I purchased a Delaney ZWave deadbolt a couple weeks ago when it was on sale at Home Depot. I couldn’t find any reviews online but thought it would be worth a chance since it was a zwave device and not zigbee (thinking zwave should have fewer compatibility issues). Unfortunately, although I got the device to pair just fine, new batteries last only a week. I’ve had a Schlage lock for a couple years now and it’s been fine. The Delaney is slightly closer to the zwave light switch and aeotec USB stick than the Schlage is, so I figured it wasn’t a poor connection issue, but i haven’t verified that since i’m not sure how to check. I don’t see any RSSI or signal strength in HA.
I’m using new alkaline batteries and the deadbolt itself isn’t hard to close so it’s not like the motor should be using a lot of current to lock the door. I’m still on the older version of OZW, OpenZwave Version 1.4.3469. I ran a diff on the zwcfg file between the schlage and the delaney lines, and they are pretty similar but there are a handful of extra command classes for the Schalge. Maybe a little more interestingly, the Schlage reports newer versions of something (note the end of the lines with “value=6” vs 3)
Schlage
<CommandClass id="134" name="COMMAND_CLASS_VERSION" version="1" request_flags="4" issecured="true">
<Instance index="1" />
<Value type="string" genre="system" instance="1" index="0" label="Library Version" units="" read_only="true" write_only="false" verify_changes="false" poll_intensity="0" min="0" max="0" value="6" />
<Value type="string" genre="system" instance="1" index="1" label="Protocol Version" units="" read_only="true" write_only="false" verify_changes="false" poll_intensity="0" min="0" max="0" value="6.03" />
<Value type="string" genre="system" instance="1" index="2" label="Application Version" units="" read_only="true" write_only="false" verify_changes="false" poll_intensity="0" min="0" max="0" value="3.03" />
</CommandClass>
Delaney
<CommandClass id="134" name="COMMAND_CLASS_VERSION" version="1" request_flags="4" issecured="true">
<Instance index="1" />
<Value type="string" genre="system" instance="1" index="0" label="Library Version" units="" read_only="true" write_only="false" verify_changes="false" poll_intensity="0" min="0" max="0" value="3" />
<Value type="string" genre="system" instance="1" index="1" label="Protocol Version" units="" read_only="true" write_only="false" verify_changes="false" poll_intensity="0" min="0" max="0" value="4.61" />
<Value type="string" genre="system" instance="1" index="2" label="Application Version" units="" read_only="true" write_only="false" verify_changes="false" poll_intensity="0" min="0" max="0" value="1.02" />
</CommandClass>
I also verified the polling intensity is set to 0 everywhere, and I don’t see any polling in the log file.
So I called Delaney tech support. The first time they said they’d call back and they never did. When I called the second time they admitted their ticketing system had no way to see if the technician ever follows up, but this time the customer service rep called me back to tell me the tech said aeotec
“hubs” didn’t work with their device. I pushed back for a little more technical info and the technician told the customer service rep that it’s because the hub is polling their device too frequently. I offered to pull my log files and show that the polling wasn’t an issue or to look deeper into what was causing it, but they weren’t interested and just suggested I buy a wink hub since they sell those. They insisted their product was working properly, it’s my hub that is at fault not their product, despite my Schlage lock working properly. That’s all good and fine, and it may in fact be the aeotec stick at fault, but I have a hard time accepting such a non-technical answer when I have conflicting logs.
So my question to the community, what function does a zwave stick serve? As i understand it, the stick does not set the polling interval, that’s HA/OZW’s responsibility. Is that correct? I think the stick is responsible for the radio layer and maybe the network layer, but since I can control the polling intensity through OZW, i don’t think polling feature is part of those layers.
And my second question, a little more broad, does anyone have any suggestions on anything I can change to get better battery life out of this product, or should I just return it while I still can and buy another Schlage? I’m hesitant to update to Z-Wave JS since it still seems pretty new and my other zwave devices are working right now, but if there’s a chance it might improve things I could give it a go.