My ZWA-2 started “jamming” many times a day. I ended up changing the USB Cable that came with it to a high quality one and this did reduce it. Obviously won’t eliminate it as there is the issue with the SDK still, but dramatically reduced it. I had the same issue with the ZBT-2 USB cable supplied by Nabu Casa with the device.
It seems the USB cables are poor quality with bad shielding. If this is how they are across the board, I feel that is poor form from Nabu Casa just to save a dollar. I hope that my two devices were outliers and not representative of all.
I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure the Jamming message is only reported for the radio side of the z-wave controller communications and not the serial side. You may be attributing improvement to something you don’t have enough statistical data to have true confidence in cause/effect.
You may be. My understanding is the firmware deadlocks and the device becomes unresponsive. There is a HW watchdog on the stick that “reboots” the stick when it gets into this state. Yes there is evidence that chatty devices make it more likely to deadlock. It’s also possible that corrupted USB messages could cause it to get deadlocked.
I agree it’s not conclusive but given it’s still unsolved after 3 years we should not rule that out.
I definitely won’t call it conclusive. Could be totally coincidental.
I had bad USB cable on the zwa-2 and the newer ZBT-2 ZigBee/thread device, as I said, I might be unlucky and these are just two random bad cables and most are good. Just thought I’d mention it as corrupt USB messages could cause lockups as the firmware tries to compensate for the SDK flaws that SiLabs seem to have issues fixing.
Definitely not conclusive evidence for sure, more circumstantial I guess but worth checking if you have higher than average jamming issues
Seeing this same issue. At least a hundred times a day. This has been going on for years now, over multiple controllers (Aeotec 700, ZWA-2). Zwave performance has been atrocious for me lately. SDK: v7.23.1 and FW: 1.1.
I bought the ZWA-2 thinking it would fix these issues. I was also hoping that HA joining the Zwave alliance would speed fixes along. SILabs need to open source the firmware and allow other devs to fix these issues. Zwave is on its last legs, and I’m at the end of my patience with it.
Bedtime script takes 30 seconds to turn off 20-25 lights via a normal light.turn_off command. That’s if it actually works, many times the script just fails. Zwave Multicast is broken. Radio Jamming. It’s just too much!
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I just migrated from aeotec gen5 to zwa-2. I use zwave js UI. Where are you guys seeing the “jammed” error reported? In the zwave js UI logs?
In two places. On the Zwave JS UI nodes control panel in the upper right corner there’s a small banner that typically says “Ready” when the controller and driver are communicating properly. This will sometimes change to red and say something like “The controller is unable to transmit”. The other place is the sensor created in HA for the controller when you add the Zwave integration. It will flip between “Ready” and “Jammed”.
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yup, i too am seeing jammed several times over the last 20 hours since i switched to zwa-2. It seems to only last 1-2 seconds. I suppose that is still an issue though if my system is trying to execute a command during that time.
Someone said replacing the USB cables helped- any recommendation on brand/model of cable?
The cable that comes with the ZWA-2 appears to be very similar to an Apple iPhone cable. I swapped mine for an actual iPhone cable, an Amazon fire tablet cable, and an off brand cable (no idea the brand as I’ve had it for a few years). I did not see any difference in the frequency or duration of when the Zwave network would jam.
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I have Home Assistant Green and the ZWA-2 and it’s fine. My guess is something with the migration.
@Paddy707 It has nothing to do with migration.
Just do a quick Google search and you will see the SiLabs issues with the SDK have been going on a long time.
Itis not fixed, there are many open issues. If you are not seeing jams, you are a very lucky one. Even the lead developer at ZWave JS can tell you with absolute authority the issue is the SDK from SiLabs
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I switched to a ZWA-2 after Christmas. Since then I have been averaging 6 jammed issues per day. Before that, with a ZST39 LR and firmware 7.23.2, it was more like 1 to 2. I am extremely disappointed the ZWA-2 is an even older firmware than that, and unless a miracle happens, I intend to return it.
It’s not the device unfortunately. 800 and 700 have the issue but the 800 is actually more prone to it. Silicon Labs just refuse, or are unable to, fix it.
But I am like you. I went back to my 700 series RazBerry 7 which plugs into the header on the HA yellow and it does jam less. I don’t have any long range devices anyway
I hate that SiLabs have made zwave so bad now. It’s like they want to kill it
I don’t know how to pull it from hass directly, though that would be a great stat to have. I have been pulling it from my zwave-js-ui logs: zgrep 'The controller is jammed' ~hass/zwave-js-ui/store/logs/zwavejs_2026*.log* | awk -F: '{print $1}' | uniq -c. I run an old-school stand-alone instance, so I am unsure how you would access the logs with a more modern install.
Settings > Devices & Services > Devices
Search for “zwa-2” (or the name of your zwave controller).
Then look under the “Activity” section.
I get several “jammed” notifications per day but they only last for 1-2 seconds and I don’t really notice them otherwise.
I have mine sitting like 6-7’ from a mesh node for my router. I’ve been meaning to movie it… but I really don’t have any centrally located spot with a mesh node.
The is no activity. Does the activity need to be turned on?
Why can’t you look at the stick status? My zwave stick has a diagnostic sensor called status. This shows “ready” it should go to jammed when jammed?
