Pulling my hair out with Zwave

Configuration
1

I picked up a aeotec Zwave usb hub and a ge door sensor.

Other have reported it working fine and I have set mine up and have it is reporting as expected. However it will only report for a few minutes then nada. If I restart my HA instance it will report again for a few minutes.

All the details of my setup are here:
https://github.com/SilvrrGIT/HomeAssistant

Troubleshooting steps:

  • Tried the different modes of the sensor. No change
  • Tried reseting both sensors (multiple times) back to factory and redoing the setup. No change
  • Paired through HA zwave panel and through discconnecting the USB hub and manually pairing. No change
  • Range is not an issue. Tried at the door and sitting 2 feet from the USB hub. No change.
  • Tried setting the polling intensity to 1. No change.

The sensor continues to flash its light when tripped. The Zwave USB continues to cycle through colors and show its connected. Running dmesg | grep USB shows no change in the USB config (is also steady through restarts)

Im about to give up on zwave again. I tried it once before and I think I just have bad luck or something. For the record I had the same thing happen last time, sensor would report and then stop.

For anyone so inclined here is my zwave config
https://hastebin.com/qohubewupa.xml

2

I don’t know what you see or what you are expecting, so please excuse my reply. Battery devices go to sleep. They only wake up the radio when tripped. Since battery devices sleep most of the time they can’t provide relaying. Zwave really benefits from more devices (powered) and becomes more reliable.

3

I would expect any sensor to report consistently. The sensor always reports sleeping but works for the first minute or two, then either the sensor stops reporting or the zwave hub stops working. Not sure where else to troubleshoot.

4

@silvrr

I had a similar problem with a tilt sensor out in my detached garage.

Once I installed a zwave switch (has repeating function because it is powered) in the room closest to the garage ~40ft from tilt sensor on garage door it began working and has worked flawlessly ever since.

I have found that having a plug in repeater can quickly help diagnosing range as an issue as opposed to a setting issue, etc.

I have had great success with my zwave system running on pi and stick.

note: Basically battery powered = no repeater

5

@ptp, I dont think its a range issue, I have the same issue at 3ft and 30ft.

6

Cool. Did you try changing the polling intensity?

light.linear_lb60z1_dimmable_led_light_bulb_level:
  ignored: false
  polling_intensity: 1
  refresh_value: true
7

Tried setting the polling intensity to 1. No change.

8

Again not knowing what you saw. I would tail -f OZW_Log.txt an see what openzwave reports as you operate the sensor.

9

In the OZWCP is there a Reporting parameter for the device? If so what is it set to?

10

In the first few min the log updates with each sensor trip. Then it just stops. No more updates. No errors in the HA log either.

11

Haven’t setup OZWCP, the zwave xml file is posted above if that helps. Should have all the same info OZWCP has.

12

I would try looking at the syslog file in /var/log
Use a simple grep error /var/log/syslog
If nothing jumps out then try zwave
What install method do you use?

13

I’ll check the logs tonight see what pops up.

Installed via the virtualenv docs.

14

I went to your github link and see you have 2 installs. One virtual and on a Pi. If this is the virtual one you are having issues with, you might also want to check logs on the ESXi server as well as the VM logs in the HA VM folder. If you haven’t already, you can redirect the ESXi server logs to permanent storage (Local or NAS) since they are blown away after a restart and they are much easier to get to when you need to track down problems.

15

Thanks for the continued troubleshooting options.

I was thinking of trying restoring the hub and sensor to factory defaults and then try both on the pi instance. See if it is something in the virtual instance causing the issue.

16

I think HA works well on the Pi but, every time I have to rebuild the Pi I think I really should set it up virtually. So easy to back up a complete bootable image in a few minutes.

Another thing to try is a different USB port but if you are going to move it to the Pi, maybe no need to extend the agonies.
If you already have the device paired, it should just work when transferred to the Pi. Just add the zwave lines to your config and install openzwave if needed. It may auto install???

17

I have tried different USB ports, should have mentioned that.

I was thinking of starting fresh on the hub and sensor just so nothing gets carried over that could hamper the Pi operation. Both can be restored to defaults in about a minute so not a time consuming task. If the Pi instance doesn’t work I may run out and pick up a powered Zwave switch and see how it behaves. If it drops to after a few minutes it would point me to the USB hub, if it works fine, I think the door sensor would be going back.

Lots of options to try tonight, thanks, Ill report back with the outcome.

18

Hope it goes better than it has. I have really liked z-wave, but it took adding a few powered devices before it became really reliable. When you are looking for devices, lean towards z-wave plus if you have the choice. Don’t give up!

19

Well looks like its an issue with my server or the virtual instance. Set things up on the Pi and working nicely.

Thanks for the help zarthan.

20

Glad you got it figured out.
Every time I have to rebuild a Pi instance of HA I think, why don’t you just spin up a VM and be done with it. So maybe not.
It would be interesting to know why it failed. I have a spare zwave stick so I may give it a try. I have some zwave things coming so I will have some things to test with. What version of ESXi? Did you need any community drivers to get it running on the Dell?