Device keeps falling of line

Devices & Integrations
#1

I am not sure where this would best be posted…let me describe the need, the solution, and the failure:
I have a backup power generator to supply my home when the local utility fails. I can’t always hear when it starts. I need an assist to know when it is running. When the local utility fails, the relay closes and the generator comes on.
The solution was to use one of the open contact on the relay. After some research, I found the Aeotec : Aeotec Door/Window Sensor 7 Basic. This device can be connected to the relay via 18/20 gauge wire. With proper configuration, the sensor no longer looks for the magnet to tell you the door is open/closed, but pays attention to the contact at the end of the wire.
The failure is that the device moves form open to closed to offline for no obvious reason. It is a Z-Wave Plus device. I added a Z-Wave repeater to the apparent connection because of concerns that it was trying to use a Z-Wave link that might not have power (due to utility failure). The repeater is on a circuit that always has power. I have considered temperature variable, day night links, and of course power questions. The device page shows:
Metrics * Received Messages From Device: 744

  • Received Messages From Device (Duplicates): 212
  • Messages Transmitted to Device: 903
  • Messages Transmitted to Device (Failures): 613
  • Updated Time: 2021-02-19 6:02 PM PST
    Data * MSR: 0086-0104-0075
  • networkSecurityLevel: ZWAVE_S2_FAILED
    Raw Description zw:S type:0701 mfr:0371 prod:0102 model:0007 ver:1.01 zwv:6.07 lib:03 cc:5E,85,8E,59,55,86,72,5A,73,9F,70,84,80,5B,30,71,6C,7A
    Current States * contact: open
  • battery: 100 %
  • healthStatus:
  • DeviceWatch-Enroll:
  • checkInterval: 28920 s
  • DeviceWatch-DeviceStatus:

Does anyone have any thoughts what the problem might be (or the solution to keep it on line and make it presumably reliable.?

Todd

#2

When’s the last time you ran a Z wave repair and what were the results?

#3

Once upon a time I would run the utility with some regularity. Now it does not seem to work. I open the application, go to the tile for the Hub which reports “online”. I open the page and note 15 devices connected. I click on :Use SmartThings Hub. I click on Manage Smartthings Hub. The page opens and I then click on the three dots in the upper right corner. One of the options is “Z-Wave utilities”. (I have recited this as much for myself, as I have for you.)
So now I have the opportunity to “Repair z-wave network” (I have been here before.) I click on “Start repair” and the page changes to show when the Z-Wave network repair started. I can tell you how many times I have tried this in the past 30 days. If I don’t stay with the page, the phone will go black and the page is apparently closed. I have played with the phone for literally hours and never have gotten to the end of the “repair” Samsung support us useless, and I don’t want to do a “Master Reset” so that I can reinstall 99 devices.
Any thoughts?

P.S. I guess I didn’t really answer your question. I have no results to point to.

#4

contact closures tied to zigbee or zwve, have never been 100% reliable for me, I see more like 98 out of 100 on or off events. Usually missing an ON but sometimes an OFF.

If the function is important then I usually add a wireless temperature sensor on it, then notify when it exceed operating minimum level. This reports far more often, and it’s easy to tell if the last status has gone stale. Measuring power is even better since you tell everything about its operating state.

#5

Thanks for you thoughts Eric,

According to the factory schematics, this relay remains closed as long as the generator is running - i.e. it is not a momentary contact. If it were a momentary contact I could certainly understand your experience. What I don’t understand is why, when nothing changes (the utility has not failed, the generator has not tried to run, and nothing else has occurred (that I can identify) that would cause the relay to close, or would tell the sensor that the relay is closed.
I don’t understand how you have integrated a temperature sensor into your circuit
T
T

#6

Try running the repair from the IDE instead and see if you get a report that way.

https://account.smartthings.com

#7

there is some part of your generator that get warm/hot when in use. I just put a wireless temp sensor in a spot that will not exceed 150F, that will still get warmed by the process. My prime use is the furnace discharge duct. No connection to any circuit.

Your issue of recving unexpected relay closure, may be extreme latency, late-reporting of a previous relay-change. I haven’t been observing my smartthings systems closely for the past year, but in previous years it was very clear that late-reporting did occur even 8 hours after the actual event. Perhaps much longer in some infrequent cases. The late-reports had the current timestamp, as if they had just occurred.

My latest example was a Centralite motion that reported a distinctive pattern of events when I arrived home in the driveway. This also triggered some mode-action-something in my house. More than once, the distinctive pattern was reported minutes and even 8 full hours later, as if I had just arrived.

Just anecdotes - but that is all I needed.

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