Z-wave issues - config or hardware?

Configuration
1

I am running a hass.io (0.53.1) setup on my Raspberry Pi3. I have an Aotec ZW090 Z-stick Gen5 EU to control the following entities:
Vision Garage Door Sensor
Philio Tech 3-in-1 sensor (Z-wave Plus)
2 x Philio dual relay switch (Z-wave Plus)
Popp ZWeather (Z-wave Plus)

I started with the Garage Door Sensor and it conncected and worked fine. Then I added ZWeather, which also worked fine, albeit somewhat slow to update. Next was the 3-in-1 sensor for temp, motion, luminance, connected and worked. Around the same time I had my electrician install the relay switches for me. All of the above I managed to add to my Z-wave network and, after some glitches, working as expected.

However, after a while my Z-wave network started acting up. Nodes where reported as Dead, Dynamic, CacheLoad, Associations, Probe, etc. and the entities weren’t operating reliably anymore. The dual relay switches in particular are almost impossible to get to work right, even when they report as Ready in the Z-wave config UI. Also sensors, like the Garage Door, dropped out after a while and was no longer updating.

I have tried all sorts of things, heal network, change config parameters, refresh node and rebooting the Pi3, but I never get every entity in the network to work at the same time. The only node that seems to never fail is the Aeon stick itself, but all the other nodes display different statuses at different times. Today my Garage Door sensor popped back into working state again for the first time in a week, but now it is not working again.

I am at a loss here. I would like to think that this is a config issue, but maybe distances and hardware issues come into play here too.

Any advice on how to troubleshoot this would be more than welcome!

Thanks!
Tomas

2

Right now I have the following under nodes in the Z-Wage config in HA:

Aeotec ZW090 Z-Stick Gen5 EU (Node:1 Complete)
Garage Door Detector (Node:2 Associations)
Philio Tech 3-in-1 sensor (Node:4 CacheLoad)
Philio Tech dual switch 1 (Node:6 Static)
Philio Tech dual switch 2 (Node:7 Dynamic)
Popp Zweather (Node:3 Dynamic)

I have no idea what is going on.

3

Sorry to hijack your thread but i cant even get my Gen 5 stick to be recognised.
Could you show me you configuration.yaml for the z-wave component.
If you have a docs that helped you get it set up that would be much appreciated as well.

Cheers,

Richie

4

Please, start your own topic to avoid confusing solving tomoqv’s problem.

1 Like
5

That sounds like your mesh isn’t healthy, which likely has to do with the physical layout of your non-battery devices.

You need to look at where the powered devices are, and what’s between these, and near them. This article covers part of the problem. The other problem is that Z-Wave uses radio communications, which can be disrupted (by say a WiFi router/access point near one of the nodes), and blocked (by a radiator, the case of your PC, etc).

So, can you share a map of your building, showing where all the nodes are (marking which is the controller, which are battery powered, and which are mains powered), which walls are brick (and if any are unusually thick), and where things like radiators, your PC case is in relation to the stick, radiators etc.

6

Yes, it is rather unstable. I added 3 more z-wave switches today, so hopefully things will improve. Here is a map of my house and yard, with the z-wave devices mapped. http://www.screencast.com/t/L8ed08X9

7

You’ll need to add more powered devices nearer the controller. The problem is it has to reach all the way from the controller directly to those outdoor devices. If those 2 battery powered devices between the controller and the outdoor devices were both mains powered, you’d be in a better place.

1 Like
8

Thank you for the advice! I had started to suspect that I was having range issues, as the z-wave entities work sometimes but sometimes not.

Would it be a good idea to get a pure z-wave range extender or would a z-wave switch plug work just as well? Do you think I need more than one powered z-wave device to get really good performance of the network?

9

Well, there’s a thing… if you’ve got a mix of Z-Wave and Plus devices then you’ve lost all the benefits of the improved range Z-Wave Plus brings.

At the very least you need two mains powered Z-Wave Plus devices along that wall to the garden where the 2 battery powered devices are. Just one means it becomes a bottleneck, and you’re likely to be no better off.

If it was me, I’d look to to put 2 powered devices along that wall, and replace any non-Plus devices with their Plus equivalent. That’ll give you the greatest improvement.

10

Z-Wave is a mesh network. Powered devices can relay signals for both powered and battery devices, If a battery device doesn’t have a close mains powered device, the signal must go direct. The more powered devices you have and the more evenly spread you have them, means that a signal has more pathways to and from the hub. Reliability is improved.

11

Ok, I think I have only one non Z-wave Plust device - the garage door detector (orange lower right). All the others I believe to be z-wave Plus. I read somewhere that battery powered non z-wave plus devices will not limit the Z-wave Plus benefits, but I wouldn’t know.

I will definitely get some extra powered z-wave devices and place them strategically.

Thanks!

12

I am rather new to Z-wave and learning all the time. Thanks for helping out!

Tomas

13

Hi @SCCMOG ,

Sorry to hijack your thread but i cant even get my Gen 5 stick to be recognised.
Could you show me you configuration.yaml for the z-wave component.
If you have a docs that helped you get it set up that would be much appreciated as well.

take a look at this guy who has lots of videos about HA on youtube.