Last night my Home Assistant system when completely down unexpectedly. I had no changes to the system, the Z-Wave network just went down. Now, I can’t get it back up again.
I tried reloading the Z-Wave integration, but kept getting the message: Failed to connect: Cannot connect to host core-zwave-js:3000 ssl:default [Connect call failed]
I restarted the Raspberry Pi several times with no luck. I uninstalled the Z-Wave integration and tried to reinstall it, but now I’m getting the message: Failed to Connect URL ws://localhost:3000/
I’ve updated the Home Assistant OS, but no luck. My entire system is based on Z-Wave, so without it, I’m down. I do not know how to use Linux. Is there a way to fix this without command line work? I’m really at a loss and getting depressed trying to get this fixed. Please help!
Hi,
Assisting someone remotely with tech issues can be one of the more challenging tasks a volunteer can the to help with, so you need to help the community help you. Basically, we only know what you tell us, so…
What is is HA running on?
RPi3b? RPi4? RPi5?
uSD card? SSD? HDD? How old?
Does the hardware have good cooling?
How old is the installation?
What type of installation do you have?
Most folk you install an image have HAOS, but some are running Docker/ Proxmox/ complex thing. Link to Version info – My Home Assistant should show Core / Supervisor / Operating System
What versions?
What Z-Wave co-ordinator hardware stick / radio do you have?
Move the 700 series stick to a BLACK USB2.0 port with an extension cable to reduce USB-3 RF noise (Z-wave is similar to Zigbee, and RF can change)… https://youtu.be/tHqZhNcFEvA?si=277n-g5W245C7har
There were some bugs in HAOS about two months ago where the Linux serial device files /dev/tty* changed or didn’t get created due to bad device detection.
My 500-series Aeotec suffered from this, and for a while HA needed 2-4 reboots to get USB radio devices to reappear. NOT HA restarts, HAOS REBOOTS (the slow one). Basically, keep rebooting and attempting to re-add the Z-Wave device.
If you enable HA Expert Mode, the ability to install the Terminal & SSH Add-On appears and you can manually check for the device files HA is looking for to connect to the stick (ls -la /dev/tty* should find something like /dev/tyACM0).
Download the Z-Wave logs and post here with Code Fences ``` ``` Z-Wave - Home Assistant
Without the logs, we’re just guessing.
What versions? Core / Supervisor / Operating System Link to Version info – My Home Assistant
Operating System 13.2 isn’t perfect, but seems more likely to detect USB hardware than the previous few releases of 12.4.
About 2-3 years ago, Aeotec 700 series sticks were a NO GO due to bad firmware issues. This seemed to settle down, but a few searches suggest Aeotec firmware updates have improved, but aren’t perfect.
Updating Aeotec 700-series firmware might be worth a try. I had to use a Win10 PC and Aeotec awkward software, but it worked and my 500 series was a little happier.
Get a spare uSD card, and install a FRESH install of HAOS, and use this to test the hardware with an independent HA install. If this works, then try a restore from backup.
LABEL the uSD cards, and KEEP the faulty install separate.
Thanks much for this info. I have to leave for a business trip and wont be back until Thursday. I’ll go through this latest list then. My wife will have to run through the house hitting light switches til then!
You should get rid of that sd card and migrate your install on a SSD. SD cards are not reliable on the long run and can cause a lot of different issues depending what sectors got damaged data /corrupt data.
Another thing to check is your power supply. More things connected to your pi = need more power than the minimum avertised to run your PI. If the power supply strugle delivering enough power to your PI and your z-wave stick, this will cause unstabilities.
For you z-wave adapter, check your firmware version. Early firmwares had this issue with falsly identifying some nodes being “dead” even if there were not, also causing unstabilities on the z-wave network. Newer firmwares now have issues with the stick jamming when there is significant trafic on the network and will cause at best extreme lag or even worst, the network to completely stops and crashes until the stick power is reset. The latest firmware versions still have this issue but its way less noticeable on 7.21.2 and 7.21.4 (z-wave js UI recommands 7.21.4). On these versions, the controller will reset by itself when facing this condition instead of staying in that jammed condition and youll maybe notice a 2-3 sec lag.
I would first connect the stick to a pc running Silabs PC Controller just to check the stick isnt dead. Then I would make an NVM backup of the stick just in case and after that update the firmware. Beware that you cant upgrade from an old firmware directly to the latest or youll soft brick the stick (recoverable but its a pain). You need to flash a 7.18.x firmware before going to 7.21.4 as instructed on Aeotec’s website.
If the stick is good, I would definitively focus on replacing the sd for an ssd and trying a bigger power supply before anything else. Im following a french Home Assistant FB page with about 20k members, you would beleive the amount of issues that are being posted there everyday that are caused by bad sd cards or weak power supplies (typical issues for PI users).
I decided not to spend a lot of time troubleshooting and took the coward’s way out: I got a new SD card and started with a fresh install, then rebuilt my automations and scenes from scratch. It’s working fine now. I guess I’ll never know what gremlin infiltrated my system.
If you choose to continue with sd cards, I would just make sure to take frequent backups and upload them to a safe place like using the Google Drive Backup Addon so you can easily and rapidly restore a recent backup after a fresh install on a new sd card. Will save you a lot of time in the future. It’s just a matter of time until that new sd card fails again.
this post!