Z-wave switches show dead

Hello all,

I have just migrated from SmartThings to Home Assistant. It has been a learning curve but I am getting better at things. My setup is as follows

Mini pc
Zooz ZST10-700 firmware v7.17 (updated before I installed it)

Host Operating System Home Assistant OS 7.4
Update Channel stable
Supervisor Version supervisor-2022.03.3
Docker Version 20.10.9
Disk Total 111.1 GB
Disk Used 14.9 GB
Healthy true
Supported true
Board generic-x86-64
Supervisor API ok
Version API ok
Installed Add-ons Samba share (9.5.1), File editor (5.3.3), Home Assistant Google Drive Backup (0.105.2), Samba Backup (5.0.0), Studio Code Server (4.1.0), Terminal & SSH (9.3.0), SharpTools.io (0.0.8.22), Z-Wave JS (0.1.54), Z-Wave JS to MQTT (0.35.2)

I have several Zooz switches marked as dead. They are all worked great with smartthings. They are in a outside shed/shop. I installed a outside outlet at the house, a second one on a pole 30ft from the house, a 3rd one on shop about 30ft from pole. This setup worked great for 3-4 years with smartthings. I for the life of me canā€™t keep it working with HA.

Attached is the map generated by Z-WaveJS2MQTT. Do you think it is the Zooz controller stick? Should I try going with a Aeotec gen 5?

Any help would be great.



I have the same stick and not quite as many devices, but even after the update, I still have a device that needs to be ā€œpingedā€ back to life every once in awhile. Have you tried pinging the device in the ZWave2MQTT control panel and see if that corrects the problem?

If not, I would do a complete mesh heal and give it a day or so to come back to lifeā€¦Donā€™t expect quick results when working with Z-wave, itā€™s been my experience that it takes some time to build a strong mesh.

ping does nothing. The logs show them as dead. I have done a heal (twice). They didnā€™t help, as the dead nodes showed skipped. I have had this up and running for over a week now.

Subscribed to Z-Wave JS Log Messagesā€¦
Log Level changed to: Debug
2022-03-10T17:51:43.558Z CNTRLR Ā» [Node 054] pinging the nodeā€¦
2022-03-10T17:51:43.581Z SERIAL Ā» 0x010d00a90136010025000000003179 (15 bytes)
2022-03-10T17:51:43.587Z DRIVER Ā» [Node 054] [REQ] [SendDataBridge]
ā”‚ source node id: 1
ā”‚ transmit options: 0x25
ā”‚ route: 0, 0, 0, 0
ā”‚ callback id: 49
ā””ā”€[NoOperationCC]
2022-03-10T17:51:43.616Z SERIAL Ā« [ACK] (0x06)
2022-03-10T17:51:44.041Z SERIAL Ā« 0x010401a90152 (6 bytes)
2022-03-10T17:51:44.047Z SERIAL Ā» [ACK] (0x06)
2022-03-10T17:51:44.052Z DRIVER Ā« [RES] [SendDataBridge]
was sent: true
2022-03-10T17:51:48.207Z SERIAL Ā« 0x011d00a9310101c2007f7f7f7f7f01010700000000020400000000000000c6 (31 bytes)
2022-03-10T17:51:48.213Z SERIAL Ā» [ACK] (0x06)
2022-03-10T17:51:48.218Z DRIVER Ā« [REQ] [SendDataBridge]
callback id: 49
transmit status: NoAck, took 4500 ms
routing attempts: 4
protocol & route speed: Z-Wave, 40 kbit/s
TX channel no.: 1
TX power: 0 dBm
measured noise floor: 0 dBm
2022-03-10T17:51:48.229Z CNTRLR [Node 054] The node did not respond after 1 attempts, it is presumed dead
2022-03-10T17:51:48.241Z CNTRLR [Node 054] ping failed: Failed to send the command after 1 attempts (Status No
Ack) (ZW0204)

How far is the shed to the controller?

You may need to ā€˜hot wireā€™ the switches close to the hub (or bring the hub to the switches) for inclusion/interview and then move them back one at a time, starting with the closest to the hub and work your way out. Heal each one once they are back in their final home.

Also, a lot of people have had great success moving the stick away from the port by using a >2ā€™ USB extension cable. Some also recommend only using USB 2 ports

The she is 60-70 foot from the house. I have a pole with the electric meter about halfway between. I put a outside weatherproof outlet on it when I originally setup the Smartthings I had. I have not changed that.

If you look at the map, all the grey nodes are in the shed ( grey means dead). And the ones listed as ā€˜Tilt door xxxā€™ are battery tilt sensors in the shed.

The green ā€˜Shed Outside Receptacleā€™ is mounted on the outside of the shed. And the yell ā€˜Outdoor Outletā€™ is on the pole.

I took the controller to the shed to include all the switches. Then moved it back to the house. I just donā€™t know why they are all marked as dead. 2 of them were working off and on, but now will not come in at all.

And I have the stick on a 3 foot extension cable already.

To me it looks like a ā€˜simpleā€™ mesh strength issue. They are going to get marked ā€˜deadā€™ if they fail to ACK back to the controller.

After you moved the control back to itā€™s home, did you run a heal on the individual nodes, starting with the closest node to the controller and working your way out?

Oh, and Iā€™ve been told, currently the map is almost useless for viewing routing. That said, it does have a health check function that seems useful.

I did a heal on all nodes. Started at the controller and worked my way to the on farthest from it. This has helped alot. But I still have a few that go dead. I can ping them and get them back though. Biggest problem is one of them that goes dead is a door lock.

The behavior is strange, as I have 2 switches side by side. Same brand and everything. One will go dead. The other never causes a problemā€¦

I finally did away with the Zooz zst-10 700 stick. Went to a Gen5+. I have had no dead node issues for over a week now.

I know the 700 series have problems. Guess I am one of the unlucky ones and the problems plagued me.

Did you update the stick to 7.17.2 ?

Iā€™m having the same issue with my Yale YRD256 smart locks. I have three of them and the one on the front door is seems to go dead at least once a week randomly. I updated my Zooz ZST-10 700 to 7.17.2 hoping that would help but it hasnā€™t really made an impact. Which Gen 5 stick did you end up going with? I feel like that might be my next purchase.

Yes I did update it. I also tried various other recommendations. None of the suggestions worked.

I went with the Aeotec Gen5+

Amazon link

Followed the guide on This post to convert all my nodes from 700 card back to gen5

1 Like

Do you have your Aeotec connected to USB 3.0 or 2.0 on your system?
If you have it on v3 then move it to USB 2.0.

I had big problems with controller connected to the 3.0 port.