Starting from scratch

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#1

I finally decided I couldn’t take the mess of delays, not working, and troubles with my ST installation, plus my wife is pretty frustrated with all of this, so I decided to purge all of the Z-wave devices from my system and start over.

So my journey started with z-wave exclude, and I went around to ALL of my switches, bulbs, smoke detectors, sensors, etc. and removed them. Was over 30 devices (yay?)! When I was done, there were 2 devices that were still present and COULD not be deleted, one was Switch - Master Bedroom which was dropping out frequently, and was literally my first switch ever installed, and the second was Switch - Dining Room which I had also had many connection failures and some REALLY long delays when trying to do that switch. I tried deleting in the app, in the IDE, and nothing was working. I finally rebooted my hub and was able to delete them from the IDE. I did a z-wave repair after all of this and it took 1 second (nothing on that network anymore).

So after all of that, I hard reset (hold config for 20s until red) every red dimmer I had, and they all performed the reset just fine.

Last step, I deleted the Inovelli device handlers in the IDE, deleted smartapps, paused all webcore/ecobee suite assistants, etc.

Started adding back switches one by one. First switch I added through the app using the WWST functionality, and it installed the “Z-Wave Metering Dimmer” device handler, and rendered it basically useless (no settings whatsoever), so I quickly re-installed the Inovelli Red Dimmer device handler (from github via IDE) and changed the device type.

Added in 2 more bulbs again with WWST integration, got the security error and they came in as networkSecurityLevel: ZWAVE_S0_LEGACY.

So as I start my journey again, here are a few things I will be changing:

  1. Naming convention - I’ll be naming them with more intuitive names. Instead of “Switch - Master Bedroom” I’ll be using Master Bedroom Switch. With search function that makes it much easier and more intuitive to the less initiated in my home.

  2. Device testing - I’ll add 2-3 devices per day, repair z-wave, and test them. Device handlers has been something of a mixed bag recently, and I hope I can help Inovelli troubleshoot their DTH’s in specific status’.

  3. Only used always-on sockets for bulbs- Some of my lights were being used as nodes when I would repair the network against my wishes since the lights could be turned off in 3-way mode (function of wiring, nothing that Inovelli could do). The other ones won’t be a part of my ST network until I can get aux switches.

If this doesn’t work out how I want it to, I’ll likely be moving to Hubitat. My wife is so frustrated with the ST experience, and frankly I don’t blame her. I’ve been through repairing my network with Jody from ST, and it really helped for about 12 hours then everything started freezing up and delaying again. I think I had skeletons in the closet for sure, and I hope that this repairs that!

Here we go! @Eric_Inovelli @EricM_Inovelli @jody I hope by restarting that we can collab a bit more and do some testing to help out the DTH development to ensure speed for all!

#2

First item goes to @Eric_Inovelli. In the instructions, it links to graph.api.smartthings.com:

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I was having permissions issues and Jody said to use account.smartthings.com. Just a recommendation.

First question goes to @EricM_Inovelli! How best should the Switch Child Device and Switch Level Child Device be used/added/published? I can’t find any references to this in the instructions (only the main device handler) located here: Instructions but I think that this is needed for the notifications (child, unsure about child level?).

#3

I found what might be a huge deal:

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Looks like I was using an old/retired version of the DTH for the LZW42 bulbs?

Anyway, I’ll be updating the bulbs to this DTH and see if performance improves.

#4

Welp, association isn’t working with S2_Failed security and S0 for the bulbs. So back to square one on adding the switches trying to get them to S0.

#5

I heard the magic to do that was not to use the UUID sticker to add to network, or just use the Classic App.

#6

So I definitely got the picture box and did NOT take the pic (it’s behind a plate anyway, and I confirmed that it was less secure, blah, blah blah. So I think the new app does not revert to S0 but rather S2_Failed. Back to the classic app I guess… that’s a concern for sure because if the old app goes away we are out of luck. It’s days are numbered per ST.

#7

Hopefully Hubitat back stock comes in soon. :slight_smile:

#8

That’s the next step FOR SURE. Well that or HA, but Hubitat seems more user friendly. I do have an enterprise server on 24/7 that runs unraid and I can run HA in a docker pretty easily.

#9

@kreene1987 - I thought about doing that, but after seeing the configurations required to get things to work, I opted for HE. Plus my server rack (45RU) is in the basement and if I need to move the hub closer for something, I can move the HE a lot easier than a server…

#10

Noted – I’ll make the change!

The trick here is to use the, “Scan Nearby” function vs the, “Scan QR Code” or the search function. If you use the, “Scan Nearby” function, I believe it reverts to S0. The other option is to use the SmartThings Classic app.

#11

Ok I do think I did the manufacturer search and used the Red Series Inovelli type. Will report back.

#12

You don’t need any child device handlers unless you enable the child devices for “Default level Z-wave” or “Default level Local”. In that case you need the Inovelli Switch Level child device handler:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/InovelliUSA/SmartThingsInovelli/master/devicetypes/inovelliusa/switch-level-child-device.src/switch-level-child-device.groovy
Doesn’t matter if you publish it or not I believe.

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