First, I wish you all had an awesome Xmas. 
Now, regarding my question. I have RPi 4 8Gb, I’m not using any SD Card but instead an SSD (for performance and reliability) and I have installed a very stable OH 3.4.
I have no problems whatsoever using it. It idles at around 3/4% CPU and when I’m using it remotely with RealVNC, scrolling inside OH menus, it has peaks between 30% to 40%. When I send a command (clicking an item for instance) it might have a peak of 50% or 60% but that’s really just a fraction of a second, and then it goes back down.
This to say, I’m experiencing a very stressful situation with a Zwave network.
I’m using in an installation a Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5+ USB pen and then 4x Aeotec Range Extender 7 to make sure the Zwave network has a good signal all around the house.
All Zwave devices are from a single brand: Simon Tech.
These are light switches and blinds/curtains.
Initially, there was a problem where Simon had old buttons mixed with new buttons, meaning, they had a previous supplier that was using Zwave 5 and then that supplier apparently had a chip shortage and they had to order from a different supplier, which apparently used a different version of Zwave and that caused problems with the network whenever devices from both suppliers were installed at the same time.
They then took all light switches and updated them. The network improved but still there are problems. And these are the problems currently happening:
- If we try to turn on a light, although it’s not instant, it takes some seconds but it does turn ON
- If we try to move a blind or curtain, not only that takes sometimes almost a minute to move but then all Zwave network get’s stuck and if in the meanwhile we try to turn ON or OFF, it takes also a huge time and only when the blind or curtain does something, does the light turn (sometimes ON and OFF multiple times)
- Even after a lot of time waiting, the blinds/curtains behavior is very strange because it goes sometimes multiple times UP or multiple times DOWN at small steps (yes, I do have activated the “Send command on release” on the widget)
- The most weird thing is that, when we click on some blinds/curtains buttons physically, sometimes it does not responde and we need to perform a calibration to make it work again
Last but not least, we are talking about around 190 Zwave buttons in this house (with a total of around 230 items, including multiple MQTT, which all work very fast, almost instantly).
Also, I’ve already performed a FULL reset to my USB Zwave Stick 3 times and each time I take good care to first reset each button manually and then include it in the network again, starting on the ones closest to the USB Zwave Stick, so yes the network is supposed to be properly created (have other houses with similar structure and equal server and it works normally).
So, for the sake of performance wise, what’s your take on using this hardware that I have for this? Is it too much for my little RPi4 to handle? Is it suppose to be fine? Should I move to a different setup in these cases to ensure it does not “drag”? If so, should I consider the new RPi5?
If your opinion is (like mine) that this current setup is enough for the job, then would you point the culprit as being the physical buttons?
If I didn’t had any other similar installations I would be more keen into having the server as the main cause of this problem, but since I do have similar cases working good, I am pointing for the buttons itself.
Simon brand have been very responsive and they have handled the situation very professionally, can’t complain on them. But I do need to be 100% sure that I am not doing anything wrong in this installation.
Thank you very much and I wish you all a Happy New Year.