As a follow-up to this thread asking about status updates, I set up a few rules to refresh devices periodically. Now I am having issues where requesting refreshes for GE/Jasco dimmers is causing them to report "ghost" physical events and actually change dimmer level or turn on/off. I've had a fan turn itself on and off at night, a dimmer turn itself off, and another dimmer change levels without being requested or touched. I checked the logs and the devices are reporting physical events when this happens. What's going on?
I'm about ready to return 3 14924s. The Inovelli's have been SO much better and the Jasco/GEs have always just been "not awesome". However the GE Motion Dimmers are so darn useful I wish someone like Inovelli would replicate the idea of a mains powered motion sensor built into the switch. I digress....
To this thread: I've seen similar issues. Tried different DHs...nothing awesome yet.
Let me see if I can put together a timeline. The rule I have says if the living room motion sensor is active, refresh a handful of devices every 30 seconds. Here's the logs from the rule:
Here's the logs from one of the issuey dimmers. There are significantly more responses that requests...is that normal?
Here's all the recent events from this dimmer. The ones in red are the changes that I noticed happening where nobody was touching the switch. Some of the others are likely ghost events as well, but I'm not 100% sure.
You're being too nice to them. I'll say it. They suck!
"ghost event" <-- where a light comes on when nothing asked it to... which Differs from "Ghosts" which are devices that were once on our network, but seem to be stuck from discarding (Excluding). -- just so the terminology is a few cm more specific
I've had "ghost events." But on the order of once a day not multiple times per half day.
I have had one ghost event in the past 7 days. A year or so ago, when I had 3-4 Hub controllers on one ZWave network, I had one outdoor light come on (ghost event) pretty much every day. Now that I'm down to a single Hub Controller, ghost events are rare... for me.
You're right...and now that you mention it...my time is worth more than screwing with them. I'm returning them all. Just ordered some more Inovellis...as they work a treat and ARE awesome.
My ST hub is still on about a foot away from HE. Is it possible that it could be causing some kind of interference? It doesn't have any physical devices paired to it anymore, I'll try turning off the radios. Can't hurt, right?
True, can't hurt. I've read that others recommend 6 ft...
OK, I am going to chime in here coz I have this issue too (refreshes trigger on events etc). As per the experts, notably Bruce himself, that experienced something similar with one of his GE switches, the issue is the GE switches themself.
Look, I am not expert here, I am but a mere user. I never had this issue before (ever!) when on ST. This behaviour only became apparent when I moved all of the switches to HE.
Now the explanation given is that these switches (for lack of a better description) are faulty & crappy, and that they have an issue and may be failing.
ALL of them? AT THE SAME TIME since being on HE? With respect to the developers, I have but real-world experience, don't [do] Groovy at all, and gut instinct. The latter says the issue is with HE in the absence of any issue under ST,
J
I respect your gut as much as anyone's (Although I suspect mine is bigger )
But "never had this issue before (ever!) when on ST." isn't true for ME. Once a day, every day, one outdoor light would come on. I created a Rule (on a non-ST hub) to turn it off every 20 mins, need it or not.
I'm not quite as ready to blame Hubitat based on my gut. But in truth, I'd love to be wrong. Because my experience is that Hubitat @mike.maxwell @bravenel is quite willing and quick at repairing these problems, once we reveal the critical clue.
No , that is not normal. What driver are you using for this device? have you tried a different driver?
I did. These were my first choice when I began outfitting in-wall, price point and aesthetic. They didn't make the cut, though I still have one in the wall. It's just as cantankerous on HE as it was on ST.
I did as well. The problem became obvious and worse on HE admittedly.
However, I decided not to invest my time wrangling this device and replaced it with a plus version. That may not be an option for someone with a bunch of these...but if it's an option...I say get rid of em. Not worth the time needed to sort them out.
Correct. I'll be living with the issue for the time being until such time that the Finance Dept. [read SO] dictate a replacement... It may be a long wait...
J
Well in that case, I hope they come up with a workaround that works for you. Cuz if I know Finance Departments, they do not like release the funds needlessly.
I just tried a couple tests watching the logging screens.
ST Z-Wave module enabled to start
10:27:20 - HE Rule called 8 refreshes 30 seconds apart, dimmer responded with 59 status updates, 7 of which were physical changes that didn't actually happen
10:38:49 - HE Rule called 13 refreshes 30 seconds apart, dimmer responded with 20 status updates
12:47:05 - disabled ST Z-wave module
12:50:00 - HE Rule called 7 refreshes 30 seconds apart, dimmer responded with 7 status updates, one of which was a physical change that actually did happen - this behavior is what I would expect to see
12:53:59 - enabled ST z-wave module. Received 31 entries like this with non-responsive devices being removed
12:54:37 - HE Rule called 7 refreshes 30 seconds apart, dimmer responded with 10 status updates
13:02:38 - disabled ST Z-Wave module
13:25:34 - HE rule called 8 refreshes 30 seconds apart, dimmer responded with 26 status updates
Interesting that when I re-enabled ST z-wave module, it removed several devices. I'm wondering if that had something to do with the issues.
This brings up a question too....if the hub asks for 8 updates, why does it get so many more responses from the device?
I have 47 non-plus GE/Jasco outlets, dimmers, and switches. Replacing them would cost around $2000, which I'm not willing to re-invest into this system. Truth be told, if I had known how much time and money all of this would have taken up front, I would not have done it. But...here I am
My opinion is you are flooding your network. I wouldn't refresh every 30 secs, but that's my opinion.
Non Plus have less bandwidth than Plus devices, just remember that.
Is it possible that you've managed to join the ST and Hubitat Z-Wave networks together? Did you use a Minimote to perform some of the pairing process? I am just taking a wild guess here at what might be going on...
When I started the migration process, I excluded a minimote from ST and paired to HE. I then used that minimote to do a general device exclusion for my devices to reset them, and the paired them to HE, and later went back and did a force delete of the device from ST after I had my automations moved over.