How to troubleshoot intermintant Z-Wave lag?

Configuration Z-Wave
1

I have a small Z-Wave network that I have been battling for some time now with intermittent lag. I have 4 Z-Wave devices, all hardwired Zooz switches.

  1. ZST193 LR (Zooz long range series 800 USB stick) FWv1.60
  2. ZEN76 FWv3.60.0
  3. ZEN77 FW4.70.0
  4. ZEN77 FW4.70.0

The ZEN76 switch will sometimes take over 15 seconds to respond to input, sometimes it won’t respond at all. 2 hours later it will be instant without me doing anything.

  • I have updated all the firmware
  • I have rebooted everything many times (this issue has been occurring for several months)
  • The routes in Z-Wave JS have shown several configurations, but no node is ever more than 2 hops to the controller. Generally the switch in question is ‘directly linked’ to the controller.

I am lost as to what to do to investigate. Everything I can see or read about shows good healthy connections, so I am not sure what to do next.

2

Device info page there is “statistics” available in [3dots] menu

Many Commands Dropped is bad sign
You can try rebuild routes in same menu to improve issue. If it continues you would need to consider next step based on speific conditions.

3

What would you consider next steps?

I have rebuilt the routes (and it has done it itself as well) many times.

4

Do you have the stick on an extension cable and well away from electronic equipment?

5

It is not on an extension. It is directly in the USB ports on the back of the server in my rack. I never really considered that as it wasn’t an issue for the first several months after I installed the switch that is acting up.

6

did you do the first part of what i suggested? what did you find?
After rebuild routes, are you have dropped/errors?

7

That’s one of the worst places for a Z-Wave controller. Resolve that first before you invest in anymore troubleshooting.

https://zwave-js.github.io/zwave-js/#/troubleshooting/first-steps

8

Yes, several times. Both manually by me initiating it and automatically by power loss or general Z-Wave re-configuration. With 3 devices there are not many options…

There are commands dropped, but that is expected right? That is the whole issue.

I will look into a USB extension. I looked high and low for an Ethernet based Z-Wave controller with PoE but nothing really exists. It is a bit of a shame unfortunately. Unless I get a 50’ extension I can’t see it making much difference.

9

That is the problem. RF interference decreases as a function of R^2. Get a 3’ and 6’ cable, or get a 3’ cable, a powered usb hub, and the add the 6’ for 9’ of seperation.

10

Zwa2 can be WiFi/ethernet/poe

11

Oh you live in a universe with a distance cubed rule?

That must be nice and quiet.

We have distance squared here (it is proportional to the wavefront surface area, not volume).