I had some persistent slow devices and was excited to get the new C-8 to replace my C-7. However, I found that I ended up with more devices becoming slower than faster. And virtually all of them went from 100 to 9.6. I thought maybe I needed a different antenna, but that didn't work either. I have been posting in these 2 threads:
Replacement C8 Antennas:
C-7 to C-8 Worse off:
In the Antenna thread @bravenel thought it wasn't an antenna issue and suggested I start a new thread, which is why I created this one. Bravenel also thought I might have a ghost issue and I posted my current Z-Wave details, but that doesn't seem to be it either. To save some jumping back and forth the threads I'm going to put some of the screenshots here too.
Here is a table showing the devices that went from faster to slower and vice-versa:
Here are charts showing, on top, the devices at 100, 40, and 9.6 while the bottom charts show the # of devices that are faster, slower or the same. You'll see that except for 1 day the # of devices that are now slower on the C-8 has always been higher than the # that are now faster.
My thought would be that the metal casings are absorbing the signal and acting as partial Faraday Cages making to harder for the switches to pick up clear signals.
Since you can't change them the only thing I can think of is pulling the switches apart, extending the aerials so they're outside the metal boxes and you should get a much improved signal.. You might be able to use that signal/aerial tape stuff, if you can get hold of it, like they use for smartphone aerials.
I'm guessing that the switches are getting bits of a full signal repeatedly and using packet management features in the protocol to stitch the signal together until there's something that the switch can understand and that's causing the lag in the devices.
Only other option, if it is an option, is to push the transmission power through the roof to see if that improves the situation.
A quick scan of your ZWave details looks pretty good. Each device has more than a few neighbors and the RSSI is ok. RTT is low for the most part but not as low as I'd expect for 100k devices. From my own C-8 I have RTT of 1ms for 100k devices except battery devices and those are 4ms.
Looking at "Stuarts Key Fob" obviously a battery device that went from 100 to 9.6. On the C-8 it's got 1 neighbor and is using S0 which is known to be chatty, aka slower. However, it's not the slow you're looking for. S0 will cause 3x the packets (rule of thumb) and so it will take more packets to complete the exchange. 3x packets at 100k will probably complete well before even 1 packet at 9.6
Neither the C-7 or the C-8 handle those S0 devices during a join ideally. They will force S0 even when we don't want it. The only cure I know of is another ZWave stick as a secondary controller. However, since the C-7 didn't do better at this, I'm going to assume you had too much S0 on the C-7 as well and it's not the slow to focus on.
Next I looked at 0x28 "Master Bathroom Toilet Light" which has a RSSSI of 64 which is weak. I think 50 or more is going to cause an automatic drop in speed. I have one device at 50ms but it has a 4ms RTT and a speed of 100k, direct. You've got 27ms to back the weak RSSI
Do you have any other active Z-Wave controllers in the vecinity of the C-8 ( or in your home for that matter) - like other Hubitat hubs or other brands ( Fibaro hub, Smartthings hub, etc)?
Yes, I did that in the past and that did almost nothing. I've also tried individual repairs over the years and none of them ever did anything,
My power went off suddenly for a few hours. Now a few devices either are acting funky. Some aren't working at all, but in the app, it shows they are turned on. Some of my Invoelli Red dimmers turn the lights on but the LEDs don't come on.
I'll have to wait a bit and see what happens - especially as my power just went back off as I am typing this.
I have a Hue hub, but it is in a different room about 15-20 feet away. But I do have it plugged into a TP-Link Deco satellite, I have it about a foot away from it. The TP-Link is sitting on it's side (to help conceal it) if that matters.
Meant other Z-Wave hubs/controllers that are active.
As for full repair, when you ran it before, did you have any failures? One or more failures are indicative of devices misbehaving. If you have failures, you'd need to address those devices and identify why they failed. Misbehaving devices can work intermittently and some are really difficult to identify. The best way is to check each failed device to see if it's working as expected, and if it doesn't, then you'd need to take corrective actions that may even include replacing the device.
Running a repair may help to establish better routes (communication between devices and radio), but the process will not help you if devices within the mesh are misbehaving.
That is not good. Dead leds on the Reds are concerning. I have a house full of Reds and never seen that happen after a power outage. Do you have power outages often?
Periodically, as I live in Winter Park, a suburb or Orlando.
I don't remember ever seeing this either where several seem dead after the power just came on (10:30 pm EST). When I use the app it thinks it is turning them on, but nothing happens.
Turns out the transformers were blown by the storm and our power just got restored about an hour ago. So, since the hub was off for several hours did it do an automatic rebuild of the Z-Wave mesh? BTW, except for one Hue bulb that I can't turn off now, (and I did a separate post for that) all the Z-Wave devices seem to be working. For some weird reason we had power on to parts of my condo unit but not others through yesterday and into this morning, which explains why some of the switches/LEDs were off. To give you an idea how weird it was, the lights in my bathroom would turn on, but the plugs were dead. Likewise, my washing machine, dryer and stove worked, but the refrigerator died. (Which means time for a big shopping trip).
While I normally do my Z-Wave log early in the morning I just did it and it was virtually the same as the other day (although it was nominally worse today in that yesterday for the 100/40/9.6 it was 32/4/13 and today it was 32/3/14. That is, the # at 100 stayed the same, but today a 40 dropped down to 9.6).
As you probably know, AC Power to homes in the US are 220vac with a Neutral in the middle.. thus a 120vac "on the left" and another 120vac "on the right.
If the transformer was on it's way to an untimely death, it's possible only on of the two 'sides' was alive. Once they replaced the transformer, both were alive. It's normal for me to see plugs/outlets on one 'side' with Lamps on the other in small rooms. In larger rooms, half the outlets might be on one side.
A guy in our building who knows electricity said the same basic things, that they're two 110 lines to make up the 220 and one was out. It was just strange what, I guess, was on one set and what was on the other set. It was also weird that they turned the power on a few times, and the fuses didn't hold (which is how workmen explained it me) and when it went back off different devices would work or not work than the last time the power went down. Oh well.
But, back to the issue at hand, should I still do the full Z-Wave rebuild? And, just getting ahead of myself, as I've done a full rebuild before for the same reason and it did nothing, assuming that doesn't help is there anything to speed up those connections? Anyone know if the very soon to be released Inovelli 2 in 1 800 series Z-Wave would help (either as is, or hoping that Hubitat implants Long Range - but they never did for the 700 series).
2500 sqft ranch?
Also, I suspect the metal boxes is a big part of the problem.
I have around 2600sqft but split between two floors. All plastic boxes in my house and everything works great on the C8 (my old C7 was marginal).
You could do the full repair and then make note of any failures as Bryan suggested. May help point in the right direction.
Also, do you know how long the hub had been running since the last reboot when you took those screenshots of the zwave details?
It is a 1 floor condo. I'm on the 4th, top, floor in the SE corner. So I have no one above me, or to the south or west. There is a unit below me and one to the the north of me. There is a corridor outside the east side of my unit so another unit isn't touching me on that side either.
These 3 failed the 1st time, but succeeded when it automatically ran the 2nd time:
7A Wegitorium Left Inside Switch. (on my floor plan that is the Den/Exercise room and the switch is inside it towards the bottom, just below where the double doors are shown. It is is a 2 gang metal box.
7B Master Bedroom Ruth's closet is the one on the extreme right in looking at the floorpan in the Master Bedroom. (looks like a backward "C").
3D Third Bathroom Den Side Light Switch is the little bathroom pretty much in the middle of the condo. The "den side" is the "top" side of that room, sharing a wall with Bedroom 2 on the floor plan. That is a little strange that it failed in that the hub sits on top of a hutch by the wall between Bedroom 2 and the Master Bedroom and it directly connects to the hub at 100.
The only one that failed on multiple tries (and even after the full repair when I tried to repair just it) was 6F. Stuart's Den Upper Hutch Light. That is also very strange as it is a plug that it sits on the floor almost directly beneath the hub and right next to Stuart'd Den Lower Hutch Light which is an identical plug. The upper (the one that failed) is directly connect at 40 and the lower one is directly connected at 100. I just tried turning the upper one on and off using both my Fibaro KeyFob and an Inovelli Red Dimmer that is in a 2 gang box just inside the door into the Bedroom 2 on the wall it shares with the 3rd bathroom. The light turned on/off virtually instantly. So, I'm not sure why it won't "repair".
Also, when the Z-Wave repair ran it said 6F was in Group 6. I don't know what that means. The Repair started out saying it was doing Group 1 and I saw a Group 2, but I didn't notice groups 3, 4 or 5. When I tried to repair 6F by itself it said it was group 1. While I have 49 Z-Wave devices it only tried 45, which makes sense as 4 of them are non-repeater button controllers (my 3 Fibaro KeyFobs and 1 Aeotec 4 button device).
If you can do away with it, I would exclude it and put it in a drawer. Then run full repair again, and see if you can run a clean repair. Once you are able to run a clean repair, let your network run for a week and see how your experience is at the end of it.
It's not a light that I use very often so I can certainly try that. But any idea why it works perfect, except can't be repaired? Any idea what implications that has?
BTW, I don't think this really adds anything to it, but here is the log that gets generated when I try to repair it:
