I have z-wave lock that seems to randomly become unavailable. Based on what I have read, the first step is testing layer 1 i.e. signal integrity. Using the Z Wave JS UI I ran the diagnose function and got these test results. I understand the low score is based on the high latency values. I also understand that high latency with battery operated devices such as locks is typical. What I would like further information on is the “Min Power Level w/o errors”. Are these levels indicative of a poor signal? I cannot find any reference documentation for these values. Any comments are appreciated. Thank you.
Click the blue question mark and it tells you what they mean.
Okay let me put a finer point on the question.
What levels are good/bad/okay/expected?
What levels indicate that the device is too far from its neighbor?
My question was specifically about the values.
The missing part of your screenshot says:
Lower = better, ideally -6dBm or less. Only available if the (source) node supports Powerlevel CC
So I would say -2 is not that great. The lower the level that is successful, the stronger connection to the controller. The test is lowering the powerlevel of the end device -1 dBm from the default (normal) until it starts to fail.
Here’s an example from a device in my garage, which goes through two walls including the garage wall.
What controller do you have? Seems you’re missing some statistics, which might only be available with newer controllers, or perhaps the device doesn’t report it (but I think it’s the controller statistics).
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0157GOEA8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Nortek QuickStick Combo, HUSBZB-1
The shipped firmware of that controller is very old, so it doesn’t provide any detailed routing statistics. You can upgrade it though to get better support. Otherwise, looks like you won’t get much more information than what is shown.
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The controller and the lock are on different floors of a two story home. The signal is going through the floor and more than one wall. A straight line distance of approximately 40-50 ft.
Probably easier to buy a new one. What controller has more up to date firmware?
Yeah, that kind of distance and interference could be an issue, locks seem to be much more sensitive than other devices. An 800 controller could have better range, but I can’t say it would drastically improve things.
You could experiment by moving the controller close to the lock to see if the distance is the factor (probably is). Also could try adding in repeaters, it’s not taking advantage of any at least.
Latency should not be that high normally, depending on the design the lock will wake every 250ms or 1000ms, so only the first test will have poor latency (~250ms or ~1 sec, then it will stay awake during the iterations).
The Zooz 800s are probably the most popular ones at this time. There might be others, but I’m not familiar/they aren’t popular.
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This is a new installation and there is no other nodes yet. I was just wanting to get a reference for this controller and this lock. I have another location where there are 16 of these locks. I will be putting in HA to replace WINK (yes, Wink). Before I do that install I want to make sure I have a controller that works well with that specific brand of lock, Schlage. I will install a repeater node here in this setup to see what the impact is.
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Honesty 40-50 ft through floors without repeaters is probably stretching what is possible. Yes spec says 100, but there’s a reason I use 25’ as my ACTUAL planned distance between powered repeating nodes. I’d bet with more repeating nodes you’re fine.
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@NathanCu @freshcoast
I added a z-wave Leviton Plug-In Outlet to act as a repeater placed between my controller and the door lock. I used the Z-Wave JS UI feature requesting the network be re-built. The process completed with no errors, however the lock did not take advantage of the new node. How can I get the lock to take advantage of it’s new friend?
You can try healing that node specifically. You may need to wake it up. Sometimes these things are slow to correct. As if the current route is working, it may not switch to a better route. It also seems to take time - like a day.
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You can actually setup static routes in Z-Wave JS UI. Its generally not recommended to setup static routes unless its to make a device talk directly to the controller, but I have had success when setting them up in my network.
All you have to do is go to the node map and click on the node you want to setup routes for. You should see a node properties window open. If you scroll to the bottom you can setup two types of routes.
- Priority Route - a route that the controller uses to talk to an end node
- Return Route - a route that an end node uses to talk to the controller
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