Weak z-wave network

Hi,

My z-wave network is not robust at all. Maybe i am missing something or i have interferences or my controller has issues.

The range of the z-wave seems to be less than 20 meters While Z - Wave has a range of 100 meters.

My configuration:

  • RASPBERRY PI 3 MODEL B+

  • openHAB 2.3.0 Release Build

  • Z-wave binding version : 2.3.0

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  • Controller: Aeon Labs Z-Stick - USB Adapter with Battery GEN 5

  • NEO Coolcam NAS-DS01Z Smart Home Z-Wave Plus Door Window Sensor Compatible with Z-wave 300 series and 500 series Home Automation

  • NEO COOLCAM NAS-SC01Z Z-wave Plus Wall Light Switch 2CH Gang Home Automation Z Wave Wireless Smart Remote Control Light Switch

  • Fibaro FGMS-001 - Motion Sensor (4-in-1 Multi Sensor) GEN 5

When i am moving my PI from my room to my salon, my switch lights AND motion sensor do not work simultaneously.

Schema 1: when the PI is my bed room, the door sensor is green in paper ui but in status in Node initialising: Dynamic_values and it do not work

Schema 2: When I am moving my PI to the salon,the .sendcommand to the switch takes more time.

Habmin Things:
image

What i am missing?

We cannot really diagnose your network from remote, but you’re running a SW version that has network healing disabled, so likely the routes on your devices need updating but that does not take place.
I suggest migrating to latest testing milestone (2.4M4) as that comes with a new version of the zwave binding to have network heal enabled.
Take care to take action on zwave things after upgrading.

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Outside! Not inside a house with plenty of walls :sunglasses:

20 meters sounds about right - you would only get 100m under ideal, line of sight conditions, and probably only if antenna polarisation is aligned.

These drawings show 4 walls - what are these made of? If it’s brick/concrete, then I’d be surprised if it works at all. If it’s thin plaster walls, then it will work better. Somewhere I have some data on this, but RF propagation is not a straight forward science - especially with the low power, low efficiency antenna systems used on IoT devices.

@chris on the 4 walls, one is a support wall.

How can i overcome this issue?

do you think the upgrade to the binding 2.4 could help?

I think the only real option is to build up your mesh to give the system more opportunities at routing the data. By this, I mean specifically to add more devices “in between” the troublesome devices. The more devices in the network, the better the network will be.

Note that these need to be mains devices - your current list of devices are battery devices, so they will not be able to route frames for other devices, so will not participate in the mesh as such.

I’m not sure that it will help much with this issue - at least not without improving the mesh, In general though I would recommend upgrading as it does have a lot of improvements over the 2.3 binding. As stated above, the heal is included in the 2.4 binding which might improve things if you have devices that can be used for routing, but within your current network, this is not going to help as the battery devices will not support the mesh network.

i will soon upgrade to 2.4

meantime, i have moved the pi to another place between but it wifi

the network is more stable

I have just upgraded to 2.4

my Aeon Labs Z-Stick is detected twice. i have this record in the inbox

Except this, all my z-wave are green .

i had some issues to delete the things, this link was helpful Paper UI Can't remove Item

New functionality recently was added that auto-detects USB devices and places them in the Inbox. You can safely ignore the inbox entry.

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Thanks for your super quick answer!

Hi,

after upgrade to openHAB 2.4.0 Build #1406, i am little bit frustrated by this issue.

My z-wave switch is not performing quickly, changed from ONLINE to OFFLINE

is it a coverage issue ? poor aliexpress hardware issue ? openhab issue?

would you solve my headache :wink:?

i want to underline my fibaro motion sensor in the same room works well

  • Controller: Aeon Labs Z-Stick - USB Adapter with Battery GEN 5

  • NEO COOLCAM NAS-SC01Z Z-wave Plus Wall Light Switch 2CH Gang Home Automation Z Wave Wireless Smart Remote Control Light Switch

for more details in my configuration :

see the logs below

[ome.event.ItemCommandEvent] - Item 'SwitchDoucheLeft' received command OFF
[nt.ItemStatePredictedEvent] - SwitchDoucheLeft predicted to become OFF
[GroupItemStateChangedEvent] - gDouche changed from ON to OFF through SwitchDoucheLeft
[GroupItemStateChangedEvent] - gParents changed from ON to OFF through SwitchDoucheLeft
[vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - SwitchDoucheLeft changed from ON to OFF
[ome.event.ItemCommandEvent] - Item 'SwitchDoucheLeft' received command ON
[nt.ItemStatePredictedEvent] - SwitchDoucheLeft predicted to become ON
[vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - SwitchDoucheLeft changed from OFF to ON
[GroupItemStateChangedEvent] - gDouche changed from OFF to ON through SwitchDoucheLeft
[GroupItemStateChangedEvent] - gParents changed from OFF to ON through SwitchDoucheLeft
[hingStatusInfoChangedEvent] - 'zwave:device:4f0192e8:node11' changed from ONLINE to OFFLINE (COMMUNICATION_ERROR): Node is not communicating with controller
[hingStatusInfoChangedEvent] - 'zwave:device:4f0192e8:node11' changed from OFFLINE (COMMUNICATION_ERROR): Node is not communicating with controller to ONLINE

image

Possibly one (or both) of these.

Node 11 looks like the only mains device in your network. Nodes 4, 6, and 7 are battery devices. Is this right?

How far is node 4 from node 11 and hor far from the controller?

You may benefit from more mains devices to help with routing.

Thanks for your answer

. Nodes 4, 6, and 7 are battery devices

between 4 to 7 , two meters with a wall between them

That’s the switch 11 which works bad

What’s the construction of the wall?

If the switch (node 11) is having problems, then that’s likely the reason node 4 is having problems.

If it were me, I’d try adding 1 or 2 mains-powered devices to help with the routing.

Please could you give an example of main powered devices

Use a dictionary to look up English terms you don’t know.
Any device not running on battery is mains powered.

I have understood but my question. Which devices is main powered except switches?

All sorts of - look at the market.
Roller shutters, plug sockets, …there’s even repeaters (mains powered actuators without any use except to route messages) although I’d always select a plug socket instead so it is of additional use.

A couple examples from my network…

  • Water supply shutoff valve

  • Energy monitor

  • Garage door opener

It works now !

Upgraded to the last milestone openHAB 2.4.0 Build #1451
i have removed the switch from openhab from the console and resetted the Switch.

Before

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After
image

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