Hi, noticed tonight that physically turning a light switch on or off does not update the states in Hubitat. GE/Jasco switches and dimmers. Tried switching to generic smart and plus switch driver's, did a z-wave repair, updated Hubitat and rebooted. No help. If I click refresh on a switch then it updates and shows the correct state and all events pop up in Hubitat logs.
How old are these switches? What model number are they?
If you don't know the model number, it is right on the face under the plate.
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Newer models have this information on the top of the switch along with a QR code.
Pull up one of these devices and see if you have 0x5E as an inCluster. This designates whether the switches are Zwave Plus if this cluster is present:
If your switches aren’t Zwave Plus unfortunately you will run into issues because these don’t report updates to the hub due to patent issues. SmartThings had built in polling to detect changes. You can read more in this very old thread of mine a few years ago when I first came over to HE from ST:
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Wow, yeah older switches, not plus. Came from smartthings to Hubitat about a year ago and have had most of the switches for 6-7 years at least.
Reading through your linked thread, seems this has likely always been an issue since I switched, just never noticed as 90% of my lights are automated with motion sensors.
Also picked up from the linked thread to try out z-wave poller but like others, have reservations of hitting a bunch of devices every 10 seconds.
Skimming through that thread, I didn't see where anyone from Hubitat have an "official" answer. Do you know if it is in fact a patent issue and won't ever be corrected?
Thank you
GE Jasco don't provide firmware updates for their products. It would have to be enabled on their side to give that instant status. Yes it is a patent issue, and GE decided to not pay the royalty fee to get it. So it most likely will never get fixed.
Hubitat can't control how these send their status, other than to poll the devices. Polling can be detrimental if overdone. Probably not if you are just doing a couple switches, but you don't want to poll like 20 or 50 of them. Smartthings can poll without you noticing because they have nearly infinite computing power on the cloud. (But that brings on different issues...)
Most people advise replacing these older switches, or at least moving them to less critical places like maybe a basement or closet light where you don't necessarily have to receive the status.
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Thank you for all the info. I'll try out the polling to see if it's detrimental at all before considering replacing switches. How would I know what switches support instant reporting? I'm assuming z-wave plus switches are all fine?
Any of the newer Z-Wave plus switches from GE\Jasco, Inovelli, Zooz, etc., will all report.
I'd never suggest replacing all kinds of existing switches that work and haven't caused you problems. But if you have a couple switches where you think this is important it might be worth your while to replace them. Up to you to decide if it's worth it financially and the hassle of swapping them physically.
I still have a few of the older Z-Wave GE switches and they don't cause any problems so I leave them alone.
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You can install z-wave poller and that should give you status on your older switches
Hubitat has it, too, but you need to enable it manually. Under Apps select "New Built-In App" and scroll down to the "Z-Wave Poller" app.
I have one of these old GE/Jasco switches left, in the cellar. I don't bother polling it's status, since no one every touches it manually anymore.
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You can also turn off app settings like "On/Off Optimization" or similar that seek to determine the switch status before sending commands, so any on/off commands will always be sent regardless of what state the hub (incorrectly) thinks the switch is in.
The lack of current status should be a non-issue in most cases. unless you're using switch status to trigger/control automations, or need to display up-to-date switch status in a dashboard. Obviously, only poll switches if you really need their status updated.
Thanks for this heads up. There does not appear to be any settings on the frequency this apps polls. I've got about 40 of the older switches and dimmers and have been using rule machine to refresh these periodically throughout the day.
I installed the app and tested a couple of switches and it seems to update manual switch changes very quickly. Does anyone know how much of a load this would put on the hub. I do have all of these along with the Iotawatt and a couple of Aeotec 40 amp heavy duty switches on a dedicated C5 hub.
My understanding is it's ok for a few but I would think 40 would overwhelm things quite quickly
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There's also no provision in the app for wall outlets and I have a few of those in the mix. I'll just keep using rule machine and refresh as needed.
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Change the driver for the outlets to generic z-wave switch and they'll show in the poller app
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The poller app polls every 10 seconds if I’m remembering correctly. You can set up polling in rule machine, and poll certain devices more/less often than others, or poll when a sensor triggers, etc. I found (a few years ago, before I purged my z-wave devices) that even just polling 2 or 3 devices put quite a strain on the z-wave radio in my C-5. In fact, a single z-wave device sending battery reports every 6 seconds caused a significant slowdown for other z-wave devices on my hub.
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Thanks for the information.
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