Zwave communication issues

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#1

Been using my c7 for a about six months in my new home. I’ve been running into issues fairly consistently when it comes to the zwave devices. It seems as though the hub starts having issues after a while, and a reboot seems to fix it. I’m at about a once a week cadence.

After a bit, controlling a device stops working. Send on/off commands to a switch (to be fair are fairly distant) and the devices never respond. When this starts happening though, when troubleshooting, even the ones that are closer (two feet) will often have a significant delay or also not respond - like the zwave stack is blocked until it finishes with the previous command.

Zwave repair doesn’t seem to help either.

I’m also surprised that I don’t see more of a “device isn’t responding” error, state, log, whatever when this happens.

I have a second hub for my pool house that I tried to restore a back up to in order to determine if it’s a bum hub, but seems as though zwave pairing is tied to that physical device - and unless I know that it’s the hub, the desire to re-pair a bunch of devices is non existent.

Any ideas?

#2

Good starting point is usually the ZWave Details. If you can post the a few screen shots of those pages we can take a look to see if there is anything obvious that may be an issue.

#3

Yes please. Post your z-wave details page.

#4

You betcha.

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Logs are empty.

The main problem child is "hot water recirculator" with more problems with "path lights" and "mud room lights". recirculator and lights are built in zwave switches, path lights is an aeotec smart switch 7.

#5

Good news is that I don't see any ghosts or partial pairings, and direct connections for most devices. Path lights are struggling (9.6kbps). Might consider pairing without security and maybe a repeater or two for them. Several devices at 40kbps which depending on the age of the device, might be the top of their speed. The recirculator only sees 2 neighbors and is at 40kbps, so again maybe a repeater would help.

#6

Looks like that details page was after a fresh reboot. There is some more useful stats that populate after the hub runs for a while. Post again after 24hrs.

#7

What platform version are you in? Is your z-wave stack up to date?

#8

Its not, I see the Update button!
@theschwartz Need to click this button and update the zwave

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#9

just to clarify for other users (and myself) what does the z-wave "firmware update" button actually update (the HE unit, devices on the network, etc?). And, does some of this happen anyhow when the HE OS gets a firmware update?

#10

If there is an update to the z-wave radio available, this will install it. Has nothing to do with device firmware updates,

No. The z-wave firmware updates are usually fairly few and far between. They do get sent down with a platform update every once in a while but not installed. If there is one available, the firmware update button will appear. If there is no button visible, you're on the latest.

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#11

thanks, @brad5 learnt something new today!
Is it recommended to update if there is an update available or only if there are issues?
ie, take the "if it aint broke, dont fix it" approach.

#12

It's a serious bug fix. It is recommended to update it

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#13

It is broke, fix it :slight_smile:

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#14

Perhaps I should have said :

England expects that every man will do his duty,

#15

I thought I had updated it before- but if that button is only there if an update is available - well, update now in progress. Yes, this was after a fresh reboot - I'll post updates in a week depending on how this week goes.

Re: repeater - layout roughly looks like:
-20ft--6ft--20ft--15ft--2ft-

The recirculator and mister switches should be repeating, and my understanding of the NIE (minoston outlets) should also be acting as repeaters.

#16

If they are acting as repeaters you will see that in your z-wave details page. Not if they should be, but if they are.

#17

Sort of... the route shown is not always up to the minute accurate. I gave up trying to understand the logic of Z-wave routing. It does whatever it wants.

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#18

Good point.

#19

Sorry- That was a general statement rather than a reference to the OP.
Allow me to rephrase- should the user who has no issues but sees an option to upgrade still do so?

#20

For these particular Z-Wave updates, YES. Even if you don't think there are issues, there are, and it will be better after updating.

Also there is that update button just begging to be pushed.

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Download the Hubitat app