i am trying to figure out how to best setup my zwave network. I have 3 Popp smoke sensors, a Fibaro Motion and a Philio PAN04, all attached to an Aeon Labs ZWave Stick S2.
Since the 3 smoke sensors are distributed along the 3 floors of the house and the Motion sensor is on the ground floor, i am trying to find a setup where all devices can connect to the ZWave stick, but have failed so far.
I bought the PAN04 for two purposes: Measuring the amount of power my living room devices (ground floor) take and to extend the ZWave network for all smoke detectors being able to connect.
Fact is: The devices are far enough apart for not being able to connect to the controller directly, but even when the PAN04 lies in the direct vincinity of one of the smoke detectors, it fails to connect, even though the PAN04 is connected (means to me: the smoke detector won’t route through the PAN04 but tries to connect to the controller and fails).
Can i influence ZWave network routing somehow? What’s the approach here?
There is no way to influence the Z-Wave network routing. That is all handled within the controller itself and is a black-box as far as openHAB is concerned. Your best bet is to get your devices into their final location and let the controller run a few heals (which are usually run each night at 2am). These should ping each node and get them to update their neighbour list and eventually things should sort themselves out.
Hm, ok, no influence then. But why wouldn’t a battery powered device such as the smoke sensors use an always-on device such as the PAN04 as a router to the controller?
It should, as long as it knows it is there. Because battery powered nodes only wake up periodically it can take a while for their heal process to complete. Especially if you are restarting OH since the heal state will be lost and the controller will need to start from scratch again.
I woke up the smoke detector a few times when the PAN04 was directly next to it - to no avail. I will try and leave the whole setup like it is now (PAN04 connected to the controller, but far closer to one of the smoke sensors in the basement than the controller on the first floor) and see if some healing does the trick.
Can i do anything more to nudge the PAN04 as a router for ZWave?
Nope - it is entirely up to the controller and nodes to speak to one another and work it out for themselves. In my experience it can take a little while to get sorted but once done the mesh network is rock solid.
