I have persistent reliability problems with my z-wave network. From about 1:00am (central) to about 10:00am the Z-wave network slows and gets to the point where it just does not work.
I have ~100 z-wave powered nodes on my network. All nodes have a clear path back to the hub (no more than 20 feet between nodes). I have no other devices (to my knowledge) in my home that operate in a frequency that would be causing interference. I performed many troubleshooting steps including removing all ghost nodes on the network, moving the hub to a central location, excluding and re-including devices with a high number of hops and/or low data transfer rates, turning off logging (recently), etc.
The most glaring example of network problems happens every day. I have a basic rule that turns off the landscape lighting at sunrise/when mode becomes day. There are five z-wave devices and one WiFi device that this rule is set to turn off. The WiFi device always works. The z-wave devices never work. I had a "backup rule" that set to turn off the same z-wave devices at 9am - that rule worked sometimes. I switched the time to 10am -that rule worked more frequently. At 11am, that works every time.
The rule to turn on the landscaping lights (same 5 devices) at sunset/evening mode works every time.
Very frustrating. during certain hours, the z-wave network is perfect. Certain hours it seems intermittently reliable. Certain hours it is very unreliable.
Just to confirm. Are you rebooting the hub at 10AM? There is a hub database backup/pruning that runs around 2:00 AM by default - but I can't see why that would bog things down from 1-10AM.
You could do a couple things that would be helpful. During the slowdown, grab a screen shot of Logs -> Device Stats, and Logs -> App Stats.
That should give an indication if the slow down is caused by an errant device or app.
Also, do you have any zigbee devices, or only z-wave?
That is very odd, could you please send me a private message along with your hub ID? I'd like to take a look at your hub's engineering logs to see if we can determine what's causing this problem.
I checked the logs. There isn't anything glaring to a novice like myself.
The device stats show a relatively high processing time for my "iAqualink" devices (an aggregation of the child devices). However, the reliability issue precedes the addition of the iAqualink. Also, the iAqualink is the single reliable WiFi device referenced in the basic rule that works when the z-wave devices fail.
The app stats show the highest processing time on the Mobile App Manager and the Hubitat Dashboard. A Zooz scene controller is a distant third.
Last, there are no Zigbee devices on the network. Just Z-wave and the iAqualink.
Thanks for your PM, please see my reply. Looks like you were running Z-Wave Repair while trying to remove a node when you rebooted the hub. Rebooting to solve Z-Wave issues, in general is not an effective way to remedy a problem. More so if the hub is running a repair. When the hub reboots, there are a lot of Z-Wave events generated and it could take 10-15 minutes for the mesh to settle. Also, looks like you didn't have a chance to update the Z-Wave firmware, when you have a moment, please check the following thread to learn more about updating the Z-Wave radio:
Got it. You are correct on both fronts. I was getting a bit aggressive with my reboots while attempting to remove ghost nodes (I ended up removing 29). Thank you for the advice on that. I will definitely be more aware of the implications going forward.
Also, I had been pretty diligent in updating the builds (currently on 2.3.3.125). However, I have NOT been diligent on updating the Firmware through the Z-Wave Details page. I am performing that update right now.
I will update this thread after a few days of observation.
Please keep us posted. If you have a busy network, the new firmware may help. Also if the node you removed was lingering in your mesh, that can create instability. So hopefully between these two actions, your occasional slowdown will go away.
Update: So far so good. I tested late last night and response time and connection was MIUCH better than it has been (not quite as good as it is during the afternoon). My basic rule to turn my outdoor lights off at sunrise/day mode worked flawlessly for the first time ever.
The updating the z-wave firmware and removing the ghost nodes seems to have worked so far.
