I decided to switch over to an SSD from an SD Card. I installed a new copy of HA on the SSD, backed up the system then restored that to the Pi4 once it booted off of the SSD. I thought everything was great until I noticed all of my Zwave and Zigbee devices were not reporting. I thought it was a device path issue but I can find no where to update the path. After messing with it for a day I realized that it was/is finding the device because when I look at the OZW Log its showing that its doing things and that its initialized. Just none of the devices can talk to it.
So since I had a backup I did a clean install of HA but this time I installed Zwave JS. That also could find the device and it was showing me that nodes were talking on the net. But in HA none of it was there. So I decided it was probably a security key issue so I chose the most chatty device I have, a power monitor, and I removed it from the ZWave net and then factory reset it. Now no matter what I do, no matter how I try and add a node it always fails. The log shows it finds the device, the device indicates that its pairing but then I just get a message saying it fail. My Zigbee net is doing the same thing, no matter what I do it will not let me add a device and it will not talk with the existing ones on the network.
Can anyone offer any suggestions? Starting with a clean install did not work so I’m at a total loss on how to go about fixing this.
RF interference with the SSD on the USB3 ports. Very well known and annoying problem with the Pi4. The SSD <-> USB communication will create RF noise that will drown your zwave signals.
Connect your zwave dongle with an extension USB cable, minimum 1m, better 2, away from the Pi and SSD.
A split, snap-on ferrite core over the cable might help. Ideally, the ferrite should be optimized for the UHF frequencies (formulation 61). It should be placed close to the source of the noise, in this case the Rpi4.
Here’s something that could work if the cable diameter is less than 4.1 mm:
Something just dawned on me. Are you using any USB3 ports for the Zigbee and Z-Wave devices? If so, try moving them to the USB2 ports. If that doesn’t help and you’re using an external SSD with a cable (vs. a jumper board to a shield), you might benefit from using a snap-on filter over each cable.
I would love to move over but there is no way I can see to get the security key. When I installed it I did not set one so it would be auto generated and I cannot find it any were. Also there is no easy migration path that I have found, so once they have that I will be happy to switch to it. Which is also assuming that all of my devices are supported because at least one is not in the database.
For those who are interested I found I had a 4.5 foot USB 3.0 extension cable so I put the Zwave stick on that and things started working like they should. I put the Zigbee stick at the far end of the powered hub I have and that helped, but things far from the hub are still not working and I’m sure its because of signal strength. I’m sure once I get the ferrite filters I ordered things will be good after that.
Can you tell me how to get at .storage? I do not see it in the file editor and when I use the terminal plugin I do not see it there but there are a lot of directories to check.
Ah…I was just about to hit send on the CLI commands.
I should also add that I’m not confident the ferrite filter will work well at the Zigbee frequency (2.4GHz). On the other hand, there could be some overloading of the receiver occurring from lower frequency emissions. The only real way to know is to try the filter. I hope you’ll share your experience since it could help others.
There are other things you can try based upon what I’ve seen online. The first is to get a longer USB extension. Some are long enough to include an active inline repeater. The second idea is to get some adhesive backed copper foil tape to wrap around the connectors near the source. It assumes you have a metal enclosure for the Rpi. Lastly, make sure your cables are well shielded with an outer braid.
Ugh. Unfortunately, there’s no information on the ferrite formulation of the parts you ordered. It’s almost a certainty they don’t have the correct mix for UHF. Best case is they’re type 31, but if you look at the FAQs and reviews for the product, you’ll see they didn’t work well at VHF frequencies. Hopefully, you won’t need more filtering.
I attempted to be specific on the formulation having a chance of being effective at the frequencies of interest and provided a link to a device having the appropriate properties. Mouser, DigiKey, and others stock the part.
If you have the interest, the information on formuation appears on the next-to-last page of this document:
For those interested the following summarizes the fixes to this issue.
1 - I had to update the device path for my Zwave stick in the file /config/.storage/core.config_entries and restart HA. It was the only place I could find to update it when you have the “Z-Wave (deprecated)” integration installed. I would update to Zwave JS but most of my devices are not ported over yet but are on the todo list so I’m waiting.
2 - While adding ferrite filters to the USB cables that the SSD was attached to would have probably fixed the issue you have to get the correct metal mix for it to work well. So it was just easier to dig out two 4.5 foot USB 3.0 cable extensions and hang the Zwave and Zigbee sticks off to the side.
