A Couple of Devices Unreachable after Abrupt Windows Restart

[kenm]

I'm not sure if the "abrupt" windows restart had anything to do with this or if an HS shutdown and restart would have caused the same.

Last night, around 3AM my HS4 host system (Windows 10 Pro) decided to do a hard reboot due to a "power kernel error", whatever that means. In any case, when the system restarted, a Philips Hue device (downlight) and an Innr smart plug were showing "Unreachable". The 10 other Hue/Innr devices were good. A restart of the plugin didn't resolve this, but a power cycle of each unreachable device brought them back.

Any guidance on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken

[w.vuyk]

I have no real guidance here really. But I had a more or less similar experience myself too. I have a Philips Hue bridge here which is controlling my bathroom light, a Philips White bulb. A simple light. I bought it in 2014 and had in in the bathroom since then. It was 100% reliable.
Until a few months back the light became unreachable, sending a command worked often but missed every now and then too. I unscrewed the bulb and put it back in. Problem solved. After a few days I realized the Philips Hue bridge was not restarted for more then a year, so I though this might be a reason why the bulb became unreachable. So I restarted the bridge. It took long before the bridge was showing its three green lights. But after that the bulb was unreachable again. Taking power off and bringing it back would restore a working condition again. But from hereon the bulb became unreachable more and more often, until I decided to take out the bulb and replace it with another (still old) bulb. This one is now reliable and not missing a beat again.

In other words, I have a (light wise) perfect bulb, but it seems the Zigbee reception function is down now, after 7 full years. I placed it on a hard switch controlled spot for the second part of its life

Long story, but can it be the downlight and plug you have is also loosing its zigbee reception?

Not much help, but maybe a consideration

Wim

[kenm]

Thanks Wim. That helped re-direct my thinking to devices instead of HS and your plugin. In looking at the physical locations of the Innr outlet and the downlight, it seems likely that the Innr outlet is the repeater for that downlight. I've marked that outlet and swapped it with one that was closer to the bridge.

Do you know of any Zigbee mesh mapping utility that could confirm my thinking or is it only time that will tell?

Thanks for the input.
Ken

[w.vuyk]

Ken,

Yes, but if memory service me right, you are using a Philips bridge only right? Then you might not like the answer
The deCONZ gateway is showing a nice map and the soon to come new version will even enable you to influence the mapping a bit more. A sample image is attached with the new mapping. There is nothing like it for the Philips Hue bridge though...





BTW, the above image is coming from the new beta deCONZ, where the map has been improved a lot now.

Wim

[kenm]

Just ordered a Conbee II. That feature alone is worth the effort to make the switch.

Thanks,
Ken

[gmitch64]

I had a more or less similar experience myself too.

Interesting. I've had a similar issue with a couple of Philips bulbs on a Hue hub too. I had a light in the living room that wouldn't go off all the time. Even worse (from my wifes point of view), is that the light would come on in the middle of the night. She could then use voice control to turn it off. And that was fine, till it came back on again. And she turned it off again. And it came on again... Drove her nuts.

I've switched out the bulb, and everything is working fine again - and more importantly, my wife is happy

One thing I've not tried, is to try and do a reset of the bulb, and also possibly try it on my Raspbee and see if that makes a difference.


G

[TC1]

Just to point out the obvious, almost all these IoT devices that are directly connected to AC power (no power supply transformer/brick) are prone to failure due to power surges and spiking. I had a Ikea Tradfri outlet plug start chattering the other day... and it's only one years old. Tried doing a factory reset, etc... the power LED just keeps flickering. At $10 a pop it's not worth worrying about, into the electronics recycling bin it went. Ordered a new Sonoff one for the same price and better features.

[kenm]

Interesting. I've had a similar issue with a couple of Philips bulbs on a Hue hub too. I had a light in the living room that wouldn't go off all the time. Even worse (from my wifes point of view), is that the light would come on in the middle of the night. She could then use voice control to turn it off. And that was fine, till it came back on again. And she turned it off again. And it came on again... Drove her nuts.

I've switched out the bulb, and everything is working fine again - and more importantly, my wife is happy

One thing I've not tried, is to try and do a reset of the bulb, and also possibly try it on my Raspbee and see if that makes a difference.


G

gmitch64 Did you happen to note if the bulb was listed "unreachable" in HS? Your situation sounds very similar to a problem I had with a Z-Wave module except it wouldn't stay on. I swapped the module and everything was fine for a while and then the same thing started happening with a different module while the "suspect" module continued to work fine at another location. I hear you about happy wife. The lamp that wouldn't stay on was her reading lamp. She's extremely tolerant of automation glitches. Initially, she just unplugged the module and plugged the lamp directly into the wall. It's not the same with a downlight in a ceiling can.

[kenm]

Just to point out the obvious, almost all these IoT devices that are directly connected to AC power (no power supply transformer/brick) are prone to failure due to power surges and spiking. I had a Ikea Tradfri outlet plug start chattering the other day... and it's only one years old. Tried doing a factory reset, etc... the power LED just keeps flickering. At $10 a pop it's not worth worrying about, into the electronics recycling bin it went. Ordered a new Sonoff one for the same price and better features.

TC1 As a part of a panel upgrade/auto-switchover/inverter for solar, we installed a whole house surge suppressor with replaceable MOVs. We don't get a lot of lightning here in NorCal, but we do have a lot of critters running the power lines causing spikes.

[TC1]

TC1 As a part of a panel upgrade/auto-switchover/inverter for solar, we installed a whole house surge suppressor with replaceable MOVs. We don't get a lot of lightning here in NorCal, but we do have a lot of critters running the power lines causing spikes.

Good moves on the protection, my "forever" home that I hope to build in the next few years will have every conceivable form of prevention and protection