New to HA - having z-wave issues

Configuration Z-Wave
1

Hi all. I am new to HA and trying to configure a system to eventually replace my Homeseer setup. Been on Homeseer since the 2002. I use a Z-Net G3 controller that is on SDK 7.20.0. I use the JS UI add-on with the Z-wave plugin for HA. My HA is installed using basics/defaults on an Intel NUC - nothing special going on there. I am using the network that is already configured on my Z-Net (so that I do not need to rebuild the z-wave network).

I have a large z-wave network - about 65 individual devices consisting of lights, switches, locks, motion sensors, scene controllers, leak detectors, valve, etc. One of the things that I do with automations is press a button when I go to bed that turns off all the lights in the house, as well as many other things. This automation does not complete execution in HA and seems to be getting stuck and bombing out when executing the z-wave commands. To troubleshoot, I created a script that does nothing else than turn off lights (leaving out all the other steps and only interacting with z-wave devices). There are about 25 devices that get turned off one after the other. When executing this script, I can never get it to complete. It sometimes gets farther than others, but never completes. The errors received are never the same, but here are examples of two of them:

Logger: zwave_js_server.server
Source: components/zwave_js/init.py:935
First occurred: 1:33:13 PM (118 occurrences)
Last logged: 2:52:27 PM

2024-12-30T22:52:23.292Z: 2024-12-30T22:52:23.292Z CNTRLR The controller is jammed
2024-12-30T22:52:24.353Z: 2024-12-30T22:52:24.353Z CNTRLR The controller is no longer jammed
2024-12-30T22:52:24.806Z: 2024-12-30T22:52:24.806Z CNTRLR The controller is jammed
2024-12-30T22:52:25.833Z: 2024-12-30T22:52:25.833Z CNTRLR The controller is no longer jammed
2024-12-30T22:52:27.810Z: 2024-12-30T22:52:27.810Z CNTRLR Failed to execute controller command after 1/3 attempts. Scheduling next try in 100 ms.

AND

Logger: homeassistant.components.script.all_lights_off
Source: helpers/script.py:2032
integration: Script (documentation, issues)
First occurred: 2:47:10 PM (1 occurrences)
Last logged: 2:47:10 PM

All Lights Off: Error executing script. Error for device at pos 12: Unable to set value 15-38-0-targetValue: zwave_error: Z-Wave error 204 - The node did not acknowledge the command (ZW0204)

When running the script again, new errors seem to pop up and the devices that complained before turn off fine. I do believe that I read that there are issues with the z-wave sdk on my Z-Net (7.20.0). And when controlling devices manually via a dashboard in HA, things seem to work fine (it is just the script that executes many z-wave commands that causes challenges). However, with the same z-net controller the z-wave network works fine with Homeseer. That is my biggest confusion - these same commands run fine with Homeseer. Maybe the implementation there is more fault tolerant? FOr additional troubleshooting, I have also ordered a SmartStick G8 that I will configure and try when it arrives.

In any case, I cannot convert over to HA until I get the z-wave commands executing reliably. Any comments or input on what I may or may not be doing right would be most appreciated. As I said, I am very new to this and don’t really know how to continue.

Thank you!

2

v7.20.0 is a known bad firmware. v7.21+ (or even older 7.18) is a must for the 700-series IMO. I am including a link to the HS forums, but based on your username it appears you already found it. HS forums are probably your best bet for support for this device.

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/homeseer-products-services/homeseer-z-wave-products/smartstick/1693077-smartstick-g3-700-series-firmware-update-to-sdk-7-21-5

Otherwise, make sure you don’t have any devices reporting too much that could lock up the controller. https://zwave-js.github.io/node-zwave-js/#/troubleshooting/first-steps?id=reduce-reports-from-the-network.

1 Like
3

I had problems trying to control many lights with z-wave for years and my solution has two parts: 1) do them in groups with an explicit delay between them and 2) use zwave broadcast commands to target multiple devices with one command.
-David

4

Indeed - thank you! They did remove the update to 7.21.5 last month, so I am stuck on 7.20.0 for now unfortunately. When I get the SmartStick G8 I’ll experiment a bit though. And… good advice on reports as I do have a number of devices with energy monitoring. Thank you for the link, that will help I think!

5

Ah… interesting idea! I did not know that existed but just looked up how to so it and pretty straight forward. At least, the AI response from a Google search makes it seem so ;-).

I found some tips in AI with a search, but they are really off… so will take steps to figure out the process.

6

Save yourself some time and skip the garbage AI advice. There’s no such thing as a “group” feature for the Z-Wave integration.

Consult the Z-Wave docs for how to use the multicast action. As of now there’s no easy and automatic way of doing this in HA. https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zwave_js/#action-zwave_jsmulticast_set_value

Here’s another topic with a helper script for doing multicast: Zwave JS Multicast Area Lights & Switches

Latest version of the script is https://github.com/Petro31/home-assistant-config/blob/cf2d6677e05db344220cb0f8316d354cedbfce63/scripts/zwave_js.yaml.

7

Awesome again - thank you! AI is rarely right, and does lead down some funky roads, but it can point in a conceptual direction at least. I appreciate the links!

8

Keep in mind that multicast requires that all devices support the same command on the same endpoint and cannot be encrypted. So if you have a dual switch and a dimmer, you can’t turn them all on since they use different commands and the dual switches have one endpoint for each switch.

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