Aeotec DSA38-ZWUS Z-Wave Panic Button

[Epgrizz]

I am new to this forum and I hope I am posting this in the correct area since I cant find or am I able to post to anything else I have found on this item.
I recently bought one of these panic buttons. I am able to get it to include into my network but it seems very limited. Talking to Aeotec, they tell me that it will communicate with my controller only or change a value and I can communicate with multiple devices only but not through any devices on my zwave network to my homeseer controller. 20 feet away from my controller I can see in the log it receives the command from the device but 40 feet away nothing. Even standing right next to a bank of zwave switches nothing in the log. I dont think i have it set up incorrectly but looking for input from other people on this

[BillBurn]

I don't have one of those particular devices, but I have severa other types of Aeotec Z-Wave devices and they all perform as expected.

It would surprise me greatly if the device was designed in such a way that it could not communicate to the controller through other Z-Wave devices on the same Z-Wave network. Z-Wave is a mesh network protocol, so all devices are both receivers and repeaters by design.

Absent another owner confirming the same behavior, I have a few thoughts:


1) This device has some Z-Wave quirk that Homeseer's Z-Wave plug-in does not support yet. There is a history of new devices sometimes not performing exactly as spec'ed on HS until there are some explicit tweaks. This can easily be confirmed/denied if someone else on the Forum posts and is having he same problem, or better yet, not having any issues.

2) That particular device is defective in some manner. If so return and replace

2) That device is associated with a separate Z-Wave network from the ones your other Z-Wave devices are associated with. Now this shouldn't happen unless you have two Z-Wave gateways connected, but in the off chance this is what is occurring, I would open up the Z-Wave plug-in to confirm A) that there is only one Z-Wave network operating B) that your panic button is in fact associated with the same network as your other Z-Wave devices. If this not the case, simply remove the device from the panic button network and add it back to your main network.

Hopefully some of the true Z-Wave gurus on this forum will chime in with more informed opinions than mine!

[Epgrizz]

I agree it should communicate through the rest of the network. I emailed their tech support and I quote "For the signal of controllers, it most likely will not travel through neighbor nodes unless present in an area for long enough to be determined as a neighbor node. Usually i believe the panic button will attempt to send a direct communication to the gateway rather than re-route/daisy chain itself through the mesh network typically. "
Node information says 0 neighbors and last working route direct (40k)

[BillBurn]

"For the signal of controllers, it most likely will not travel through neighbor nodes unless present in an area for long enough to be determined as a neighbor node. Usually i believe the panic button will attempt to send a direct communication to the gateway rather than re-route/daisy chain itself through the mesh network typically. "

Interesting. Sounds like they may have made some firmware trade-offs on not doing route regular neighbor discovery/route optimizations vs. battery usage.

Have you tried leaving it near a remote node and then optimizing the panic button node? Not a long term solution, but should at least prove/disprove the theory that it can communicate with a neighbor.

[Epgrizz]

There is nothing on the zwave tab to optimize or full optimize. I was considering manually placing a route though the furthest node to the closest in the node tab.
I have placed it near 2 nodes for the last 3 days but nothing. I really didnt expect it to since it "sleeps" till activated