I’m using ZWave-JS with a Sigma Designs USB Z-Wave dongle. Home Assistant is running in a Virtual Box VM on a Linux Mint PC, and the USB stick is passed through in Virtual Box.
I have an issue from time to time with the the Z-Wave network not responding and this is fixed by restarting the Z-Wave JS add-on. So I’ve created an automation to restart the add-on every hour.
I’ve noticed the following messages in the Supervisor Log, which I suspect could be the cause of this. Is this something that Home Assistant is doing itself (I’ve noticed the log also contains regular references to system checks, autofixes, information reloads, updating local network configurations etc that it must run on a scheduled basis) or does it look like a symptom of something going wrong with the connectivity to the USB dongle?
I have nearly an identical setup and don’t experience this problem. Do you use a usb extension cord that will get usb z-wave stick away from the computer. I have had very few problems once I did that. My extension is 3’ but I have had up to 12’ extension and it worked fine.
Yes I do, in fact it wouldn’t work at all when plugged directly into the computer. I think the cable is about 7’ Maybe I should try experimenting with different cables.
Yes, it’s all set up correctly in VirtualBox and I’m pretty sure I’m up to date with the software. I’ve just swapped the USB cable out for a shorter one and I’ll see how that goes, then I can look further into the software and the USB port if there are still issues. Thank you for the suggestions. I think I can be confident though that it’s not something that HA could be causing by its regular housekeeping/maintenance routines as no-one’s homing in on that!
Though it is worth being aware, that the ZWaveJS server (both ZWaveJS and ZWaveJS2MQTT) now soft resets the stick when the addon is started (or crashes and restarts). Virtual Box (and indeed any Hypervisor) will see the soft reset as hardware being removed from the port and then inserted. The Home Assistant log may simply be evidence that you need to look closer as the ZWaveJS log to see if it is actually crashing. (You can turn the soft reset option off in ZWaveJS2MQTT - I’m not sure about ZWaveJS)
How do I know if the soft reset as triggered? Does it appear in the ZWave JS logs and if so how do I view past events there, there doesn’t appear to be a scrollbar?