I installed a new deadbolt (Schlage BE469ZP) and in order to make the secure Zwave connection, had it about 6" from my HA/Zwave Dongle (It’s a PC with HA Supervised, with a Zwave USB stick, using ZWaveJSMQTT).
It was discovered with no issues and worked just fine.
THEN I installed it in my garage entry door. I have a detached garage over 50’ from my house - maybe 75’ ish from the HA PC. I have several other Zwave devices in my garage and they all work fine.
Once I installed the deadbolt, I tested it a few times and it worked. However, it keeps going “undetected”. The “graph/map” of my zwave network shows it connected to the HA PC. It does become functional occasionally - often after a HA Restart.
I can’t help but think that if it were connected to another garage device, or some other devices closer than the HA PC, it would stay connected. I’m not sure, though, if it’s possible with a secure device, as my other garage (and other) devices are just Zwave switches, not using a secure connection.
The deadbolt will not reconnect securely if I try to redo the connection to HA in its current location. I thought I could make it “forget” the connection to the HA PC and “find” a different connection in the garage but I don’t know how.
Correct. It still thinks it’s right next to the coordinator and it’s neighbors are out of range. ANd yeah the graph is barely more than a pretty picture. Great for dashboards.
Always try to include in place - only include next to the coordinator if you have a specific reason. One of those is trying to join a Schlage lock that uses S0 security (you can only do it within INCHES of the device, on purpose because the lock uses whisper mode in an attempt to keep the key exchange secret.)
If you have to do this, then you’ll need to heal the device to get it back in comms. Also you MAY need to move your coordinator to get it to work (remember the lock is now out of range of the coordinator, which the lock believes is it’s upstream neighbor.)
So first try ‘heal device’ (Don’t heal network pain ensues) If it doesn’t work, move your coordinator about halfway between where it is now and the lock and try to heal the device again. We have to heal with the device in place, so it knows about it’s REAL in range neighbors and when it gets the heal command it uses them. Try, move closer repeat until you get a good heal. When you do - put the coordinator back and heal AGAIN. (Will remove the coordinator from the parent list if it really shouldn’t be there.)
LOL I totally get the reasoning why this is necessary. And I’ll do my best - maybe put the stick on a long USB extension or something, or carry my PC downstairs or something.
This is kind of why I don’t think that HA on a PC is optimal, although it’s the way I was advised: I had a spare PC that NOTHING was on - so I used it with HA Supervised on Debian and that’s all I use it for. I wish I had gone with a Raspberry Pi and an external SDD.
Max spec is a couple meters on USB before interference and voltage drop starts making the stick stop talking to the PC.
Either use WiFi, or the Network cable to get the box over there.
I hear you on - Mine’s on a Pi4B 8G with an SSD. It’s a sight when I have the wife holding the Pi in her hand and the stick against the body of the lock while I operate the buttons and controls.
If it’s the S2 you may have luck PInging the lock to bring it back online (see the device page of the lock, if you’re using ZWaveJS or JS2mqtt you’ll see a ping button) If you can ping mit and bring it back heal will likely work.
You can see routes in the network map by clicking on a node, if the node provides that information. The graph diagram itself does not show routes, but that information is available.
Hey Fresh - all my locks are the old S0 - I thought they fixed that whisper join when they released the S2 versions and we didn’t need to join next to the lock anymore?
Ok wow, lots of new and good info for me here - this is great!
So I have, unused, an Aeotec Range Extender 6. I’m thinking I use it and discover it with HA, then move it to the garage and heal it so it’ll work out there. Then place it (on an extension cord) next to the deadbolt and redo the deadbolt. Thoughts? Will the secured stuff work?
