Replacing Node Without Having to Reprogram Everything

[jimbo715]

I've had two z-wave door locks by Schlage for a few weeks now. One of them all of a sudden stopped working via HS3. I tried re-scaning the node, restarting HS3, and testing connectivity. None of it worked or helped. I ended up removing the node entirely, resetting to factory defaults the lock, and then adding it back to HS3. The problem was that all my events related to the lock I had to go in and change to be setup with the 'new' node.

I'm seeing this exact issue now with my other lock. What steps (if any) can I take so that I'm not having to go back through all my events? As I write this, maybe setting up a virtual node for the future would be easiest? That way I only have to make a change in on place and have all my events based on that virtual node.

[IanIreland]

Could you use the 'repalce' function before you delete the old node?

[ralnet]

I will chime in on this. Replace node has never worked and I have tried over the last four year about a dozen times. The only time it ever worked was back in the day on a Leviton Controller.

[jvm]

I have several Schlage BE469 locks and they are a pain to initially set up. Since they don't support Z-Wave plus, and don't support Network Wide Inclusion, you have to be sure they are very close to the controller during initial setup and any "fix" to the locks. Make sure the controller is kept close to the lock for the full "Add/Include a Node" cycle- i.e., until you see the key exchange messages followed by the "Done" message. This takes several minutes

As for fixing your current locks, my experience is the following procedure (sometimes) works:

With the locks about 6 inches from your controller or less, In the lock's Root Device entry (that's the lock device that ooks like a gear and is typically named "IR Security Safety Entry Control"), go to the Z-Wave Tab. On the Z-Wave tab, (1) click on the Rescan button; and (2) On the Lock, enter the code which you use to pair the lock. This should then wake the lock up and it will try to exchange data with HomeSeer. IF this doesn't work, change the order (i.e., wake the lock first, then click on Rescan)

Hopefully, this will fix your lock. Now, put your controller back where it normally is - i.e., not 6 inches away from the lock, and re-optimize the lock. ("Optimize" followed by "Full Optimize").

If these are new locks and within their return period, I'd check if you could return them and, instead, wait for the updated version which is Z-Wave Plus. The new version is showing on zwavealliance.org, but I haven't seen it on sale yet: https://products.z-wavealliance.org/...ts?company=216

[jvm]

Oh, and before doing anything, put in new batteries. The Schlage locks do a terrible job of battery reporting. Sometimes mine die and stop communicating even though HomeSeer is still showing plenty of battery life. Rechargeable batteries seem to have the worst behavior on this point. It took me a while to realize I should always change the batteries to a new set first before any other diagnostic. This is true even when the lock is responding to manual entry on the keypad.

[jimbo715]

Oh, and before doing anything, put in new batteries. The Schlage locks do a terrible job of battery reporting. Sometimes mine die and stop communicating even though HomeSeer is still showing plenty of battery life. Rechargeable batteries seem to have the worst behavior on this point. It took me a while to realize I should always change the batteries to a new set first before any other diagnostic. This is true even when the lock is responding to manual entry on the keypad.

Now that is weird. I want to say I've had the lock for 3 weeks...changed the batteries even though the keypad was working like you said. That seemed to have done it. I didn't think they'd die that quickly..

Thank you for the trick you use. I'll be saving that for next time.

[jvm]

You're welcome. Glad I could help. Yeah, their battery detection sucks and sometimes, for no reason, the batteries seem to run out very fast. I think I one time had a problem where the locks went through batteries very fast and, eventually, I removed them and re-added them. I'm not sure if that was what cured my problem, but eventually they worked fine and continue to work well. And, again, I emphasize that you should never use rechargeable batteries! I now stick with Duracell Alkaline or other "name brand" Alkaline.

Also, be sure you're not polling too often. I have mine set to poll the "Door Lock" device about once every hour or so - you can make it even longer - the locks don't "normally" need a poll - this is just to recover the correct state if you shut down HomeSeer and change the lock while HomeSeer is shut down. I also poll the battery only once every 12 hours.