I ended up resetting the z-stick and adding everything in the correct way. I was able to add in all my GE switches/dimmers securely (at least it says secured=“true” in the zwcfg_*.xml) and everything is working great.
The process was a little tedious but now I know the right way to add in devices.
Thanks again everyone for all the help.
So I’ve started noticing dead z-wave nodes since I’ve switched over to pairing with OZW/HA vs using the button on my z-stick.
The switches/dimmers will come back on the network if I turn them on and off or restart hass. I know a lot of people have had stability problems with z-wave and HA.
I had zero dead node issues when I was pairing everything with the z-stick unsecurely vs directly with HA (as a secure node). Could this be caused by being in secure mode vs unsecure or could it be something else?
I don’t think this would be a signal issue, even though my z-stick is in the basement I have 40+ z-wave plus powered switches dispersed throughout the house.
I’m open to any suggestions.
@will, are the devices that are dropping off the network the ones farthest away from the usb stick? Z-wave is interesting as (unless changed and nobody told me) a device won’t traverse more than 4 hops to the primary controller. So if you have devices that are widespread apart you may think everything is great because there’s like 20 other devices in between. Not the case as you only get 4 hops…
This 4 hop limitation is one thing that is driving ZigBee as it allows for more hops per single message. But then there’s using a primary/secondary or more setup with z-wave to overcome that hop limit.
It has been random, some have been further away and some have been extremely close. I’ve read about the 4 hop limit; is it possible to control if a device acts as a repeater?
Most if not all direct wired devices are also repeaters for the mesh, but the 4 hops is still valid to a controller. I really wish I had a mesh diagram… someone on here will pull one up 
That is one of the purposes of doing a z-wave “repair”. It causes all of the nodes to ask who their neighbors are and they rebuild their routing table (for lack of better terminology) to optimize messages back to the controller. Ideally things will get sorted out and just work. But a mesh repair should be done after adding any new devices and the larger the network becomes the longer the repair will take for the nodes to all negotiate their best route.
The aeon labs Nano dimmer is a good replacement - works with both 2 and 3 wire installs (20 and 30 watts minimum load). Just ask for the latest firmware from aeon to get rid of some minor bugs.
Possibly. Secure increases the amount of traffic on the mesh, see the document I linked to before. If you can ditch that non Plus dimmer that may also solve the problem.
I came across this while doing research this morning:
Out of my 40+ switches I had to get two non-plus ones because of the location or other limiting factors.
I’m going to try adding the switches back in with non-secure mode and see if I get better stability.
@will, I understand the “no-neutral” problem. I had a few of those myself which is why I also ended up with Lutron Caseta for some switches. But I really do like the Caseta system… very fast and the switches are nice looking… but anyways…
Yeah that diagram shows how things mesh out…
I’m curious about the Leviton requirement… Are the LED lights battery operated? Anyways, that’s another topic. However according to the specs the Leviton is z-wave plus and does support security.
Great script if you are using hass for your z-wave. I’m not so it doesn’t have the z-wave info.
I looked into the line but I didn’t like the physical switch look. I wish Lutron had released a simpler dimmer, more inline with their Maestro dimmer. I’ve always liked Lutron dimmers and it sounds like Caseta is much more reliable than z-wave.
The LED lights are hardwired to a transformer in the basement. Other dimmers, like my GE ones, caused a high-pitched sound so I had to use a ELV dimmer. The only z-wave ELV dimmer I could find was the Leviton.
Pi’s are pretty easy to ignore. Have you thought about moving it upstairs where it is a bit closer to your devices? At least to test it out.
That is a good suggestion - however, I’m not using a Pi, I’m running HA in a VM on a very large and heavy server (it has 19 hard drives and is huge).
However, I actually don’t think location is the issue; I believe it is software based. So I ended up going back to pairing my z-wave devices with the Z-stick directly and everything is in HA and it works great with no dead nodes. I tried pairing securely and regularly within HA and I kept getting dead nodes and instability.
I’m not sure why pairing directly with HA would cause an issue, perhaps it is because when you pair with the Z-stick HA can’t probe for features each time - maybe this checking for features can causes nodes to be reported dead or perhaps my nodes are still dying but HA just can’t read the status when it is paired through the z-stick.
But everything appears to be working and the response rate is very fast so I’m going to keep it as is and wait and see.
As a side note, I think the Z-stick supports network keys, if you use the backup software for the z-stick you can enable and set a key. I didn’t test this out though and I read on a domoticz forum that someone couldn’t get it to work. So for now I’m fine with having a stable network and non-secure communication for my light switches.
You just have to get more creative with a larger server. Creative decorating and convincing any significant other you have that it is a coffee table/recirculating fan is the key 
It’s my space heater…
In my old office reception area, I had two huge 7 U server cases lying on their sides with a glass table top. Everyone loved it.
If I already have devices paired, can I add a network key to my config or do I have to repair my devices again.
My understanding is, as long as the devices were paired unsecurely, you can add/change your network key and it shouldn’t affect your unsecured paired devices.
Thanks.
I actually successfully added a network key and secured device and its all working fine.