Connecting GE In-Wall Smart Dimmers to HA via SiLabs UZB-7 and Z-Wave JS UI?

After running a Hubitat Z-wave system just fine for years, I made the choice to move entirely to Home Assistant Yellow with a Silicon Labs UZB-7 Z-wave USB stick. But after pairing other Z-Wave sensors successfully, I can not get 3 GE Z-wave In-wall Smart Dimmers (12724) to connect to Z-Wave JS UI.

Details:
Before winding down the Hubitat, I excluded each of the existing Z-wave devices, incl. the GE dimmer switches, from the Hubitat Z-wave system.

I have a Silicon Labs UZB-7 Z-Wave usb stick (firmware: 7.19.2) plugged into a Home Assistant Yellow (HA 2023.3.6, Supervisor 2023.03.2, OS 9.5, Frontend 20230309.1 - es5) running Z-Wave JS UI 8.11.1 (Z-Wave JS: 10.12.0). I’m in the US region, and I have a 3-foot USB extension cord used to keep the UZB-7 stick away from interference and any metal.

After 2 weeks, I was finally able to successfully connect the series of Z-Wave door and motion sensors I had, but have yet to get the GE dimmers to be included. I have repeatedly attempted to get the switches into inclusion mode (factory resetting, pulling the air gap switch, quickly tapping On button 10 times, tapping On button quickly 3 times immed. followed by tapping the Off button quickly 3 times, tapping the switch either On/Off when attempting to include, tapping the switch On then Off when attempting to include, and all other instructions I could find so far). However, nothing has worked.

Are there any detailed repeatable instructions anyone has found that conclusively worked for these switches to get them connected to Z-Wave JS UI in Home Assistant?

For the GEs it is very model dependent. What model number?

Also try excluding them again just for grins and giggles just to ensure they are excluded properly. I had one I had to exclude a couple of times before it ‘actually’ excluded.

Once you do that you might try watching the debug log in a separate window while the include happens to see if ZwJS is seeing the inclusion attempt at all…

Hi Nathan… thanks for your reply. The model number is listed as JAS12724 - GE 12724 Z-Wave In-Wall CFL-LED Dimmer Switch.

I should have added that yes, I’ve tried exclusion mode dozens of times too to make sure they’re really not connected to anything.

I will try the JzJS UI log concurrently, but do note that when putting it in inclusion mode before I was able to successfully add 5 other door and motion sensors just fine, so it seems like it is working other than for these dimmer switches. But will still give it a shot just in case there’s other info to capture from that, too.

Thanks again!

The 12xxx are the older pre ZWave plus ones that may be one difference.

The debug log will be helpful in determining a - signal issue v. Communication issue (does it see an attempt at all v. Does it error and quit)

The 12xxx also run slower, you may have to turn on the option in the zwavejs UI console to use thee longer timeout (can’t remember exact text but it’s in the bottom rt of the ZWave section of settings in ZwJSUI)

Maybe try using the Z-Wave PC Controller in Simplicity Studio. This program is made by the people who own the Z-Wave protocol so you should be able to include it with that program. Once your device is included you can switch back to Z-Wave JS UI and use it like normal.

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Cornell, that worked! I’m on a Mac, so loaded up Win11 in UTM, unplugged UZB-7 stick from HA Yellow and into my Mac, ran Simplicity Studio, and was able to add the 3 Dimmer Switches on first try for inclusion. Unplugged, plugged back into HA Yellow, loaded up ZWJSUI and there the 3 dimmer switches were. Thank you for that suggestion (it worked!), and thank you Nathan, too, for your several suggestions!

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