Z-wave sends data constantly to Home Assistant

Gilean · March 26, 2018, 10:14am

Hello!
New HASS user here. I have been building up my HASS interface and I have got some automations working as well, but what I cannot seem to change is how often my z-wave power plugs sends data to HASS. I have Aotec Z-Wave USB stick in my Raspberry Pi 3, and three Neo Coolcam power plugs which do work fine, but they also send data all the time to logs and I don’t seem to find any way to change that.

I pasted here the last 100 rows of my OZW log, and as you see, I get updates several times per second. And of course there’s that Node003 as well doing the same that you cannot see from that log. So, I would like to do two things but seems like I don’t know how.

First, I would like to tell those plugs to send data only once every 30 seconds for example. I try to set polling interval for sensor entities in HA Z-wave setup to 30000 but it doesn’t seem to do anything. Or do I have to do that with switch entity instead?

Another thing is that I would like to remove previous reading -sensors as every switch seems to have four of them. But checkbox “exclude this switch from home assistant” does not seem to do anything either.

Am I missing something here?

2018-03-26 13:03:16.765 Detail, Node004, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:03:16.786 Detail, Node004, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:03:16.805 Detail, Node004, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:03:16.823 Detail, Node004, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Detail, Node004,   Received: 0x01, 0x10, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x04, 0x0a, 0x32, 0x02, 0xa1, 0x4a, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x2d, 0x00, 0x00, 0x12
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Detail,
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Detail, Node004, Refreshed Value: old value=false, new value=false, type=bool
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Detail, Node004, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Info, Node004, Received Meter report from node 4: Current=0.00A
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Detail, Node004, Refreshed Value: old value=0.00, new value=0.00, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Detail, Node004, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Info, Node004,     Previous value was 0.00A, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 13:03:17.764 Detail, Node004, Refreshed Value: old value=0.00, new value=0.00, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:03:17.765 Detail, Node004, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:03:17.765 Detail, Node004, Refreshed Value: old value=301, new value=301, type=int
2018-03-26 13:03:17.765 Detail, Node004, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:03:17.765 Detail, Node004, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:03:17.783 Detail, Node004, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:03:17.802 Detail, Node004, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:03:17.820 Detail, Node004, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:01.921 Detail, Node005,   Received: 0x01, 0x14, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x05, 0x0e, 0x32, 0x02, 0x21, 0x44, 0x00, 0x00, 0x07, 0xb9, 0x00, 0x33, 0x00, 0x00, 0x07, 0xb7, 0x8c
2018-03-26 13:04:01.921 Detail,
2018-03-26 13:04:01.921 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=false, new value=false, type=bool
2018-03-26 13:04:01.921 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:01.921 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Energy=19.77kWh
2018-03-26 13:04:01.921 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=19.75, new value=19.77, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:01.921 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:01.922 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 19.75kWh, received 51 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 13:04:01.922 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=19.75, new value=19.75, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:01.922 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:01.922 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=263, new value=51, type=int
2018-03-26 13:04:01.922 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:01.922 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:01.942 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:01.960 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:01.979 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:01.997 Detail, Node005,   Received: 0x01, 0x14, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x05, 0x0e, 0x32, 0x02, 0x21, 0x44, 0x00, 0x00, 0x07, 0xb9, 0x00, 0x33, 0x00, 0x00, 0x07, 0xb7, 0x8c
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail,
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=false, new value=false, type=bool
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Energy=19.77kWh
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=19.77, new value=19.77, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 19.75kWh, received 51 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=19.75, new value=19.75, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=51, new value=51, type=int
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:01.999 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:02.017 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:02.034 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:02.052 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:02.904 Detail, Node005,   Received: 0x01, 0x14, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x05, 0x0e, 0x32, 0x02, 0x21, 0x54, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x33, 0x00, 0x02, 0xd6, 0xa9, 0xef
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail,
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=false, new value=false, type=bool
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=1860.25, new value=0.00, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 1860.25W, received 51 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=0.00, new value=1860.25, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=263, new value=51, type=int
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:02.906 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:02.924 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:02.955 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:02.975 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:03.909 Detail, Node005,   Received: 0x01, 0x10, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x05, 0x0a, 0x32, 0x02, 0xa1, 0x42, 0x5a, 0xb3, 0x00, 0x33, 0x57, 0xea, 0x50
2018-03-26 13:04:03.909 Detail,
2018-03-26 13:04:03.909 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=false, new value=false, type=bool
2018-03-26 13:04:03.909 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:03.909 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Voltage=232.19V
2018-03-26 13:04:03.909 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=225.06, new value=232.19, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:03.909 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:03.910 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 225.06V, received 51 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 13:04:03.910 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=233.89, new value=225.06, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:03.910 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:03.910 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=263, new value=51, type=int
2018-03-26 13:04:03.910 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:03.910 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:03.929 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:03.947 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:03.966 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:04.903 Detail, Node005,   Received: 0x01, 0x10, 0x00, 0x04, 0x00, 0x05, 0x0a, 0x32, 0x02, 0xa1, 0x4a, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x33, 0x03, 0x3a, 0x35
2018-03-26 13:04:04.903 Detail,
2018-03-26 13:04:04.903 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=false, new value=false, type=bool
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Current=0.00A
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=8.26, new value=0.00, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 8.26A, received 51 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=0.00, new value=8.26, type=decimal
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Detail, Node005, Refreshed Value: old value=263, new value=51, type=int
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Detail, Node005, Changes to this value are not verified
2018-03-26 13:04:04.904 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:04.923 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:04.942 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
2018-03-26 13:04:04.960 Detail, Node005, Notification: ValueChanged
``

petro · March 26, 2018, 11:55am

You should look up the documentation on the device. OZWave has nothing to do with this, this is a device config. OZW is just reporting what the device is set to.

Typically there is a series of parameters available for each device when you go to the configuration. The device documentation should explain what everything means. Maybe there is a setting that will allow you to adjust the reporting settings.

jeubanks · March 26, 2018, 2:17pm

The almost constant data flow is paramount to having clear/updated system wide status. Stop starring at logs this is normal for all systems to have a constant data flow. Without this flow of data near real-time automations would not be possible. Neither would power meter readings and the creation of graphs with by the second usage reporting.

Gilean · March 26, 2018, 4:43pm

I found a way to change those values (at least in theory) when I left “entities of this node” empty (earlier I chose some entity of a node and then “node config options” had different options). And seems like my edits are actually stored to a xml file in config folder of my raspberry. But for some reason those power plugs don’t care which option I change. In fact, the default value for “Meter Report Interval” (that should specify how often plugs are reporting to z-wave network) is 300 seconds, and no matter how I change that, I get constant updates to ocw logs.

Another odd thing happened just today: one of those power plugs showed as dead. And for a moment I thought the device itself got broken as the button on it did not lit when pressed, and because restarting Hass and unplugging and then plugging it back to power outlet did not fix it either. Then I restarted Hass again and now it shows node working - and I actually can turn the plug on and off (with led and power working) via Hass UI - but manually pressing the button on that specific plug does not do anything anymore! Also, there is command in Z-wave config panel to enable button function (on/off) but no matter how I change that, it stays off if I press it.

As for constant data flow, I understand that without it, we couldn’t get real-time data, but I am worried that my SD card will fail sooner or later at this rate: my home-assistant2.db -file is growing almost 100MB/day when Hass is writing few kilobytes in it all the time, so I was thinking if I could at least choose easily what exactly is being written on it and how often…

petro · March 26, 2018, 6:07pm

The node has to be awake for parameters to stick. Have you read the documents for the devices? YOu may have changed a reporting attribute which changes it’s behavior. This is typical with all z-wave devices. Hence why I keep mentioning the documentation. You’re welcome to continue to trial and error this, but the documents will give you a clear indication on what will happen when you change a parameter.

And remember, in order to make changes with OZW, you need to wake the z-wave device. Some devices are always awake, some go to sleep after a second and require you to hit a button to keep it awake when configuring… You would get this information from the devices z-wave documentation.

Gilean · March 26, 2018, 6:52pm

The device does not seem to be too complicated, the manual just lists different attributes and values that you can set. Here’s the manual: http://www.cd-jackson.com/zwave_device_uploads/397/Manual-for-Power-plug-Z-wave-Neo.pdf The manual makes sense to me (or I think it does), but for example it doesn’t matter if I set Meter Report Interval to 30 seconds, and have removed everything exept power (W) and energy (KWH) from HA UI, I get voltage (V) and current (A) as well, once every second. And HA writes it down in database all the time. That is what I don’t get.

Those devices are awake all the time, and they do respond when I turn them on/off in HA.

petro · March 26, 2018, 7:37pm

Yes, so you changed that from 300 seconds to 30 seconds. So you will get more. Also, you are going to get 4 reports per cycle, Voltage, Current, Power, and Energy. So in the span of less than a second, every 30 seconds, you’ll get about ~100 lines of information related to those 4 attributes. Just looking at what you posted, it’s doing exactly that and working as expected. Don’t pay attention to the ‘DETAIL’ lines, Look at the INFO lines:

2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Energy=19.77kWh
2018-03-26 13:04:01.998 Info, Node005, Previous value was 19.75kWh, received 51 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 13:04:02.905 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Power=0.00W
etc.

The detail lines are debug lines for people looking at the logs. It’s showing the BYTES it receives, then changes that into usable data which appears in the INFO line.

Gilean · March 26, 2018, 8:36pm

Yep, I changed the default value that was 300 to 30 just to see if that makes any difference. Seemed like it didn’t. Now I changed all three nodes back to 300 seconds and left that working for 20 minutes or so. I took last 500 lines in log and took out all DETAIL lines just to see what’s left:

2018-03-26 23:01:07.261 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:01:07.261 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:01:08.260 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Voltage=242.91V
2018-03-26 23:01:08.260 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 241.62V, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:01:09.260 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Current=0.00A
2018-03-26 23:01:09.260 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 0.00A, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:02:23.236 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Energy=21.02kWh
2018-03-26 23:02:23.237 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 21.02kWh, received 125 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:02:24.168 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Power=1918.77W
2018-03-26 23:02:24.168 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 0.00W, received 125 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:02:25.317 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Voltage=228.53V
2018-03-26 23:02:25.318 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 235.54V, received 125 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:02:26.167 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Current=8.39A
2018-03-26 23:02:26.167 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 0.00A, received 125 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:03:11.231 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Energy=21.05kWh
2018-03-26 23:03:11.232 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 21.02kWh, received 49 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:03:11.313 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Energy=21.05kWh
2018-03-26 23:03:11.313 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 21.02kWh, received 49 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:03:12.168 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:03:12.169 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 1918.77W, received 49 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:03:13.219 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Voltage=235.29V
2018-03-26 23:03:13.219 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 228.53V, received 49 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:03:14.238 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Current=0.00A
2018-03-26 23:03:14.238 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 8.39A, received 49 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:06:06.274 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Energy=0.28kWh
2018-03-26 23:06:06.274 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 0.28kWh, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:06:07.262 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:06:07.262 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:06:08.260 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Voltage=243.33V
2018-03-26 23:06:08.260 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 242.91V, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:08:15.267 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Voltage=235.74V
2018-03-26 23:08:15.268 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 235.29V, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:08:15.963 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Current=0.00A
2018-03-26 23:08:15.964 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 0.00A, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:11:06.275 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Energy=0.28kWh
2018-03-26 23:11:06.276 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 0.28kWh, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:11:07.264 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:11:07.266 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:11:08.262 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Voltage=242.83V
2018-03-26 23:11:08.262 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 243.33V, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:11:09.262 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Current=0.00A
2018-03-26 23:11:09.262 Info, Node003,     Previous value was 0.00A, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:13:13.174 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Energy=21.05kWh
2018-03-26 23:13:13.175 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 21.05kWh, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:13:13.972 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:13:13.973 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:13:15.160 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Voltage=235.50V
2018-03-26 23:13:15.161 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 235.74V, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:13:15.241 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Voltage=235.50V
2018-03-26 23:13:15.241 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 235.74V, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:13:15.366 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Voltage=235.50V
2018-03-26 23:13:15.366 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 235.74V, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:13:15.971 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Current=0.00A
2018-03-26 23:13:15.972 Info, Node005,     Previous value was 0.00A, received 301 seconds ago.

So that’s only 54 lines of out of 500. I guess there’s no way to tell those plugs stop sending all that Detail data, especially about “valuechanged” when it’s not actually changed at all…?

Anyway, even as those Info-lines tell that previous values were received 301 seconds ago etc, those devices are still sending data every second or so, or I cannot find any pattern about that there. And now I see that there’s also two nodes sending data, third one might be unresponsive again…

petro · March 26, 2018, 9:20pm

Dude, look at the times from node 3 to node 3…

23:01:07.261

23:06:06.274

that’s a difference of 5 minutes. 5 x 60 is… 300 seconds!

I don’t know how else to explain this.

Every 5 minutes (300 seconds), it will output:

2018-03-26 23:06:06.274 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Energy=0.28kWh
2018-03-26 23:06:06.274 Info, Node003, Previous value was 0.28kWh, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:06:07.262 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:06:07.262 Info, Node003, Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:06:08.260 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Voltage=243.33V
2018-03-26 23:06:08.260 Info, Node003, Previous value was 242.91V, received 301 seconds ago.

Node 5 is doing the same thing:

23:03:11.313

then

23:08:15.267

then

23:13:13.174

8-3 is 5, 5 minutes (300 seconds).
13-8 is 5, 5 minutes (300 seconds).

Gilean · March 27, 2018, 6:57am

I know 300 seconds is 5 minutes But then each information piece would be reported once every 5 minutes, right? It’s not doing that. If I take ONLY those lines that report Power, for example, it seems to work as expected with Node 3 (the plug was not powered on):

2018-03-26 23:01:07.261 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:01:07.261 Info, Node003, Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:06:07.262 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:06:07.262 Info, Node003, Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:11:07.264 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:11:07.266 Info, Node003, Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.

That’s exactly 5 minutes between reports. But here’s the same for Node 5 that is powered on (and is set to report every 5 minutes):

2018-03-26 23:02:24.168 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Power=1918.77W
2018-03-26 23:02:24.168 Info, Node005, Previous value was 0.00W, received 125 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:03:12.168 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:03:12.169 Info, Node005, Previous value was 1918.77W, received 49 seconds ago.
2018-03-26 23:13:13.972 Info, Node005, Received Meter report from node 5: Power=0.00W
2018-03-26 23:13:13.973 Info, Node005, Previous value was 0.00W, received 301 seconds ago.

So, it seems that 300 seconds is again working when power plug is not powered on, but not when it’s actually powered on. On that plug, I have a radiator that goes on and off based on room temperature. So I made a little test with Node 3, as I have TV plugged in that, so when it’s on, it’s on and power consumption is quite unchanging. I grabbed only those info lines that reported power, and this is how it looks:

2018-03-27 09:38:17.152 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=77.84W
2018-03-27 09:38:26.176 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=77.84W
2018-03-27 09:38:37.200 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=77.81W
2018-03-27 09:38:49.968 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=77.80W
2018-03-27 09:38:58.993 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=77.85W
2018-03-27 09:39:06.018 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=75.09W
2018-03-27 09:39:17.042 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=75.38W
2018-03-27 09:39:27.042 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=78.23W
2018-03-27 09:39:36.066 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=78.24W
2018-03-27 09:39:46.067 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=77.26W
2018-03-27 09:39:52.067 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=75.20W
2018-03-27 09:39:59.090 Info, Node003, Received Meter report from node 3: Power=78.09W

So, that 300 seconds report interval does not seem to work here! Also, I have set up option 6 (Configure power report) so that this power plug should only report to Z-Wave Network when power consumed variation ratio is greater than 30%. As the power stays between 75-78W, it should not produce any extra reports if I have understood right.

But can you petro or any other tell me why these plugs send reports once every few seconds when powered on, even when I have set up meter report interval to 300 seconds?

petro · March 27, 2018, 11:30am

That is a question for the manufacturer. Only these devices are behaving this way.

Gilean · March 27, 2018, 12:54pm

Okay thanks, I think I will send them mail. I am new to this Z-Wave thing and these Neo Coolcam power plugs are my first and only Z-wave devices so it’s hard to tell what’s expected behaviour and what is not…

petro · March 27, 2018, 1:38pm

Personally, I think you are wasting time. These logs are always jam packed full of information. You’re better off looking at the home assistant log and watching the events, because that’s what really matters. Not what’s in the ozw log.

jeubanks · March 27, 2018, 11:50pm

Wow… 2 days of starring and fussing over logs that actually show the devices are working… hmm… oh well.

Gilean · March 28, 2018, 4:50am

I guess so. The thing that actually made me looking at OCW log is the fact that Z-wave events and states are making my home assistant database file to grow 200 mb / day, even when I only have 2-3 Z-wave devices in my system! And that cannot be good for SD card health. So I wanted to know if there was a way to make those power plugs send less data to my database, but I guess I have to accept that it’s not possible.

Thank you for your input. Not everyone are born experts in Z-wave systems and HASS right when they start with it. And if you look at my previous post (#10), I get reports after 9-11-12-9-8-15 etc seconds after previous report even when I have set them to report once in 300 seconds. But I have asked about it from Neo Coolcam support, not that I expect reply from them…

Tinkerer · March 28, 2018, 7:35am

Add a USB thumb drive, and move the logs and database to it.

petro · March 28, 2018, 11:54am

Why don’t you limit your home assistant logs. Are you logging all debug information? Sounds like it. Change your logging configuration to:

logger:
  default: error
  logs:
    requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool: critical #for this item anything below error will not be logged
    py.warnings: critical

This will shut off all crap below error. Comment these lines out when you want to debug your events. Uncomment them when you are running in “don’t touch for a long ass time” mode.

Also, restart your home assistant once a week. Use the following automation to restart once a week:

- alias: Reboot Once A Week
  trigger:
    - platform: time
      at: '10:00:00'
  condition:
    - condition: time
      weekday:
        - wed
  action:
    - service: hassio.host_reboot

Gilean · March 28, 2018, 12:57pm

That’s what I have been thinking I should probably do, although I read somewhere that USB thumb drives are not much better what comes to dying because of constant writing. But naturally it’s a lot better if only logs and database are destroyed when that happens and not the whole Hass system! I am using Hass.io though and not sure if those commands etc in that link work with that.

That’s great advice! I haven’t even used logger, in fact it’s a bit hard to figure out the exact differences between logger, logbook, recorder and history components and which ones of those write to database most… Anyway, I had only enabled recorder and history (and excluded some entities from recorder), and had logbook commented out. As for restarting home assistant once a week, I guess that’s good to do as well in future, but at this state I am restarting the system manually several times a week still

I tried to add your logger code, which seemed valid, deleted home assistant database file and restarted system. After restart, hass db file was created again and was constantly growing. After 15 minutes it was again 1,5 megabytes. I looked inside the database file with SQL browser and there’s for example tons of “state_changed” events so seems like it’s still logging everything.

petro · March 28, 2018, 1:00pm

Each of these are a separate component. A good rule of thumb is: If you have an item in your config.yaml, it is a component. If you want to know information about that component, search the component list for it:

go here and perform your searchs, below is an example for searching logger:

Gilean · March 28, 2018, 3:56pm

I had read a bit of those each earlier, but only now found out how to stop that db file from constantly growing: disabling ALL of those four components Logger did not actually write on database at all, only this separate .log -file. Then I disabled logger, logbook and recorder but left history component to my configuration. Database was still growing fast. When I disabled that history component as well, database stopped growing. Of course, now I cannot see any history about when my power plugs have started and stopped etc, but that was expected.

I guess I will get this in better shape by adding quite a few of include and/or exclude lines under history component