Initial success with Zwave Aeon Stick, then loss of connectivity

Add-ons Bindings
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1

Had started with OpenHab 3 years ago (other priorities arose) and had a quasi-stable Zwave setup. Now returning, most recent configuration is;
Ubuntu Studio 16.04
Oracle Java 8.152 (after trying Zulu 8, which required glibc 2.5+ and I had 2.23)
OpenHab 2.2, repository load
Zwave binding 2.2
Aeon Z Stick S2 - DSA02203-ZWUS

Issue:
I was able to bring the Zwave controller online (after reading about changing tty rw permissions), then ‘remembering’ stored nodes in the stick, connect to and bring online 4 of those stored nodes. It fully recognized 2 of the dimmer nodes from the directory, and I filled in information for the online Aeotec Multisensor, which was then fully recognized. Some time later, I began to notice that one by one the nodes eventually started going offline. And then eventually the controller went offline. PaperUI now says;

OFFLINE - COMMUNICATION_ERROR Serial Error: Port /dev/ttyUSB0 does not exist

when I have confirmed that /dev/ttyUSB0 most certainly does exist.

Try as I might via the PaperUI, nothing has succeeded. I switched from Zulu 8 to Oracle 8, which may (or may not) have reduced some of the exceptions

Log file at http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=47863406833880554159

I’ve restarted, unplugged/plugged the Z Stick back in, changed its variables in the PaperUI thing configuration in order to perhaps reinitialize.

Is PaperUI the best interface for troubleshooting Zwave?

What else should I be trying?

2

Ok, it seems when I unplugged and plugged back in the Zstick at some point, all of the permissions reverted back to root. Have reset the owner to ‘openhab’ and all of the online green indicators flashed back on.

3

This is why the docs recommend adding the openhab user to the dialout group and/or the tty group depending on the permissions on the device in /dev. The permissions will reset every time you unplug/replug it in.

4

Thanks Rich. I hadn’t seen that in the ‘new’ ZWave documentation arrangement (spent most of my OH time at v1.3 to 1.4)

I didn’t see the hints you mention when I drill down from the Documentation menu to the ZWave binding documentation.

I did a search on ‘tty’ and found the following;

Connecting to the Z-Wave controller
https://docs.openhab.org/tutorials/advanced/connecting.html

Though that did not mention the hints.

I kept searching on “ttyUSB” and found the following;

https://docs.openhab.org/addons/bindings/serial1/readme.html

If this is what you are talking about, then I will add openhab user to dialout group, and will try to figure out where to find ATTR values (not readily finding it in the Z Wave debug log, PaperUI configuration properties, nor the controller’s zwave xml file).

It might help to add a link in the ZWave section for new users to more quickly zero in on a functioning ZWave configuration. How can I add such notes, as this does not seem to be a wiki?

5

I know I read this in the zwave documentation at some point. Maybe it was the Linux installation docs…

Yes, there it is: https://docs.openhab.org/installation/linux.html#privileges-for-common-peripherals

First result when searching for dialout.

Searching for “ttyUSB” is a bad search term in this case because depending on the Linux distro and hardware, the controller may show up on /dev/ttyAM0, /dev/ser0, /dev/ttyUSB0 and more.

For the Zwave binding, you submit a PR on the zwave README.md file in the openhab/openhab2-addons github repo. You can browse to the file, click the pencil, and make the edits right in your browser to create the PR for easy edits.

I’m ambivalent about whether too much of this documentation should go in the zwave readme though. The READMEs are intended to be short, not platform specific, and not repeat something documented elsewhere. Since this is a Linux only issue that is documented elsewhere I’m not sure it fits.

6

My thanks again, sometimes eagerly jumping in to get a quick start overlooks important details like this. I’ll examine each of these additional steps. And your comment about avoiding platform specific information in the general section makes perfect sense.