LZW36 Fan/Light Switch Canopy Module Disconnection Issues

giphy (3)

Tag @anon14959390, you’re it on this thread!

Kidding, let me process this tonight. I think what I may have to do is start PM’ing each of you 1v1 and start to try to replicate each instance.

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Appreciate your time and support!

Let me know if you want to take a road trip down to Ohio and test in my RF Anechoic Chamber (my house). Lol

Seems like moving could work. Let’s try a few more steps first though. Honestly the exorcist doesn’t seem that bad of an idea. :rofl:

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  • Fan (Make/Model): Daylesford 52 in. LED Indoor Oiled-Rubbed Bronze Ceiling Fan (Model # 205547382)
  • Pull-chains or remote operated: Remote Operated
  • Wiring schematic: Standard Power Into Switch wiring provided by Inovelli
  • Distance from canopy module to switch: 10ft
  • Estimated temperature: 72 degrees
  • Picture: I’ll try and get a picture, but the canopy is small and opening it would show how it’s sitting in the canopy
  • Access Point: I do have an access about about 15ft from the switch
  • Would you consider your 2.4 GHz network large or overworked: I have google wifi with 4 access points in the house. I wouldn’t say the network is overworked, but it does have well over 30 devices connected both wifi and hardwired.
  • Note: Airgapping does seem to solve the problem for me as well temporarily.
  • Do you have any access points near the fan?
    I have a ubiquiti ac pro access point about 15 feet away.

  • Would you consider your 2.4 GHz network large or overworked?

I have around 10 devices on the 2.4 ghz network. I wouldn’t say it’s over worked.

I don’t want to derail this discussion thread, but there are a lot of Unifi users in this thread that are having issues. I was curious about everyone’s settings for their Unifi Setup. I created this separate thread where people can input their information.

@Eric_Inovelli and @anon14959390, If you think this is irrelevant and would like me to remove it. Let me know!

@Hoveeman mine are Zyxel and Google WiFi and same issues here as all the rest.

I’m not convinced it is an issue with Ubiquiti gear interfering with the LZW6. Rather, I think that is indicative of the user base as most of us are advanced and more likely to use prosumer level gear. I run 8 APs, with the closest within 15 feet of the switch, and 8ish feet from the fan. I have >75 devices (more than half on 2.4GHz) on WiFi and have configured the UniFi AI (or whatever it is called) to adjust the channels based on nightly scans of the RF. So far, I have not had any issues.

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My setup is a Netgear C7000 router with a Netgear AC750 repeater at each end of the house. One is in the same room as the fan but on the opposite side of the room from the wall switch. I did unplug it to see if that made a difference and it didn’t. I have about 20 devices on the 2.4ghz network plus a couple 4 or 5 more connected to that extender. The main router is in the center of the house with the fan located two rooms over.

Just an update – @EricM_Inovelli just bought a spectrum analyzer to take a look at one of the defective modules to see if, in fact the signal is getting to the fan module to rule out any RF issues.

My gut is telling me this is likely not an RF issue due to some of the data-points above, but we’d like to prove it.

The analyzer should be at his house in 2 days.

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Yesterday was not a good day. Had to pull the air gap on 4 switches multiple times per switch. It at least does fix it temporarily (the times are all over the map for how long it stays connected to the canopy). I never lose z-wave connection though.

Of my one switch that has never had a “problem” with needing to pull the air gap, I am getting the crazy random light flickering on it. As I mentioned above, all of my fans are the same, all of the installations are the same. I run Unifi gear and ran it unplugged to test with no change in random whacky behavior.

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@Eric_Inovelli Just had my first lockup since your post and was able to test…Lockup was in the Fan Location #1 per my post above.

State of Switch/Fan @ lockup
Light Off
Fan Medium

Yes

I used the pull chain (High->Medium->Low->OFF) for fan speed and this triggered ZERO power reporting from the switch as seen in the screen shot.

Looking at the event History the switch must have locked up some time after we put my daughter to bed, as the last activity was at 9:15pm and then you can see my interations at 10:30 when I detected the switch is not working

Hi @Eric_Inovelli,
Any thoughts on how the antenna wire should be oriented?
Pointed at the switch, perpendicular to the line to the switch, vertical (parallel to the switch)…?

For a basic antenna, the RF signal comes out the side of the antenna in a doughnut shape (as if you stuck the antenna through the hole of a doughnut). For best results, the tip of the antenna should be pointing perpendicular to the switch.

FYI, mine finally locked up again, after trying to make it fail since Sunday. I’m soooo excited…in a geeky way! :smiley:

Power usage does NOT appear to be updating in Hubitat, even if I poll the switch.

Changes from the switch and Hubitat are showing up on both.

More importantly, part of my test was leaving breeze mode on…and it is still working! My rationale is that I suspectbreeze mode executes in the canopy module, and this shows that he canopy module’s processor is still running even though there is a communications issue somewhere between the switch and canopy.

Any other tests that I should run before I air-gap the switch to see if it restores the connection???

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Replying to myself, let me also add that I noticed that the light/fan were not responding after stopping my Hubitat light/dimmer exercise loop and trying to turn the brightness up to 100% from the Hubitat dashboard. The Hubitat dashboard button icon turned into an hourglass when I changed the brightness to 100% from it, and didn’t change the light’s displayed state or toggle the state on/off for at least 10-15 seconds worth of clicking before the switch and Hubitat were back in sync. Just throwing it out there because I am still personally suspecting a problem on the switch side of the link where some Z-Wave event is causing the RF radio to the canopy to drop connection. Air-gapping the switch to restore the canopy connection makes me suspect the problem is there and not in the canopy module, and seeing breeze mode still operational appears to be a sign that the canopy module is still running (sans link to the switch)…

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Jumping on this thread with a “me too” … I’m having the same issue. :confused: Bought three, installed one … and now I’m trying to solve this also.

Like a lot of other people on here, I also have a Unifi access point with quite a heavy 2.4 ghz load (probably around 30 devices) … but I don’t feel like this is the most likely suspect. My thinking here is that once connected, these things work for a random period, meaning that if it is an outside force that’s breaking the communication; obviously, we all need to have it in common, and it needs to be transient for all of us.

If it’s the 2.4ghz environment signal it would either need to be flirting with barely connected from the get go, or disrupted by the normal process of devices coming and going. My 2.4Ghz environment doesn’t change much, and it’s unlikely that we’re all sitting at the same congestion level that causes a “barely there” connected state between the switch and the canopy where one more device confuzzles the communication … though anything is possible

I’m wondering if the thing that we have in common is related to the actual power. Perhaps the switch, or the canopy module is unbuffered to minor power fluctuations (most likely the switch, based on the thread), and the 2.4ghz hardware in one or the other hits a bad state and gets stuck when the power dips out of range. In my house, when ever the central AC kicks on, due to the load change, there is a visible diming of lights, etc … so I know that the switch feels that too. Power fluctuations are pretty common and it would explain the randomness that’s being described. I’m still trying to work out a test, but even if power is the root cause, proving it could be hard without the right equipment since it could be related to severity and/or duration. So … I’ll ask first - is anyone else consciously aware that they have power fluctuations?

I just air-gapped the switch for 60 full seconds, and it restored the connection with the canopy module.

When connectivity was lost, the light dimmer was at 15-20% and the fan on breeze mode. Before I pulled the air gap, I set the light to 100% and fan on high using Hubitat…and it was shown on the switch’s LED status bars. About 2 seconds after I pushed the air gap back in, the light went up to 100% and the fan went into high mode.

One extra variable that I am going to throw into the equation for @kitt001 is that we had a slow-moving blob of lazy thunderstorms hanging overhead for about three hours during the time that the switch and canopy module stopped communicating. There were no near strikes, and I did not hear the relays click on the UPS that I was sitting next to or hear the beeper on the bigger UPS in the West Wing Server Room. :laughing:

One of the northeast power grid’s major interconnect points is a couple of miles away as the crow flies on the same road that I live on, and our power is usually rock-solid having the big grid, local substation, and distribution lines all within a few miles of the main sources for NYC and the entire northeast. Not going to say that it’s the cleanest power in the world, but we seldom see spikes or sags.

My test included 4 days of running the fan in breeze mode, which I’m sure blipped the canopy module’s power whenever high speed kicked in. It was also running this Hubitat RM task repeatedly for the past three days, which I’m sure also probably threw some spikes at the canopy module flipping on/of and changing dimmer settings:

Summary: Air gap for 60 seconds restored connectivity, and switch immediately sent settings changed during the communications failure to the canopy module as soon as they were able to communicate again…

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Well I got my second lock up. :frowning:

  • The last power report indicated 7 watts - this corresponds to the lights being on, but not the fan. I run with local protection enabled for the Light only.
  • It was a cooler day here, so room temperature was probably around 74 - might have been warmer at the ceiling.
  • After taking the wiring pic, I moved the antenna outside the cover, so it was sticking out.
  • I don’t use Ubiquiti APs, but i do have 2 2.4 GHz wifi networks, one for upstairs, and another for downstairs.
  • Pulling the airgap fixed the issue.
  • I was still seeing Z-wave commands being processed.

Any other pertinent details I should include?

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