One other part of the “ritual”:
- if it’s difficult to get to the DSK codes, I just let HA continue without inputting anything; it will proceed to include the device with no security, but for most devices I don’t care
Thanks, but as you mention the “minimote” does not seem to be available anymore… not sure what a suitable replacement that’s still available for sale in the U.S. might be…
Do an “exclusing” of the failing device. Exclusion is also a reset of the device.
This is the first step to do with problems of Zwave devices.
Is this only available on desktop view? I don’t see this info from mobile even if I visit the device info directly. At least not that I can find.
Edit I am using ZWave JS addon
That’s only provided in the Zwave JS UI addon.
Can you explain what you mean by this? My problem isn’t that I have an already-included device that is struggling… rather I have a bunch of devices that I’d like to include that aren’t succeeding in inclusion. How do you even exclude a device that isn’t included yet?
(Or are you referring to the weird ghost “unknown” devices that occasionally appear? If so, how do you exclude an entry in your device list that you don’t even know what physical device it corresponds to? (Could be one of a dozen or more that are in my house but never included…))
Thanks!
Is that preferred? When I first set up HA I noticed the two addons and z-wave js ui was discouraged in forum posts and web search results; but now it seems to have an update.
Not preferred or otherwise and I’ve been using it for three years and have never seen it discouraged. It’s just a full UI on top of the engine. If you want the tools and extended info use JSUI or not your choice.
2 Likes
I don’t know who would have discouraged using zwave js ui. It gives you much more control over your mesh than Zwave JS addon.
1 Like
Thanks, do they both work together in concert? Or is it one or the other addon?
Addon. Find and read freshcoasts migration guide and FOLLOW IT TO THE LETTER
1 Like
You cannot use both. They will fight for your zstick if you try to have both installed at the same time.
If you want to migrate from one to the other, follow freshcoasts migration guide. Do not skip steps, if you do. You’ll end up in a situation where both addons fight for the stick.
1 Like
It was over a year ago so unfortunately I don’t have sources just a vague recollection. No worries I haven’t repeated the sentiment.
Thanks I saw NathanCu mention that as well. I’ll consider migrating. In the moment I plan to migrate across hardware but I will bookmark these posts.
@istapeter I don’t know what devices is failing. There are a number of devices awaiting inclusion (and no I cannot depower them as many are hardwired to mains – e.g., light switches on circuits with other things…) and I occasionally see a “ghost” entry in Zwave JS UI of “unknown product” from “unknown manufacturer” hanging on “protocolinfo”
You’re not crazy - I’ve had a terrible time including ZW devices since ZAC93 v1.50. Some devices work without a hitch (e.g. Somfy blinds, Zooz contact sensors), but Leviton devices are a challenge.
I have more than 100 ZW Leviton switches / dimmers in my house and the problem applies to all my 700 and 800 series devices. I’m running HA Yellow with 4 GB RAM.
I get the same problem with new switches straight out of the box, or with existing switches that drop from the network.
When I add a Leviton device, the inclusion process starts but times out with no apparent changes. This happens regardless of distance from device to controller.
Sometimes when I exclude the device to try again, I’m told the node was found and removed; this guided me to a work around.
After failing to add a node, I look in the device list and find a node that has stuck on the device interview; manually reinterviewing the node adds the device as expected, but the entity names are screwed up. I then rename all the entities (there is a way to rename all device entities at the same time rather than each manually). It may take a few cycles of exclude / include +/- factory reset to get the devices to be properly included in the ZW network.
SmartStart works with other devices, but not with Leviton - not sure if the issue is related.
Thanks @dlodge . Glad to hear I’m not the only one (though sorry for you that you’re experiencing this too…)
Z-wave really is flaky technology… It would be amazing if it actually worked as advertised but it definitely doesn’t.
Another update: It seems like the Z-wave controller dies after a couple of days.
After about 3-7 days of uptime, all Z-wave devices stop responding reliably and the ZWave-JS UI shows intermittent “controller unavailable” messages. This seems to be solved by a shutdown of the entire home assistant system and a hard power cycle of the Home Assistant yellow that is hosting it. So I have to remember to restart my Home Assistant every couple of days. (Seriously?!!)
It’s really “fun” to discover this by seeing all of the automations that failed to run… Definitely not a mature technology.
I had a similar experience several years ago. Seemed to be caused by a memory leak in some integration or addon I had put into my HA setup. I set up a simple automation that restarts HA every night at 3AM. I forgot it was there but lots of problems haven’t recurred since I put in that automation.
You keep ranting about zwave but you’re one of the few that are having these problems. I suggest you stop ranting and start asking for help. Many people run zwave without a problem, myself included. Just because you have having problems doesn’t mean all of zwave is terrible. What suggestions in this thread have you tried? Have you moved your stick away from your hardware via a usb extension? Have you started using serial by id? Have you ensured you have a strong mesh with repeaters instead of battery devices? The list goes on
1 Like