Two cases whare HS3 was not properly reporting the status of a standard on-off switch

[Sparky4460]

I have had two instances in the same number of days where HS3 version 349 was not properly reporting the status of a standard switch. One was a Jasco (GE) outlet the other a Jasco (GE) wall switch. I have never had this happen before with HS3 or a smart hub. In one case HS3 was reporting the it was off when on and the other on when off. It was corrected when I toggled the switch with HSTouch. I don't know if this is a bug in version 349 or something wrong with my configuration. It never happen with version 318 or when I was using a Smartthings hub. This is very disturbing because I control security devices with HS3 and improper reporting would be bad. I am fairly new to HS3 (about a month) but I would never expect this to happen. I am wondering if anyone else has experienced it? I might expect this happen very rarely (once or twice per year) but not two times is as many days.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.


Current Date/Time: 8/11/2017 7:34:09 AM
HomeSeer Version: HS3 Standard Edition 3.0.0.349
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - Work Station
System Uptime: 0 Days 23 Hours 32 Minutes 32 Seconds
IP Address: 192.168.1.11
Number of Devices: 79
Number of Events: 34
Available Threads: 800

Enabled Plug-Ins
3.0.0.38: EnvisaLink
1.0.17205.396: MyQ
3.0.1.130: Z-Wave

[happnatious1]

Jasco switches are not instant status, they need to be polled. On some of mine i created an event that if any change is made to that switch wait 3 seconds then poll it.

[Sparky4460]

Thanks you for this quick reply. I have a couple questions.

You say the Jasco switch do not instantly poll but what is instant? I know these devices had changed at least 15 minutes before I noticed the discrepancy. Probably much longer. Also the Z-Wave setting show a polling interval of 0 seconds. Is that not instant?

Can you share the event with me. I tried to create one and would like to see what you did. I assume you must create a separate event for each switch.

I created an event that does the following:

If this device has a value that just changed
Devicename
Then Wait 3 seconds
Then poll a node for status
Root Device name

Does this look right?

[langenet]

You should try and reset your route for those devices directly to you z-wave controller. That's how I believe these need to be configured to have a pseudo instant status.
Go to Plugins>Zwave>Node Information>the specific device and set the route to 1.

Robert

[Sparky4460]

If I do this am I forcing the device go directly to the Z-Wave controller. One is already listed as direct. The other goes through two hops because of the distance. What if it can't reach controller? I have no problem controlling it just getting status. I might start having problems controlling it.

[happnatious1]

Langenet has a good point.

Instant status was a patented feature by intermatic I think. The patent has expired now. Instant status reports it's status to homeseer when it changes where as the jasco switches just send a status change message when something occurs. It doesn't include what the status changed to. I had these events for every switch in my house and in another thread Rich saw them and said he might incorporate that into homeseer directly. I don't know if he did or not.

[langenet]

I have a couple of GE switches which must be configured to work this way for instant status. I have them linked to each other as well such that if I turn one on, the other will also turn on. I suppose if they can't reach the controller, that an alternate route would be recalculated - it still knows it's neighbours afterall. The only other option is to purchase the HS switches which in my opinion are fantastic...

Robert

[happnatious1]

I agree with the homeseer switch recomendation. I have some in key areas to utalize the double and triple tap features. Double on tap sets lighting in the whole house. Triple on starts music playing in the house.

[integlikewhoa]

As you have already found out the problem is your GE devices don't automatically report their status back to any controller. They don't have instant status (brand new GE z-wave plus devices now do though).

Your polling set to 0 means polling is turned off. Setting polling to some real low number would fix your current issue but it will cause you more issues due to network traffic.

As others are showing you manual polling via an event is another way to check in on the device to see its current state. All of this is really not ideal as you can see. The device you want should have instant status and just automatically report its update back to the controller (hs3 or other) without having to constantly poll (like poking it over and over asking it what state its currently in). Polling is a good backup for some strange cases say HS3 was turned off or powered down and someone turned on a light from the switch. Instant status would fail to send the update to HS3 but when HS3 was back on and had a polling time of say 20 min or so then after around 20min it would update that. Polling times are usually set to around 20ish min to keep traffic to a min. which makes all other z-wave commands go faster. To many devices or too much polling slows the network down.

I started with alot of GE devices and in one house I still have a bunch. My options were either swap all the devices out or by a "Homeseer z-net" and place it on the other side of the house. I was able to split up the z-wave network to get all devices to report directly. And GE does update instantly (not true instant status still, but it works) if they report directly. HS3 can support many z-wave networks all as one in HS3. I also have a large detached garage and shop, that has a z-net in it for everything back there.

That's not the best option if you only have a few devices though. I got all my GE switches from my local LOWES (I use only HomeSeer switches now). Not sure if your the same? If you have one or two switches you might buy the newer Z-wave plus (make sure it says "Z-wave PLUS" on the box) switches from lowes and test them out. If you don't like them return them to lowes, and they look identical in appearance. If you mix up the switches you may have a hard time figuring out which one is the correct one to return.

But I would try to start planning on moving to only switches with instant status and z-wave plus at this time.

[Sparky4460]

Ok thanks everyone for your suggestions. I am still fairly new at all this. Couple comments.

I don't think returning my Lowes GE switches is an option at this point since I threw away all the boxes. I have noticed that some of the switches are firmware 3.29 and some are 5.20. I looked to see if I could find a firmware update file and I could not find one.

I changed several of my routes to 1 on some of the culprit switches and that did not help. Still the same issue. I also noticed that when the switch was toggled the last working route reverted back to what it was before. Direct or several hops.

So now I am going to try the suggestion of adding an event to poll the status of the switch 2 seconds after any thing changes. Lets see what that does.

[Sparky4460]

I just realized that I bought 8 switches from Amazon and they are all standard Z-Wave NOT Z-Wave plus. My beginner mistake. I am sure Amazon will take these back even though they are a month old now and w/o boxes. They do have the Z-Wave Plus version as well for the same price. I will order them. I think all the switches I bought from Lowes are Z-Wave Plus. I still have a couple boxes.

[integlikewhoa]

I just realized that I bought 8 switches from Amazon and they are all standard Z-Wave NOT Z-Wave plus. My beginner mistake. I am sure Amazon will take these back even though they are a month old now and w/o boxes. They do have the Z-Wave Plus version as well for the same price. I will order them. I think all the switches I bought from Lowes are Z-Wave Plus. I still have a couple boxes.

The z-wave plus ones shouldn't have this issue. Atleast get those and you should be fine.

Altho I make no commission I think you should look into the benifits of the HomeSeer switches if you can swing the 8 bucks or so more. They do offer firmware updates, double and tripple tap, and LED's on the dimmer to show brightness.

Like I said I started with GE and moved up. Might be better to assess this before you get to deep in and then realize you want other switches and you have a house full.

EDIT: might be less then 8.00 difference each on the on/offs. Its around 43.00 each, no tax to you, but probley a few bucks in shipping. If you mix and match a few of them you can call in and they are usually friendly enough for a discount.

[Rupp]

Just a point of reference. Not all Z-Wave plus switches report their status. You need to look for switches that state that they do so. Look for "Provides Instant Status" Here's a switch comparison chart.
https://homeseer.com/compare-z-wave-wall-dimmers/

[integlikewhoa]

Just a point of reference. Not all Z-Wave plus switches report their status. You need to look for switches that state that they do so. Look for "Provides Instant Status"

This is true as z-wave plus doesn't have anything to do with instant status. It just so happens that the new GE switches (which are new part number starting with 14XXX instead of older 12XXX) are both z-wave plus and instant status.

Here's a switch comparison chart.
https://homeseer.com/compare-z-wave-wall-dimmers/

This is a very old list and don't have alot of switches or even the newer GE switch part number on there.

[macromark]

A few points...

• GE switches and dimmers (Non Z-Wave Plus versions) send a "node info frame" when they are activated. HS3 detects this and is coded to instantly poll these swtiches when that happens. This approximate "instant status". Caveat: It will only work with devices that communicate directly with the controller (including both the command and return routes). If routing through other devices occurs, instant status won't occur.
• Firmware versions are only significant if they refer to the Z-Wave library (ZDK) version. However, even then... that's no guarantee of instant status. That feature has to be programmed either by using Z-Wave associations or the Scene command classes.
• The patent on instant status was held by Lutron. This patent expired in Feb 2016
• Finally... why not just purchase HomeSeer dimmers and switches instead? We have instant status but also multi-tap event triggers. Our dimmer also has a 7-LED inicator for dim level.