Z-wave - mesh network

Configuration Z-Wave
1

Hi,
I’m trying to force my 1st z-wave network to work stable … fighting with it almost 2 months and still no satisfied with the results. Hope someone could give me an advise what else I can check …

  1. My z-wave network is built from
    → Aeotec ZW090 Z-Stick Gen5 EU
    → 6 x Neo CoolCam power plugs NAS-WR01ZE

  2. Everything works fine as long as power plugs are close to Aeotec controller.

  3. When I start to move power plugs further from the controller then communication starts to be unstable e.g. ON command sent from controller is received by power plug but ACK by the controller not (what results in not actual switch state in HA).

  4. Network heal or Node heal do not improve the situation. See following log with “ERROR: ZW_ASSIGN_RETURN_ROUTE failed”.

    Could anyone help with finding answer for following questions:

  5. How I can diagnose the zwave network if the mesh connections have been setup between nodes?

  6. Is it possible to force route path to be used by controller, e.g. to instruct it to route communication with node 5 via node 3 ?

Any advice is more than welcome!

2018-02-25 22:37:25.900 Detail, Node005, Queuing (Controller) Request Node Neighbor Update
2018-02-25 22:37:25.909 Detail, Node005, Queuing (Controller) Delete All Return Routes
2018-02-25 22:37:25.909 Detail, Node005, Queuing (Controller) Assign Return Route
2018-02-25 22:37:25.910 Info, Requesting Neighbor Update for node 5
2018-02-25 22:37:25.910 Detail, Node005, Queuing (Command) ControllerCommand_RequestNodeNeighborUpdate (Node=5): 0x01, 0x05, 0x00, 0x48, 0x05, 0x5f, 0xe8
2018-02-25 22:37:25.910 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - Starting
2018-02-25 22:37:25.911 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:25.911 Info, Node005, Sending (Command) message (Callback ID=0x5f, Expected Reply=0x48) - ControllerCommand_RequestNodeNeighborUpdate (Node=5): 0x01, 0x05, 0x00, 0x48, 0x05, 0x5f, 0xe8
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Detail, Node005, Received: 0x01, 0x05, 0x00, 0x48, 0x5f, 0x21, 0xcc
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Info, Node005, REQUEST_NEIGHBOR_UPDATE_STARTED
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Detail, Node033, Expected callbackId was received
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Detail, Node033, Expected reply was received
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Detail, Node033, Message transaction complete
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Detail, Node005, Removing current message
2018-02-25 22:37:31.826 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - InProgress
2018-02-25 22:37:31.827 Info, WriteNextMsg Controller nothing to do
2018-02-25 22:37:40.956 Detail, Received: 0x01, 0x05, 0x00, 0x48, 0x5f, 0x22, 0xcf
2018-02-25 22:37:40.956 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:40.956 Info, REQUEST_NEIGHBOR_UPDATE_DONE
2018-02-25 22:37:40.956 Detail, Requesting routing info (neighbor list) for Node 5
2018-02-25 22:37:40.956 Detail, Node005, Queuing (Command) Get Routing Info (Node=5): 0x01, 0x07, 0x00, 0x80, 0x05, 0x00, 0x00, 0x03, 0x7e
2018-02-25 22:37:40.956 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - Completed
2018-02-25 22:37:40.957 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:40.957 Info, Node005, Sending (Command) message (Callback ID=0x00, Expected Reply=0x80) - Get Routing Info (Node=5): 0x01, 0x07, 0x00, 0x80, 0x05, 0x00, 0x00, 0x03, 0x7e
2018-02-25 22:37:40.962 Detail, Node005, Received: 0x01, 0x20, 0x01, 0x80, 0x04, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x5a
2018-02-25 22:37:40.962 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:40.962 Info, Node005, Received reply to FUNC_ID_ZW_GET_ROUTING_INFO
2018-02-25 22:37:40.962 Info, Node005, Neighbors of this node are:
2018-02-25 22:37:40.962 Info, Node005, Node 3
2018-02-25 22:37:40.962 Detail, Expected reply was received
2018-02-25 22:37:40.962 Detail, Message transaction complete
2018-02-25 22:37:40.962 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:40.963 Detail, Node005, Removing current message
2018-02-25 22:37:40.963 Info, Deleting all return routes from node 5
2018-02-25 22:37:40.963 Detail, Node005, Queuing (Command) ControllerCommand_DeleteAllReturnRoutess (Node=5): 0x01, 0x05, 0x00, 0x47, 0x05, 0x60, 0xd8
2018-02-25 22:37:40.963 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - Starting
2018-02-25 22:37:40.964 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:40.964 Info, Node005, Sending (Command) message (Callback ID=0x60, Expected Reply=0x47) - ControllerCommand_DeleteAllReturnRoutess (Node=5): 0x01, 0x05, 0x00, 0x47, 0x05, 0x60, 0xd8
2018-02-25 22:37:46.790 Detail, Node005, Received: 0x01, 0x04, 0x01, 0x47, 0x01, 0xbc
2018-02-25 22:37:46.790 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:46.790 Info, Node005, Received reply to FUNC_ID_ZW_DELETE_RETURN_ROUTE - command in progress
2018-02-25 22:37:46.790 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - InProgress
2018-02-25 22:37:58.686 Detail, Node005, Received: 0x01, 0x14, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x05, 0x0e, 0x32, 0x02, 0x21, 0x44, 0x00, 0x00, 0x06, 0xc1, 0x00, 0xf5, 0x00, 0x00, 0x06, 0xc1, 0x44
2018-02-25 22:37:58.686 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:37:58.686 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=false, new value=false, type=bool
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Energy=17.29kWh
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=17.29, new value=17.29, type=decimal
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Info, Node005, Previous value was 17.29kWh, received 245 seconds ago.
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=17.29, new value=17.29, type=decimal
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=301, new value=245, type=int
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-02-25 22:37:58.687 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-02-25 22:37:58.715 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-02-25 22:37:58.741 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-02-25 22:37:58.768 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-02-25 22:38:04.752 Detail, Node005, Received: 0x01, 0x05, 0x00, 0x47, 0x60, 0x00, 0xdd
2018-02-25 22:38:04.753 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:38:04.753 Info, Node005, Received reply to FUNC_ID_ZW_DELETE_RETURN_ROUTE for node 5 - SUCCESS
2018-02-25 22:38:04.753 Detail, Expected callbackId was received
2018-02-25 22:38:04.753 Detail, Expected reply was received
2018-02-25 22:38:04.753 Detail, Message transaction complete
2018-02-25 22:38:04.753 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:38:04.753 Detail, Node005, Removing current message
2018-02-25 22:38:04.753 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - Completed
2018-02-25 22:38:04.754 Info, Assigning return route from node 5 to node 1
2018-02-25 22:38:04.754 Detail, Node005, Queuing (Command) ControllerCommand_AssignReturnRoute (Node=5): 0x01, 0x06, 0x00, 0x46, 0x05, 0x01, 0x61, 0xda
2018-02-25 22:38:04.754 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - Starting
2018-02-25 22:38:04.755 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:38:04.755 Info, Node005, Sending (Command) message (Callback ID=0x61, Expected Reply=0x46) - ControllerCommand_AssignReturnRoute (Node=5): 0x01, 0x06, 0x00, 0x46, 0x05, 0x01, 0x61, 0xda
2018-02-25 22:38:06.915 Detail, Node005, Received: 0x01, 0x04, 0x01, 0x46, 0x01, 0xbd
2018-02-25 22:38:06.915 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:38:06.915 Info, Node005, Received reply to FUNC_ID_ZW_ASSIGN_RETURN_ROUTE - command in progress
2018-02-25 22:38:06.915 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - InProgress
2018-02-25 22:38:06.928 Detail, Node005, Received: 0x01, 0x05, 0x00, 0x46, 0x61, 0x04, 0xd9
2018-02-25 22:38:06.928 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:38:06.928 Info, Node005, ERROR: ZW_ASSIGN_RETURN_ROUTE failed. No route available.
2018-02-25 22:38:06.928 Detail, Node004, Expected callbackId was received
2018-02-25 22:38:06.928 Detail, Node004, Expected reply was received
2018-02-25 22:38:06.928 Detail, Node004, Message transaction complete
2018-02-25 22:38:06.928 Detail,
2018-02-25 22:38:06.928 Detail, Node005, Removing current message
2018-02-25 22:38:06.929 Detail, Notification: ControllerCommand - Failed

2

I don’t know how far you are trying to move your devices away from the controller but do consider what is between your device and controller. The number of walls, type of construction, and other obstructions as well as the distance, can severely limit how well Z-Wave communicates. Think “line of sight” at the installed height of the devices and then think about what is between them. Z-Wave is a low power radio signal that is easily blocked or absorbed by dense construction materials. More devices help with difficult communication situations.
I don’t know whether these devices are Z-Wave or Z-Wave Plus devices. Z-Wave Plus devices can communicate at longer distances, support Network Wide Inclusion (no need to be close to the hub) and are better at self-healing.
As a way to better visualize how your network is communicating you might want to look at Graph your Z-Wave mesh (Python, auto-update)