Device Status - Unknown

[VirtualPanther]

Greetings, everyone!
I am hoping someone out there can clear up a point of confusion for me. Every now and then, one of my switches, which are almost all Cooper, will have a status as "Unknown". Sometimes the device is truly unreachable, for whatever reason and shutting the power off and then back on fixes it. Sometimes, it doesn't and the node is permanently lost to me, with no troubleshooting fixing it.

However, my question is about a different situation. Here is an example. Woke up early this morning to go to work and saw that my garden lights, which are two huge led lamps up on two trees in the back, are not on. Usually, these go on along with other outdoor lights, at sundown or thereabout. The z-wave switch controlling them is, once again, Cooper Aspire RF. It is about twenty feet away from the wall of the house where the HS3 PC sits. Plus, there are two z-wave receptacles outdoors, nearby and closer to the house. So there was never a communication challenge. It's 5:30 in the morning, so I just went to my PC, opened "Garden" room and saw status "Unknown". Despite that status, clicking "On" turned the lights on, after a pause.

Now, middle of the day, with a little more time, I logged in and saw the same status: "Unknown". Tries "Test Connectivity" and it fails. Ran a rescan and got the following output:


Main Z-Net: Adding association for Z-Wave device First Floor Garden Lights (Node 3, Group 1) to HomeSeer
Dec-05 14:59:13 Z-Wave Getting association information for First Floor Garden Lights Dec-05 14:58:53 Z-Wave Getting association information for node 3
Dec-05 14:58:46 Z-Wave Node 3 is Z-Wave version: Lib: 3.52 App: 3.15
Dec-05 14:58:46 Z-Wave Warning Error getting version information for node 3, Send failed.
Dec-05 14:58:39 Z-Wave Node: 3 Controls Class(es): HAIL Dec-05 14:58:39 Z-Wave Node: 3 Supports Class(es): SWITCH_BINARY, SWITCH_ALL, PROTECTION, VERSION_V2, CONFIGURATION, ALARM_V2, ASSOCIATION, NODE_NAMING, SCENE_ACTIVATION, SCENE_ACTUATOR_CONF, MANUFACTURER_SPECIFIC, POWERLEVEL, HAIL, INDICATOR
Dec-05 14:58:39 Z-Wave Syncing Z-Wave nodes with device list...
Dec-05 14:58:39 Z-Wave Found 191 Z-Wave nodes


So... What exactly is going on and how do you deal with an error like that, short of ignoring it as long as the switch is working? I get a bunch of errors like that with my Cooper 5-button keypads, usually stating that it cannot determine LED status. What a pain...

Here's my system info:

Current Date/Time: 12/5/2016 15:16:28
HomeSeer Version: HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.297
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - Work Station
System Uptime: 3 Days 18 Hours 57 Minutes 13 Seconds
IP Address: 192.168.1.93
Number of Devices: 816
Number of Events: 121
Available Threads: 798

Enabled Plug-Ins
2.0.32.0: BLGData
2.0.69.0: BLStat
1.0.0.0: drhsEventEnabler
3.0.0.29: EasyTrigger
1.473.16283.1915: Homekit bridge
3.0.0.103: HSTouch Server
3.0.0.17: iAutomate RFID
3.0.0.13: ImperiHome
1.1.2.5: JowiHue
3.0.0.19: Nest
3.0.0.192: PHLocation
0.0.0.11: Pushover 3P
3.1.0.16: Sonos
3.0.6132.16975: UltraGCIR3
3.0.5917.35093: UltraLog3
3.0.6020.17037: UltraM1G3
3.0.6147.22046: UltraMon3
3.0.1.94: Z-Wave

[fschwing]

Disclaimer: I am fairly new to HomeSeer.

I have Cooper switches as well and have had problems with losing connection. I was able to solve that problem by specifying a manual route rather than using the automatic optimization for those switches. I believe the root cause was a faulty device in my network, a thermostat that I'm still struggling with. I'm thinking that the network tried to route through the thermostat which took other devices down with it i.e. the cooper switches. At the advice of HomeSeer, I defined a route through a device that I knew was reliable. Haven't had a problem since doing that. I knew the thermostat was likely the culprit because it never reliably held a connection for very long.

By the way, if you have a master/remote switch set-up for a 3-way situation or just a single switch, the master will always control the light manually even if it loses connection with your network.

[btorrenga]

Disclaimer: I am fairly new to HomeSeer.

I have Cooper switches as well and have had problems with losing connection. I was able to solve that problem by specifying a manual route rather than using the automatic optimization for those switches.

How do you set the route? I know where the dialogue to enter values for a manual route is, but I don't know if it is expecting a comma separated list of nodes, space separated list, or what. Whatever I enter seems to be ignored.

[bebaldin]

Greetings, everyone!
I am hoping someone out there can clear up a point of confusion for me. Every now and then, one of my switches, which are almost all Cooper, will have a status as "Unknown". Sometimes the device is truly unreachable, for whatever reason and shutting the power off and then back on fixes it. Sometimes, it doesn't and the node is permanently lost to me, with no troubleshooting fixing it.

A constant source of irritation with Z-Wave. I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that the technology is flawed and unreliable. My systems just did the same thing - unknowns on a dozen or so nodes across multiple controllers - this morning for no reason I can find. No changes have been made to my system in the last month and everything had been running fine. This morning - the Z-Wave gremlins struck again.

[MrMxyzptlk]

My other favorite zwave flaw...random lights turn back on or off after you just turned them on or off.

[bebaldin]

My other favorite zwave flaw...random lights turn back on or off after you just turned them on or off.

Yep. See that one too occasionally.

[RJS]

I suppose we all get the unknown status from our z-wave devices from time to time but has anyone figured out a way to trigger an event based on any device changing to Unknown? At least if HS could send an e-mail informing that a device change to Unknown, we could take steps. This morning I woke up to one of my sprinkler zones active for ~2.5 hours. That valve control was in the Unknown state and never shut off. No log errors or warnings or any indication that things were amiss. The Last Changed field reflects the time that the valve turned on. Under the Advanced tab for that device, the values indicate 0=OFF. The string value is blank as it is when the device is not in the Unknown state. I don't know when it became Unknown. It could have been Unknown before it was commanded On. I had the press the button on that device to shut it off. Good thing I wasn't on travel.

Has anyone written a plugin to scan for Unknown devices?

- Robert

[VirtualPanther]

Sounds terrible, but it is for this reason that I now have my irrigation and security on their own, unattached to HomeSeer, remote control systems. Can't trust HS with things that can wreck havoc if something goes wrong...

[RJS]

I agree and plan to move to a stand alone system at some point but one that I can program from HS. In the meantime, I plugged the valve control into a z-wave power outlet so if it goes Unknown again, at least I can shut off its power manually.

- Robert

[ebreider]

I've just posted elsewhere the question if it would be possible (or not, hoping to get some sensible feedback on the idea) to
- test for 'UNKNOWN' status and get a TRUE on it if it is set to UNKNOWN
- UNKNOWN becomes included in the logic in the sense that when you test, for instance, 'If switch is ON' it will get a false when the status is UNKNOWN. (And of course also when you test for OFF or any other value etc.)

Then at least I can take care of some increased 'reliability' for certain (important) nodes.

Perhaps I haven't thought this through well enough but I am sure I'm going to find out here soon. :-)

Take care all.

Eric