Z wave bulb recommendations please

Ya know I do have a lamp with 3 ZigBee bulbs in it (that I have grouped as 1 device) that has also been acting slightly funky. I might just pick up a pack of these and swap them out. Use them as a test bed in case I ultimately have to go back the ZigBee route for the others.

For your bulb group do you have "Enable Zigbee group messaging" set on? helps with potential "popcorn" (delays in different bulbs turning on/off) effects if there are any... I have my 8 recessed lights done this way. Probably not an issue for you but thought I'd mention it..

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Yes. I seem to have one bulb (not always the same bulb) that doesn't want to respond.

I ordered some of those Innr bulbs, should get them today. I will try them in the one lamp that currently has ZigBee bulbs, coupled with one of the advance drives and see if that gets them working the way I would like. If so I will likely just replace the Sengleds with those. I agree the dimming curve for the Sengled's leaves much to be desired.

I tried one of the Advance ZigBee bulb Drivers. I see where the setting I need is. I'll try that on the one lamp that currently has ZigBee. If it works like I hope and I can't get the z-wave bulbs I currently have to update and become more stable I will give that a try for the bedroom lamps (which was the driver for this whole change anyway) .

I tried updating the firmware on 5 of 6 illumin bulbs last night. Without fail every single one of them failed to take the new firmware, all just errored out after several minutes. One sat there for several hours and didn't do anything.

I ordered the digi-key stick you linked to. When I get it I'm going to try removing everything from the hubs (I'm looking to see if there's a way to wipe them and start over 100%) Update the bulbs off the hub, then rebuild both the Z-wave and ZigBee mesh and start over from the ground up. I don't have THAT big a set up that it will take me more than may be half a day or so to do it. If that doesn't work, ill just go ZigBee (on the bulbs anyway).

For reference to all those who are so kindly offering ideas and assistance, The house is about 2180 sq feet, Single level. I'd say maybe 50 feet from the hub in the front office to the farthest z-wave bulbs in the master bed root (and about 30 feet to the one lamp that has ZigBee's. I do have a Zooz dual out let just outside the bedroom in the main room also about 30 feet from the hubs. I put it there just to act as a repeater for the bedroom .

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Once you get your UZB-7 you can follow the first part (steps 1-13) of this excellent Ghost Removal guide from @danabw to get the Z-Wave PC Controller software installed, provided you have a Windows machine somewhere...

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Yep. windows is what I have. I tried to do the whole abandon the pc for the phone thing, and found I still have some things I need a full blown computer to do.

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How frequent are overnight power outages where you live that is is even a thought in your mind? In the 6 years since I started doing my home automation project, yeah I work slow because, well budget, and the platforms keep changing but I digress.

I have lost power twice, and the last time was the big ice storm and long term power outage that hit us here in Texas. So the lights coming on full steam when the power came back online was the least of my worries.

I have Zigbees in fixtures, because I got them cheap and wanted to try it out, I am moving to switches soonest possible.

Anyway I digress. No, Zwave bulbs are not super common, actually Zigbee bulbs are kind of the standard, followed by WiFi and Bluetooth.

I live in San Jose, California (Puerto Rico?) and this year there have been at least 10 power outages this year. Combination of fires, high winds and poor management.
I try to keep all Zigbee bulbs out of my bedroom and bath to ignore the late night "blips". thankfully my hub is on UPS.

It sounds like you need a whole house UPS instead of different bulbs.

10 blackouts in 4 months? WOW!

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That's an incredible shame. Especially the poor management.

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You could use the systemStart Location Event as a Rule trigger to set them however you want after power returns. There would still be that two minute or so reboot time of the hub in the middle of the night.

If your hub is on a UPS and doesn’t see the power fail but the bulb does, you could install a Ring Alarm Extender gen2, which has its own internal battery and would generate “switch to battery” and “return to mains” power events that you could use as a Rule trigger to set the bulbs however you want on power return.

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I'm also in Texas, between Fort Worth and Denton. Since we moved to our current home from Fort Worth in August, we have had several (I would estimate 5- 10 not counting the not-so-rolling black outs during snowpacolypse). Where we are was pretty rural and is currently growing quickly, but certain infrastructure is lagging catching up. Even in Far North Fort Worth we would get 4- 6 power outages a year, with usually at least one (typically in July or August) lasting in excess of 12 hours. the longest I remember was just under 20 hours. that was in 2018.

I have lived in Houston Metro for almost 30 years, and have experienced a grand total of 3 blackouts not counting having a storm knock us out at 2:00 A.M. for five minutes. In those situations having all the lights back on at full intensity would be a good thing... Cause everyone, and every critter in the house is going to be up and roaming around half blind...

Tried again tonight. Using the firmware updater tried several times to update from 2. 28 to 2.31. Twicr said it was successful, but when I went into the device, said the firmware was still 2.28. No idea why it's not working.

unpair and then pair it again in NON-SECURE inclusion mode from the firmware page..

V2.31 - 02/25/2021
Quickly turn the bulb on / off 3 times to put the bulb into NON-SECURE inclusion mode.

edit: to see the firmware version update I think you have to hit configure and maybe preference or device save.

edit2: when your uzb-7 arrives you can update the firmware with the PC Controller software as well if needed. It's a little faster but you have to exclude/include again which is a good idea with firmware updates anyway.

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If you are still looking for a zwave plus bulb, (I've personally got this, and it works fine):

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Thanks. I came across something similar in my search. It won't work for this particular application, but i am going to try it for my family Room recessed lighting. My family Room/ kitchen / dining area are All in one open floor plan, 13 total bulbs in three three-way circuits. I really should just go with new switches, but that wiring is way behind my capabilites. I'll need to get an electrician to do those. These biulbs might just do the trick in the mean time.

I will give that another try when I wake up a bit more. I was planning to try it again once I get the uzb-7. In the meantime, it can't hurt to tinker with it. I took three of the bulbs out of service until I get this figured out.

One other change I made (and I don't know why I didn't think of it before) I had the hubs on a metal monitor riser. I moved them up to the wooden shelf above. I stuck them to the wall with command strips, and that seemed to help somewhat.

Do you have a link to that page? I can't seem to find it again.

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Thank you! I'm having some success so far. I've gotten 2 to take the new firm ware. working on a third now.

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