I have just acquired a C8 hub and am transferring all my devices from three C7 hubs into the C8. I migrated the major C7 hub and then excluded/included the devices from the other two hubs. All went well until I ran a full Z-Wave network repair, then I had about 5 or 6 unreachable nodes out of a total of 72. I have tried many different options, including disabling all other devices and apps, changing the IP address, soft reset/restore etc. But the failure rate is getting worse, I now see 14 devices failing.
Oops, I spoke too soon! I discovered I had left one of the old C7 hubs powered up, powering it down reduced my failures to 5 nodes. I'll try excluding/reseting/including them.
As for the network wide repair, here is my rationale. It looks like I can only successfully include a node when the hub can reach it directly. If the node needs a hop the inclusion process times out. So I put the hub where it can reach all the nodes I am adding, then move the hub to its correct location and run the full network repair.
This should not be the case for modern Z-Wave devices (Z-Wave Plus or Plus V2). It is the case for classic Z-Wave devices. Do you have any of those in your network? If so, and if you only have a few (not really sure this is a good idea if they form the bulk of your repeating "backbone"...), adding them last might work better.
I now have at least one device I can't remove and the routing on a lot of the others is suspect. I think I'll do a hard reset and start again. I know I have to be close to a (the?) hub to exclude, if I go down this path, do I have to exclude the devices using the same hub or can I walk around with a C7 hub and exclude?
Should not need to be, but yes you can exclude from any hub if you are resetting the radio,
Incorrect
Pair the devices in place, start from near the hub and move outwards.
If a pairing fails, stop, check for a ghost node. May need to shut down the hub and power cycle it (to restart the radio). Remove the ghost, and continue.
Stop running so many repairs.
If the z-wave radio gets jammed up power cycle the hub.
Performed a hard reset on my C8 and started adding the Z-Wave devices back using a "mobile" C7 to exclude them first. First three went OK, the fourth started to include but never completed the bootstrap so left me with a ghost. The hub is about 10 foot from the switch separated by a stud wall. It will not exclude on the C8 hub so I am now struggling to remove the ghost.
This is what I saw before the only way I could get it to include was to move my hub close to each switch to include them then moved the hub back to a central position to run the Z-Wave repair.
Shut down and power cycle the hub as suggested above.
Why are you excluding from another hub exactly? Just exclude on the same sub you plan to include with, that will be a communications test as well. If the exclude wont work the include will never work.
I regularly pair devices from 30+ ft away with multiple walls between without any issues.
At 10ft away without major interference the device would easily have a direct connection to the hub.
If you have any sensors or power metering devices, maybe save those for last, they can be extra chatty. Not sure if any of those have been included yet.
My strategy was to pair all the powered devices first and then add the battery ones.
As for using another hub, none of my hubs will exclude unless they are very close to the device, typically about 5ft. If I use the C8 to exclude that means have to keep moving it close to the device to execute the exclude and then putting it back in its central location to include.
I should say this is not the first time I have set up a hub, each time I have problems excluding and including unless the hub is close to the device. Should add all my wiring is in metal conduit/boxes, Hubitat was unusable until I swapped out the metal wall plates!
do you have or are near to any old cordless phones or baby monitors? Like things that used 900mHz signals. Not that the C8 hasn't had its Z-wave challenges
I did think about other 900MHz devices, the only one I have is an outside temp/RH sensor and that is at least 50ft from the house. I think it is all down to the grounded metal conduit boxes. The zooz switches have their antenna coiled round the paddle surround so at the best of times I suspect they are only going to transmit "forward" out of the conduit box.
Yes this is the problem. Adding some strategic repeaters that are not inside of those boxes will probably help a great deal. Something like wall plugs or Ring repeaters.
Rule of thumb is if you cannot exclude you wont be able to include. And if you cannot include without moving the hub then when you move the hub back home the device is not going to work well. Inclusion (and exclusion) normally uses the same mesh as all other communications, so if inclusion does not work "in place" then the device wont work well after its included either.
This is also why your repairs kept failing, weak mesh caused by metal box interference.
Agree but what is strange is that there is 7 other powered devices between this switch and the hub with only a stud wall and 5ft to 20ft between them. Thought that would be sufficient not to need an extender.
When I first setup this network I moved my hub closer to each device to include it. Then moved it back to its central location and ran the Z-Wave repair to give it a chance to change the routes. That worked, most of my devices stayed directly connected to the hub and a few added some hops. Rarely I would see a few seconds delay in a device switch from a Z-Wave command.
The inclusion with the hub in this central position and not moved worked for the closest devices, say within 15ft with a single stud wall in the way. Beyond that distance nothing will include, I tried a new 800 series repeater that was in direct line of sight to a powered switch but it would not include.
The only way I can get beyond the 15 foot limit is to move the hub.
This is not normal and probably why you keep having problems, thats all I am telling you.
If a device struggles to include in place, it is going to stuggle to function properly afterwards.
The inclusion does send a little more info back and forth than normal transmissions but it should be able to complete in place.
