Last week, my V2 hub bricked on me so I had to replace.
I am having a hell of a time trying to get the devices connected to the new hub because I couldn’t disconnect them from the previous hub. The old hub is deleted and I deleted all of the things thru the website.
I understand that I will need to do Device Exclusion first but I am struggling with process. I put hub into exclusion mode and have followed the instruction for my GE switches but the app never says anything. Is there supposed to be some sort of indication that the exclusion worked? I predominantly have GE switches but also have an Inovelli wall plug and can’t get the hub to exclude that either.
There are great instructions oh how to do this when things go right but little to explain when things go wrong. Thanks in advance for any help.
You will not get any indication from the smartthings app that the general exclusion worked, because the general exclusion can work even for devices that have never been connected to that particular controller (in this case, the ST hub). The controller doesn’t have a device ID for the device in those cases and has no way of knowing that the exclusion happened.
The general exclusion is essentially just a command which is broadcast to any zwave device that can hear it, And says “if you are currently in exclusion mode, go ahead and clear all stored information” thus returning the device To its original factory specs.
This is why you have to be careful when you do issue a general exclusion: if somebody happens to hit the particular tap pattern on a device that would put it into exclusion mode, it will go ahead and take itself off the network. Even if it belongs to your next-door neighbor. This is the main reason that the process to put an individual device into exclusion mode is usually a little weird and definitely requires physically manipulating that device.
The whole purpose of a general exclusion is so that you can reset a zwave device whose original controller is no longer available. You can’t add it to your current controller because it still thinks it belongs to the old. But you don’t have the old one. So the zwave folks came up with the general exclusion idea where any zwave controller can issue the command, even one the end device has never been joined to.
But because they’ve never been joined and it’s a full reset, there’s no response notification.
The end device may give some kind of indication like a blink pattern.
A “remove” is different from a general Exclusion because a remove is directed at a specific device that was in fact previously joined to this controller. So you will probably get an acknowledgement from the controller when that completes.
Hey @JDRoberts – interesting, and thanks for the explanation.
Just out of curiosity, would you mind explaining this sentence, “You will not get any indication from the smartthings app that the general exclusion worked”?
I just want to make sure I’m understanding correctly as I’ve received a notification every time. I usually excluded devices that are sent back to me as, “defective” so that I can test them to see if they truly are. Every time, regardless of it’s with an Android or iOS device, if the device can be excluded, it will give me a confirmation (usually, “Unknown Device has been Excluded”).
Again, just want to make sure I’m tracking as literally everything else you said in the write-up is spot on as usual
In ST I always get a message that an unknown device was excluded. If you have an Aeon minimote you can use it to help with exclusions. Much faster that way.
I finally found the problem after a few hours chatting with Smartthings support. I bought the replacement hub from Home Depot and it had Firmware 14.00014 and WOULD NOT update to 20.00017 nor could I get the device exclusion or z-wave network repair to work. So I returned it and bought one at Best Buy that immediately updated to 20.00017 when I turned it on for first time and I have had no problems with the Device Exclusion or adding any of my devices.
