I completed a migration from Hubitat C4 to C7 . After this upgrade, my Inovelli Red Series Dimmers are not performing well AT ALL. Yes they turn off and on, but the delay is unbearably slow. Dimming takes forever (I checked the dimming speed settings in the device already). Also, I use the notifications all the time and those are no longer working consistently.
Could be something going on with Z-Wave in general on the C-7. A few things I’d try:
Go to Settings > Z-Wave Details and make sure you have no “ghost devices” or really anything leftover from a failed pairing. Likely candidates are entries here not associated with an actual device (in the “Device” column, and particularly if hitting the “Discover” button doesn’t add one).
if you do see any and see a “Remove,” try that (wait a few seconds for the page to reload afterwards)
if you don’t see “Remove,” hit “Refresh,” wait a few seconds, then either try “Remove” (if you see it now) or another “Refresh” if you don’t
if “Remove” never appears, it’s likely that whatever the device is/was is still responding on your network; identifying it and excluding it or removing it from power (or batteries) is usually what you’ll need to do to help
Consider shutting down the hub (Settings > Shut Down), then, after the hub’s LED turns red, remove power for at least 30 seconds before reconnecting. (Some people recommend doing this from the wall side so as to not damage the small, possibly fragile connector on the hub side.) This is generally necessary only if the Z-Wave radio crashes, which recent hub updates should have helped with — and a regular hub restart won’t help with — but it can’t hurt to try once.
Verify that you don’t have any “known problem devices” paired to your C-7. These include the Zooz “4-in-1” ZSE40 (at least if using S0; may be fine without), the Zooz “Double Plug” ZSE25 (if using S2 and power metering; pair without and disable these), and possibly Inovelli’s bulbs (which will default to S0 and pairing without may help; a recent firmware update allows this, or a secondary controller could do the job).
Related to that last point, I’d avoid S0 in general unless you need it (e.g., locks or garage doors where they need security and they don’t support S2). Some people also recommend avoiding S2 or prefer to do so regardless, but unlike S0, it’s not that much chattier on your network and actually has some features that may help in some cases (Z-Wave Supervision), so you can try things either way if you don’t have a preference but shouldn’t really need to. Settings > Z-Wave Details is probably the easiest way to see how something paired, and again, S0 is probablty the biggest concern here.
For the firmware updates, the C-7 has a new process that is not documented in that Inovelli article. Instead of the “community” driver, you can use the built-in Device Firmware Updater app (no need to switch drivers; the app does all the work for you). That being said, their implementations are likely substantially similar, so you might still have bad luck with that, but it’s worth trying. If you still see that “sleepy device” message (these aren’t sleepy, so that’s odd — but I’ve seen it to), some people report that power cycling the dimmer can help. Just pull the air gap for a few seconds and push it back in.
Otherwise, Z-Wave PC Controller seems to work more reliably for most people. Since you had a C-4, you probably have a Z-Wave stick you can use for this as long as you have access to Windows. If not, I’ve done it via ZwaveJS2MQTT before, too, and that can run on almost anything, but that doesn’t seem to be as well documented around here (yet?).
Thank you so much for the detailed response. I am working through the steps and have made some progress. These firmware updates for the RED series switches are giving me some issues as they take forever, but I will report back once done.
I did find two ghost devices in Zwave details and was able to remove them
Shut down the hub per the instructions
I did have one device using S2 which I re-paired and is now “none”
I do have an Inovelli Bulb which is set to S0. After upgrading firmware, I was able to get it to pair as “none”.
For the PC controller, I have a HomeSeer which I have used in the past as well as the stick from the C4. What is the preferred software to do this?
I am having trouble getting the firmware updated on my red series dimmers. I am using the new method with the “Device Firmware Updater”. It gets to about 35-40% and then errors out that it was unable to deliver the package. Are there any tricks to get these updated?
If you are able to bring the switch closer to the hub, that might help.
I built myself a Jig for when I needed to do that. It is essentially a wooden box with an electric box for switch and an outlet and one for a bulb. I used an old power cord to feed power to it through the electric box.
The PC controller is the software. It is a PC application made by Silicone Labs. Instead of updating via your hub you use a Z-Wave USB stick on your computer. After unpairing the device from your hub you pair it with the Z-Wave stick plugged into your computer and then flash the update.
I successfully updated the red series using the below method. I can’t believe I spent a day messing with the Hubitat built-in utility. This was so much easier. The hardest part was finding the software!