Z-wave polling interval needed on devices?

[Otto-mation]

What's the purpose of the polling interval on Z-wave devices like appliance and lamps modules? Is it to check the state if it's been changed manually?
Wouldn't an event trap that change?

I have a lamp module with a 20 minute polling interval and this light is never controlled manually.
What would be an optimum polling interval (if any) for z-wave devices like these?
Thanks

[bsobel]

Not all devices report status changes or report them automatically. Hence the polling option. The only remaining value of polling is a way of deterring the device is still alive if it’s not used for sometime. In that case you can decide what the longest delay in detecting a device issue you are comfortable with.

[sparkman]

If they support instant status (i.e. they notify HS immediately if they are changed locally), then in theory you do not need to poll them at all. I find it annoying that HS assigns default polling values to them as I always change or remove them and have asked a long time ago for a configuration option to not set them. However, you may want to polll every device occasionally in case HS missed something.

[Otto-mation]

Great, helpful answers, thank you!
On selected devices like this lamp I will decrease the polling frequency to an hour (from current 20 minutes).

[drparker151]

in theory, it's not needed at all on zwave-plus devices.

[Otto-mation]

Even better! Thanks

[Guest]

In a perfect world, with a perfect ZWave network, ZWave+ or Instant Status devices would never fail to update the server with their new status. Unfortunately, I do not know where that perfect world exists, if anywhere.

As far as polling devices to catch those that have changed state but failed, for whatever reason, to notify the server, then you need to ask: Do you even care?

If you have a display that shows the current state of your devices, then yes. If you have events that trigger on that device changing its state, then yes (but be aware the event would not have triggered when originally changed, but when the poll detected that it had changed). Otherwise, why worry if Homeseer is not accurate on a device's current state?

[Otto-mation]

Reason enough to keep an infrequent poll for my needs. Helpful explanations, examples, insights and opinions.
Thank you.

[kriz83]

in theory, it's not needed at all on zwave-plus devices.

Are you sure? I am currently tyring out a Fibaro Dimmer 2, and i noticed that if you disconnect it (which I am doing now for testing purposes), it's status remains unchanged in HS3

[jvm]

Are you sure? I am currently tyring out a Fibaro Dimmer 2, and i noticed that if you disconnect it (which I am doing now for testing purposes), it's status remains unchanged in HS3

That's the in-theory part. If HomeSeer misses a report packet, or a device powers down so that status changes are missed, or HomeSeer is rebooted and the device changes during the reboot, then HomeSeer and the device become out-of-sync. The next time the device is changed that will be corrected. If you don't mind the devices occasionally getting out of sync. for a while, you probably don't have to worry. However, I prefer to have the devices occasionally polled. I used to set devices to poll every 20 minutes (actually, I varied the poll - some at exactly 20 minutes, others a bit more or less -- I did this so they wouldn't bunch up and all poll at once ), but now I just use the script found here: https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/li...52#post1245352. I have HomeSeer set to run this script at startup and once in the middle of the night which seems to work well.

[drparker151]

Are you sure? I am currently tyring out a Fibaro Dimmer 2, and i noticed that if you disconnect it (which I am doing now for testing purposes), it's status remains unchanged in HS3

I'm talking about mesh health, seeing changes, adjusting to new routes. Also a working device regularly checking in. If all your devices are zwave+ and you remove that dimmer, the remaining devices will figure it out and adjust the mesh. If they are not plus devices you'll need to optimize.

Also if you monitor all of you devices for a wake-up like I do, you'll find that the plus devices regularly report in. I'm always getting warnings from the SDJhealth plugin that some of my nonplus devices have not woken up in the last 12 hours.

This in theory with all properly working devices.