems to not want to play well with these devices. I may crack one out and include it again, just to see what happens, maybe there was fixed buried in one of the updates that I didn't notice.
There is, undocumented parameter 18, default is 0, set to 1 to disable all power reporting.
To add to what @jtp10181 said i have also seen strange thinga with the config values as well not setting exactly as i want them. Sometimes when i tried to make one parm changes othera seemed to reset to poor settings. Always with the Zen25 after making a chnge review the state variables from the device page to ensure something didn't get set to a unexpected value.
