FIBARO Wall Plug/Z-Wave Plus Wireless Smart Socket Type G FGWPG-111

Hardware
1

After extensive searching for a Z Wave Plus, S2 enabled “smart plug” for UK use (Type G) with energy monitoring; this Fibaro item was the only one that ticked all of the boxes. The additional benefit of a mains powered device as a range extender/repeater was also a major plus.
Purchased from AMZN UK.

This is a general observation of my experience so far, and I am curious as to other users experiences.

First Pairing:

  1. All seemed to go okay (HAOS Pi 4 and Aerotec Z-Stick 7)
  2. First concern: noted that the manual on/off button seemed to be dead but I later found that it seemed to need a very quick momentary click - not a lazy push and release! Obviously a much longer push triggers other functions.
  3. Placed it in its desired location to power a standard lamp and set up an automation to turn on 30mins before sunset and then off at 23:30.
  4. It turned on as expected, but was still on the next morning around 08:00
  5. Checked everything and automation failed as device “unavailable”.
  6. Checked history (node status) and it simply dropped off the network for long periods.
    It was also misreporting status in dashboard “on” when it was “off” and vice versa etc.
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    The “z wave range utility” on the unit was showing a direct connection to the controller from its location.

I was almost ready to return it as believed it to be faulty. But of course still followed the “if at first…” mantra…

Second Pairing:

  1. Excluded it from the controller
  2. Performed a full factory reset
  3. Re-included (with the unit close to the controller as before)
  4. All proceeded successfully and reporting “Highest security: S2 Authenticated”
  5. And here we are after nearly 24 hours:
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So :crossed_fingers: !

Observation:
What was different about second pairing:

  1. So this unit is not SmartStart enabled as the QR Code on the rear is not the full numeric pairing key sequence you would see when scanning a SmartStart QR
  2. I think on first pairing I physically entered the full pairing key printed on the rear of the unit into the QR Code field in HA. It seemed to work as reported pairing successful.
  3. BUT on second pairing, I used the manual pairing > Secure If Available > S2
  4. Then entered the first 5 numbers when prompted for PIN

Hopefully my initial out of the box experience was down to a RTFM moment! But on googling further about this unit, it does throw up quite a few forum posts going back over time regarding the same issues of random and sporadic “disappearance” of these from the Z Wave network…

My Aeotec Smart Switch 6 on the other hand has never missed a beat… but has no S2 capability.