Zen17 and Zooz Garage Door Opener

Hello All, new to Hubitat and first post. I did read the many posts on Zen17, but I dont see anyone running into this issue so far.

I have two garage door openers with the purple button, these do not have the security protocols of newer models, and should be straight forward to wire.

I wired from the zen17 directly to the garage door opener in parallel with the wall switch.
I wired in magnetic sensors for the closed state of the door.

I have had a number of logic issues. Hubitat shows the door open when it is closed, or the opposite. In this state I cannot control the door through Hubitat, and I havent found the sequence of events to sync it back up...but have tried manual operation, Refresh in the device in Hubitat, etc.
To rule out the magnetic sensors I switched from the ones i installed to the zen17 to the ones that tie into the alarm system, which is integrated into Hubitat with Envisalink. However, I did experience a similar logic issue is the incorrect door state.
Today i went to open the garage door with the wall button, it would not operate, in fact both did not work. I'm not sure what the zen17 could do to prevent the wall buttons from working - only perhaps keeping it in the 'on' state as if the button was held down.

The hub is the closest zwave device, and is maybe 30 feet away, but there is HVAC and the foam insulated garage wall in-between.

I'm thinking the most likely cause is spotty connectivity...but hoping someone has seen similar issues or can offer some advice. Outside of relocating the hub or getting an extender, is there specific logging that would show me if connectivity to this device was dropping. I did turn on debug for the zen17 parent device, but just now.

Thanks!!

Does the Z17 have the latest f/w from Zooz? IIRC, inverted open/close state was a problem with very early f/w, but I would imagine units shipping now would be well beyond that. But worth ensuring you have the latest anyway.

If you contact Zooz, they can send you the latest firmware and set you up with your own access to future updates too.

Have you confirmed the various parameters are all set as desired? You can use the "Basic Z-Wave Tool" driver to review/set all available parameters (since not all are exposed using the regular device driver).

Zooz has a LOT of great device-specific resources (configuration details, setup details, etc) on their support page -- it's definitely worth bookmarking.

Welcome!!

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I personally gave up on trying to use magnetic open/close sensors after a few months because they were so unreliable in reporting (I was using Ring Gen2 contact sensors). At the time I wondered if the steel door, rails etc. were interfering with the magnet or even the signal since the sensors sort of had to be placed in such a way that the rails could theoretically block the signal. I switched to the Zooz tilt sensors and it's all worked flawlessly since. Obviously, your issue isn't the signal since you tried using it with your wired sensors.

Outside of the garage door app, are the open/close sensors reporting properly to the hub? If not, it could be the whole "magnet on a big hunk of steel" theory.

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Perhaps show how you have the unit wired because this sounds like you may have a wiring issue, or a bad garage door opener. The Zen17 should not effect the door's manual operation.

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Or more likely the garage is normally at edge of mesh. And sensors are low power. Maybe a repeater or two on way ro hub is in order?

The ZEN17 is a powered relay, makes for a great repeater itself.

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Yes but you probably need repeaters between there and the hub.

Unless the ZEN17 relay is stuck in the ON position as the OP suspects could be the case.

This is true, but I've never thought their GDO control strategy was the best. There are better (IMO) ways to connect the device to the opener and configure the settings. Their virtual GDO device driver is solid, though.

It does seem like that could be the issue. Can you post a screenhot of the Z-Wave details page? Another easy check is to manually (from the device deatils page in the Hubitat interface) turn the relay on and off and see if it responds abd reports state reliably.

These would be very useful, as well as a screenshot of your logic.

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Thanks for all the suggestions!

Requested data below. As for the logic, I don’t have any rules or such, its all through the Zooz App.
I will look at moving the unit to the wall closest to the hub, which would be about 20 feet closer…and try to position it where it doesn’t have to go through HVAC ducting.

Is there a way to log signal strength, or dropped connections??

Here is the details page – is it odd that last sent/received is a day ago, or would that only update if I actually used the Zooz to open the door? Today was only manual operation so far…which is typical.
ZWaveDetails

The wiring at this point is only the two relays. NO and C directly to the garage door opener, and in parallel to the wall switch. i.e. the Zen17 and wall switch wires twisted and into the same connector on the garage door opener itself.

Zooz App configuration:
ZooZApp

Parent Device config

Zen17Parent

Firmware 1.04 – Zooz still reviewing my account request

Thanks!!

I'm surprised that they still have 1.04 on ones shipping these days -- the latest is 1.30, and there have been a few iterations since 1.04.

I'd definitely hold off on any additional big hoop-jumping until Zooz gets you that 1.30 firmware.

Here's the change log for reference:

ZEN17 Universal Relay Change Log - Zooz Support Center (getzooz.com)

ETA - hard to see any details in your screenshots, but the Input Type Relay 1/2 selections look sus -- if you're using a wired dumb reed sensor, the one corresponding to your GDO relay should be "Contact Sensor". I'm only using one relay since I just have one door, but I'm using two wired reed sensors (1 full-open, and 1 full-closed):

Edit 2 - I'd also recommend changing your "Power Fail State Restore" option to "All relays off" -- that will help ensure your door(s) won't do any unexpected if power goes wonky.

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That Z-Wave details doesn't show what i was expecting. I'm running a slightly older version of the Hubitat software, but somewhere you should see metrics for signal strength (RSSI & RTT Avg), # of visible neighbors, connection speed, and route changes. I'm not a zwave expert, but sometimes you'll see problem areas show up in those details.

That appears to be a C5, which shows fewer details than the newer hubs.

Would the user app "Hubitat Zwave Details App" provide any additional details?

Nope, you can't create details that aren't there. The older hubs lack this information, at least on the public facing side if not in general.

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Thanks for calling out the relay type, I pasted the image without reading the settings... i KNOW i had contact sensor in there originally, I followed the Zooz instructions to the letter - so I'm not sure how it got to toggle, but its corrected now as well as power failure state.

Yes its a C5...I'l admit to purchasing well over a year ago to play around with, but only in past couple months replaced all Insteon with other devices, and moved out of the ISY944i.

I'll likely get a more recent model before long - in fact the range on a C8 may solve my issue if it is in fact a connectivity issue. That may save me getting on the ladder and moving the wiring. :wink:

I have the Zooz account now so will get firmware 1.30 in place hopefully over the weekend.
Thanks again All for the guidance - great to have such an active community!!

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Quick update: So far things seem to be working well after correcting the relay type, the firmware update, and reducing the distance between the Zen17 and Hubitat.

Thanks again for the assistance!

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Looks like I spoke too soon... :slightly_frowning_face:

Today when leaving the house the garage door would not open using the garage door opener button mounted on the wall. Opening with the Hubitat app, a tile on my dashboard based on Zooz device, also failed.
I went into the Zooz parent device and clicked refresh. I heard the relay click, after which the GDO button DID open the door.

Logs dont seem to tell me much ( at bottom of this post), but maybe there is more I should be looking at?
Before writing this I took a look at the status of the relay - the Current Status indicated Switch=On. I hit the refresh button in the relay screen this time, and the Status changed to Off.

It seems the switch is getting stuck in an on state, preventing the GDO button from working...

I changed the Zooz parent device to enable debug logging and just noticed something else: the events show the firmware update completing, and the version being 1.3, but the Device Details section still shows 1.04

Anything else to check? Any suggestions on what to look at if I catch it in the error state?

Thanks,
Dan


Zooz2

app:1222023-06-06 06:24:37.409 AMinfoDan'Z Garage Door is closed at 06:24 AM on 06-Jun-2023

dev:2272023-06-06 06:24:36.992 AMinfoSending Message: Dan'Z Garage Door is closed at 06:24 AM on 06-Jun-2023 Priority: 0 to Device: OnePlus7pro

dev:2042023-06-06 06:24:36.912 AMdebugDan'Z Garage Door - door is closed

dev:2042023-06-06 06:24:21.881 AMdebugDan'Z Garage Door - door is closing

dev:2042023-06-06 06:23:25.373 AMdebugDan'Z Garage Door - door is open

dev:2042023-06-06 06:23:10.345 AMdebugDan'Z Garage Door - door is opening

dev:2272023-06-06 06:22:36.729 AMinfoSending Message: Dan'Z Garage Door Failed to Open Priority: 0 to Device: OnePlus7pro

app:1132023-06-06 06:22:36.719 AMdebugSending Notification: Dan'Z Garage Door Failed to Open

dev:2042023-06-06 06:22:36.710 AMdebugDan'Z Garage Door - door is closed

dev:2042023-06-06 06:22:21.646 AMdebugDan'Z Garage Door - door is opening

I had major issues like you're experiencing with mine until I did the Antenna upgrade to my C-7 (and since upgrading to the C-8, I've had the same experience as my modified C-7). My personal experience is that garage walls (firewalls) are especially hard to get through.

Edit: incidentally, my hub without the external antenna was *relatively close to the garage and I had several switches in the garage acting as repeaters as well - so the mesh *should have been good but I had the issues you're describing nonetheless.

Also, this annoyingly resulted in having to change the batteries in my transmitter every couple of weeks because it would get stuck in the "on" position (I have one of the secure "yellow button" openers, so have a modified transmitter for my automation).

Summary: I have a relatively strong suspicion that your problems are due to a sub-optimal connection between your relay and hub since I experienced the same behavior for a long time and upgrading to external antennas (either a C-8 or modified C-7) solved the problem entirely for me (rock solid now).

One thing I did to prevent there from being a issue was to connect my Zen17 so it wasn't between the button and the GD. Simply put the Zen17 acts like a second button instead of sitting in between. I did this to prevent the potential issue you are seeing where a Zen 17 issue means i can't open or close the garage door.

I noticed early on that my Zen17 would get out of sync if i changed states rapidly. That may be related. I haven't had that problem tough with my GD though. I have a Zooz Tilt/Shock sensor that i use to know if the GD is open or closed. Sometimes it gets stuck in the wrong state, but i suspect it is related to getting to the hub as the previous poster mentioned.