It worked for my simple case of removing an unremovable ghost node using PC controller, and I believe that it would work for joining an S0 only device as no security to Hubitat. I don’t use it for development of an automation system, and I don’t use it as a radio for HA. I also believe, if firmware were an issue, that I could flash it for use as a zniffer. As they say, works for me. At less than $20.00, it’s not one of my biggest concerns in life.
I am experienced EE designing myself complex FPGAs with Embedded Processors.
I guess, updating any firmware should not be a problem if this does not require
any soldering like for updating ESPs. I do have a soldering iron handy and a lot of
experience with soldering. But these days I am to...o lazy to do this unless this
is absolutely a must.
Remember that there can be two types of noise: environmental noise due to things over which you have little or no control such as lightning in the area. The other noise is man-made.
Z-wave should not be subject to quite as much noise as Zigbee which has to compete with WiFi, Blutooth, and microwave oven signals in the same frequency band. However, depending upon where you live, there may be other devices in the same frequency range. Some LED light bulbs put out a lot of RF noise as do some fluorescent ballasts.
Placement of devices can have a huge affect on signal strength. I recently had a ZOOZ Z-wave multi-relay drop off the mesh, even though it was supposed to be serving a one of my repeaters as well since it is always powered. I found that moving it just a few feet from its original location made a big difference in signal strength. Sometime moving your hub or repeaters just a few feet can make a difference in your mesh.
If you have specific devices with low signal strength compared to the noise level, you might turn off some other devices nearby and see if the noise level drops. You might be surprised at what you find. You can even turn off all your mains power and run your hub and repeaters off battery power such as UPS devices and see what that does to your background noise.
About two years ago I moved from Newton, MA to Sunny Isles, FL.
In Newton I had a house but in Florida it is big apartment complex.
In Newton I was using Insteon with ISY994i hub very successfully.
But this days Insteon is almost dead and devices are very expensive.
I was looking for the alternative and I am very happy I found non-cloud
based Hubitat Elevation non cloud based hub. Bingo!
Then thinking about which devices should be primary I leaned toward
ZWave vs Zigbee because as you mentioned 2.4GHz spectrum is very
crowed (I can see around 30+ WiFi routers in my apartment).
But in reality things happens to be opposite.
I do have plenty of Zigbee devices (mostly sensors) and never had any
single problem with any Zigbee device.
From the other side ZWave gives me enormous headache specifically
after my move from C-5 to C-7. I was hopping for the improvements
but got a disaster. I will try to stick few repeaters around and if this
will not help I am almost ready to re-incarnate my C-5 hub.
Also I ordered few two Z-Sticks. SiLab one will be converted into Zniffer.
I really want to figure out why ZWave is very unhappy.
Zigbee radios are pretty robust by design. The modulation technique (direct sequence spread spectrum) encodes a redundant bit pattern with each transmitted data bit, making it more likely that a frame can be recovered in the presence of interference. Its higher data rate (250kbps, 2.5X that of Z-Wave at its fastest rate) also reduces its channel occupancy time, decreasing the opportunity for collisions with other transmitters.
Many white papers (courtesy of the Zigbee Alliance) highlight the techniques used to mitigiate coexistence problem. This one is old but a good read (the marketers pulled out all the stops): https://www.trane.com/content/dam/Trane/Commercial/global/controls/building-mgmt/Air-Fi/ZigBee%20Wireless%20Whitepaper.pdf
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Nothing needs to be soldered.
SiLabs Z-Wave PC Controller and the FW file from SiLabs.
Usually comes with the SDK when you download everything.
When you get it, start a thread here and one of us can walk you through the process.
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I agree. I have far less difficulty with my Zigbee mesh than I do with my Z-wave mesh. It seems one or more Z-wave devices is dropping off line at any given time.
The only Zigbee devices I had a problem with were those by Aqara, but they are not standard Zigbee. However, now that I changed out all my Zigbee repeaters to Zigbee 3.0 plugs, even the Aqara devices are behaving nicely.
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I know this.
My comment was - if I have to do some soldering I can do it.
SiLab account already created and all required SW downloaded.
I am waiting for the SiLab Z-Stick delivery.
SiLab Z-Stick will be permanently converted to the Zniffer.
I already got Aoentec Gen5 (ZW090-A) Z-Stick.
This one I will leave "as is".
Now I am learning what will be the best way to use it
by searching forum, Google, etc.
Any advices will be more than very welcome.
Another interesting observation on my ZWave network.
I can talk to the device from the device control page almost 100% reliably.
But when I do individual ZWave repair for the same device the repair
usually fails. Going back to the device control page and it works.
So, what this is about?
How can I trust ZWave Repair function/algorithm?
I wonder if the "individual node repair" is the same as the "update neighbors" in the PC Controller sw?
I thought the commands on the "Z-Wave Details" page are just direct calls to the Chipset API but maybe there is some extra goodness thrown in dunno.
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No, it's not.
Update Neighbors is just the Controller asking a specific device to report its list of neighbors. The PC Controller just uses that to display it for you.
Individual Node Repair would begin with an Update Neighbor from the device.. but then it does many somethings with the response. It's trying to build an interconnection map between the hub and the device (routing table) and then as needed, distribute fragments of the table.
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Ah okay so informational only thanks!
Is there a way to do a single node repair in the PC Controller SW?
edit: although reading your post more thoroughly, likely the process while possible might be a little more complicated than I would want to attempt...
edit2: I guess my REAL wish would be to be able to alter the route for a particular node - yes I know there be dragons there etc etc... but still... 
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I believe it would be temporary at best.
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Yeah because you'd have to convince the controller to change it's table? That's not something I want to even contemplate doing I guess.
Z-Wave protocol has provisions for an "application priority route" that would allow the hub to override the LWR with whatever route it wants, but AFAIK Hubitat doesn't use this feature.
I'm not sure either. I've asked about APRs before, but don't remember getting a definite answer.
A bit out of topic.
I was cleaning my mesh by re-pairing Fibaro ZW5 sensors without security.
I was using PC Controller + ZStic.
Goal was almost achieved - the device now is paired without security
but somehow I ended up with ghost device and this one is not visible
by PC Controller. How do I refresh the PC Controller or how else to get
rid from this ghost?
Hub ZWave Details
PC Controller device list - 104 ghost device is not on a list.
Try shutting down hub cleanly (Settings, Shutdown) to red light, remove hub power at wall, not at fragile micro USB, power up after 30 seconds. That may do it because it reboots Z-Wave radio. If it doesn’t, remove power to the next highest node 0x69 (105)), hit refresh a few times on ghost until the ghost shows failed, then you should be able to remove it. The node will not show failed as long as hub can ping it.
Finally I did all what was planned.
I hope, now my ZWave network is finally clean and healthy:
- No ghost devices;
- No devices with any security (except for the Aeotec 7 repeater with S2 security);
- All switches are repeaters and now basically all outlets populated with ZWave Plus
outlets/dimmers even those I don't need to control.
Let me see how it will go now.
During this journey the ZStick itself became ether the device I was trying to add
or ghost. It was not easy to cleanup this mess.
What do I do with the ZStick itself?
This is Aeotec Gen5 with built-in battery.
Should I:
- unpair it from the hub
(occasionally I may need it again so, it should be paired back when needed); - leave it paired but powered with USB brick (looka like the best option, yes, no?);
- leave it in the PC USB port and shutdown the PC Controller;
- leave it in the PC USB port with the PC Controller running
(this is least desirable option);
Few Conditions sections in RM ended up with some sort of garbage due to
few devices were unpaired and re-paired back.
Something like this:
The FALSE on the third line is unremovable.
I hope, it is benign but better to be cleaned.
Any idea how to clean it or should I ask this question in a separate thread?
this
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