Zwave mesh goes down

[MajorEvent]

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My migration from SmartThings to Hubitat has come to a screeching halt, Last night my Z-wave mesh started having problems and this morning all nodes are unreachable and no automations are completing.

I was adding some door sensors yesterday and, if I'm not mistaken, I've ended up with a mess of ghost devices. Can someone confirm? Here's my Z-wave details

How do I get rid of these ghosts? Do I have to buy a USB Stick now?

[MajorEvent]

I was able to remove all but 1 ghost. Here's the Z-wave details:

Only the simple meter ghost still exists, IMO. I tried to remove it but it remains pending. Should I leave it that way or should I reboot the hub?

To remove the ghosts, I followed the following steps found by reading here.

1. Power down the hub for 1 minute.
2. Unplug and remove batteries from all devices that have ghosts associated.
3. Power up and go to the zwave details page (under settings).
4. Refresh each ghost device and, when the option to remove appears, remove it.

This worked for all but the simple meter ghost which is from an Aeotec Home Energy Monitor Gen5. It remains unplugged for now.

All Nodes are now reachable (except the Aeotec which is powered down).

Update: After powering on the disconnected devices the Zwave mesh again became unreachable so looks like one of the 4 devices that had ghosts has another issue. The intractable ghost is associated with the Aeotec HEM Gen5. I've removed power from those devices and recovered the mesh. I re-added one device that I believed was working okay and the mesh is still good. I'll wait till tomorrow to repower another device and try to isolate the culprit.

[Rxich]

Sometimes just waiting, will allow the hub to remove the ghost. For me it was 48-72 hours of waiting. If that doesn't work, the stick almost always does remove the ghosts. While you have a ghost I don't think it's ideal to pair more Z-wave devices.

[MajorEvent]

I'll give it some time and leave the aeotec unplugged. Should I just leave the ghost as pending? Should I keep trying the refresh & remove?

Update: Looks like the back door sensor has an issue. When it was reinstalled the mesh went down again. Still unable to remove the ghost.

[rlithgow1]

You still have several incomplete pairing besides the ghost. The ghost needs removed or you will just keep having problems. The ghost was cause by your HEM. Unplug power that. Shut down your hub from the settings menu. Unplug power from hub (not hub) for 5 mins and power hub back up. Now try removing the ghost (hit refresh on that line first). It should now remove. Once removed exclude those other devices with no routes and re pair them. Once that's all done, plug your HEM back in. If the ghost still can't be removed you will need a z-wave stick paired as a secondary controller and SiLabs controller software to remove it.

[MajorEvent]

@rlithgow1

If the ghost still can't be removed you will need a z-wave stick paired as a secondary controller and SiLabs controller software to remove it.

Followed your instructions (which were the same I was following except I only shut down for a minute or two). The HEM ghost is pending and did not remove. I ordered the Zooz 700 Series S2 ST10-700 for delivery tomorrow.

@rlithgow1

You still have several incomplete pairing besides the ghost.

It looks like only one other device without a path. Correct?

[rlithgow1]

Yeah, that looks to be about it...

[MajorEvent]

@rlithgow1 Here's the clean ZWave Details page:

Interestingly, the one that was lacking a route cured itself so did not need to be excluded and re-included. It's routing should improve with the addition of two of the last few devices I have yet to include. Everything looks good now, right? Ready to pair the last three devices, a Schlage lock, a Remotec thermostat and a GoControl Garage door opener.

I set up the PC Controller software from Silicon Labs and paired with the Zooz S2 stick using the Hubitat UZB Stick How-To PDF found elsewhere on these forums. The directions are getting a little stale but I was able to figure things out in spite of the differences and successfully linked with the HE hub and removed the ghost. During inclusion of the stick, even though HE said it detected the stick, I got a timeout but the stick was present in the ZWave Details when I checked and had a path and was responsive to the refresh so I continued. I removed the ghost using IsFailed and RemoveFailed in the PC Controller with no problems. Excluded the PC Controller and done.

My main issue now is presence detection which I have numerous issues with and have another thread ongoing. I tried Alexa for presence but while it's catching all the leaving, it catches none of the arrivals. Weird.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Side Note: The device that caused the zwave mesh failures has been re-introduced to the network successfully. I believe the problem was mechanical stress. When I installed it initially the cover wasn't going on easily so I believe the mounting bracket wasn't true flat and forcing the cover on must have been twisting the circuit board inside causing the failures. Remounting properly seems to have fixed the issue and it's working properly.

[rlithgow1]

Life 360 is probably your best bet. Personally I use combined presence app with my phone wifi and @iharyadi 's presence sensor. For me it's good for a few blocks. Your mesh looks a lot better and I bet performs a lot better now...