Hub Firmware Release Notes - 0.24.11

When you figure out how to be in more than one, please let me know!

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Really hope ST can figure out what they did to screw up my hub. I have a load of very DUMB smart devices in my home right now and the ticket i have with ST support is not helpingā€¦their only suggestion so far has been ā€œIt is interference with WiFiā€ā€¦ ummm no.

Just out of curiosity, what type of devices and are they using stock or custom device handlers?

This is definitely a buggy release. While in the past Iā€™ve had a GE Z-wave switch drop off every 9-12 months, since this update it seems a new device drops off every week.

To SmartThings development staff and engineers. Please fix, roll back firmware or get out of the business.

Iā€™m baffled to understand how you can continue to ignore that release 0.24.11 is not causing an issue. No issue for months on my environment and only after update I have sensors, switches that fail. Aeotec, GE itā€™s not just one manufacture.

Even if you donā€™t understand how or if it is your firmware roll back, continue to test and then more forward. With so many individuals on this board posting issues I canā€™t image how your support and customer support can be so horrible.

From a 30+ year veteran in the in the IT industry who has to manage customer challenges and firmware updates that inadvertently cause customer impacts. it happens, and then how you manage it show how customer focused you are.

Regards,
Soon to be one less SmartThings user.

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Itā€™s not just the V2 hub thats experiencing these issues. My new v3 hub also is experiencing similar issues. Iā€™ve noticed that the hub its frequently losing itā€™s connection to the cloud. I never had this issue with v2.

There are definitely issues that are not being owned up to.

Just a thoughtā€¦

It doesnā€™t have to be the firmware causing all the issues, particularly since quite a few people are reporting issues that just occurred in the last 10 days or so, several weeks after the firmware update.

It may be that with the introduction of the V3 and a potential boost in sales that they are having platform issues affecting different cloud accounts randomly. (Thatā€™s happened twice before that we know of.)

That might also explain staff silence in this thread.

Iā€™m not saying that is whatā€™s happening, and there may well have been problems with the firmware update in addition, but the reports of problems just starting in November do make it seem like thereā€™s something more going on then this particular update.

I donā€™t know anything for sure, of course, Iā€™m just looking at the patterns in the trouble reports being posted to the forum.

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Having a internal IT resource issue to manage all the accounts and activity? Maybeā€¦ Iā€™ll give into some of that.

But that may be more scary than have a buggy code release that can be tweaked and pushed fairly quickly if/when identified. Having to acquire and deploy resources for mismanaged capacity planning. That could take many months.

Thank God I donā€™t have grandmaā€™s health being monitored by one of these sensorsā€¦
Hmm.

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Your analysis is spot-on, JD! As @johnconstantelo & I were commenting earlier, after the firmware updateā€”which is now a ā€˜constantā€™ in the mixā€”thereā€™s been notable flux, perhaps due to fixing things in the cloud architecture. We have way less visibility into ST Cloud changes than the engineers provide here w/r/t hub firmwareā€¦

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You shouldnā€™t, anyway. (And I say that as someone who is dependent on a medical monitoring system.)

Even the company says that in their official product usage guidelines:

https://www.smartthings.com/guidelines

Data accuracy and consistency from SmartThings sensors, including those provided by SmartThings directly, resold by SmartThings, or supported by SmartThings, is not guaranteed. Therefore, you should not rely on that data for any use that impacts health, safety, security, property or financial interests.

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it was a joke -
But finally a response from Smartthings. So you are still monitoring our posts. Just choosing to ignore us.

JD doesnā€™t work for SmartThings, heā€™s just always helpful.

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Sorry, was that directed at me? Iā€™m just another customer. I havenā€™t seen any staff responses in this thread for quite a while.

Staff members all have a little blue ā€œSmartThings Staffā€ tag on their posts.

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Sorry JD. no wasnā€™t meant for you. Just saw the "SmartThings Logo in you reply and quckly thought that was them.

SmartThings if you are listening (and just occurred to me) you do advertise your system as a Security solution so what happens when why smoke or CO sensor fails to response like my light or switch sensor? Donā€™t advertise as a security solution if the solution is not reliable.

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I like your sense of humour. :grinning:
If they are listening, they are ignoring these issues.

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FWIW, At this point all of the links on the website that take you to ā€œSecurityā€ use cases take you to the dual logo ADT/SmartThings Hub, which is more reliable and does have additional features that the other home automation hub models do not have. So I think thatā€™s their standard answer now -ā€“ if you want security, you should be using that model. (I know a lot of the other marketing implies otherwise. :scream:)

https://www.smartthings.com/home-security

My personal opinion, for what itā€™s worth, is that the ADT model is a decent low-end security system, something I would not say about the other models.

You can talk to people who are using the ADT model in the following thread:

ADT partnership: ST-ADT touchscreen hub and devices (discussion thread)

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Although I donā€™t get to this forum nearly as much as I used to, or would like to, it seems that staff participation in the forum in general has reached an all-time low. Even the beta forum has gone eerily silent.

You could very well be right in that itā€™s not the firmware, or not JUST the firmware at fault. SmartThings is a complex system with a lot of disparate systems and interdependencies. Like any complex issue, there could be many layers at play.

The absence of staff involvement is very disquieting to say the least. It would be great to see an acknowledgment of what everyone has been talking about. What concerns me the most is with the holidays and holiday shopping season just around the corner, I canā€™t see ST pushing any significant updates until next year.

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@jkp the devices run the gammut between Locks, Outlets, Switches, Thermostat, Smoke detectorsā€¦etc. Some of them are using custom device handlers (that have been working rock solid for ever) and others are using Stock device handlers. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to these issues.

An update from SmartThings support with my emphasis added. I especially like the bolded portionā€¦ rest assured i have responded with this thrread to make sure they understand what a ā€œnon trending issueā€ looks like.

Luis (SmartThings)

Nov 14, 4:27 PM MST

Hey there,

Thanks for reaching out, sorry for the trouble.

The firmware update should not have caused a z-wave network disruption. In most cases during the download/install of the firmware the hub may have rebooted and devices that were already in a bad state could have fell off. Usually, when devices fall offline the biggest culprits are distance, interference or a low/dead battery (in battery powered devices of course). A z-wave network repair is more of a diagnostic tool that shows you where a device, path or node is failing to repeat or carry the signal (in rare cases it may bring a device back online). If a device shows up as failed for example, it most likely will need to be excluded and re-paired back to the hub.

The hub firmware update shouldnā€™t have caused these issues but when other outliers have been eliminated we can see why the assumption would be the firmware update as a root cause. Other users with the same set up and larger have not reported the same behavior (at least not to us) and thus on our end itā€™s not a trending issue. The WiFi devices will not cause interference on the z-wave frequency as they communicate on a different band/wavelength. They really only affect zigbee devices but you would need a LOT of interference for that to be a real cause (heavy duty router, hub on top of router, that type of thing).

We checked out the account and it does look like most of your z-wave devices are offline, except for the Front Porch Light. Now, given the status of the z-wave network either that device is close to the hub or is just in an area where the z-wave signal is able to reach it reliably which is why it hasnā€™t fallen off just yet. If that is not the case, then itā€™s surprising as the hub has no other devices to bounce through at the moment (since theyā€™re all offline). The hub can reach about 25-30 feet not including building materials known to cause interference such as walls, bricks, concrete, steel, etc. After and within this range we recommend repeating devices to help carry the signal. Repeating devices are devices that have constant current running to them (in wall switches, in wall outlets, plug in outlets, etc).

It looks like you have enough however imagine a tent being held up by your repeating devices (the tent is the mesh network and the repeaters are the poles, sorry for the comparison but it helps sometimes). If one or more of the repeaters fall, then the signal suffers and thus the network suffers. The mesh will collapse if most/all of the nodes/devices fall offline. Usually at this juncture the only real alternative would be to tear down the z-wave network and start once again. Excluding and re-including devices starting with the ones closest to hub and moving outward. This will simulate a web almost (like a spider web) and allow the greatest chance for a stable and reliable network.

We know itā€™s not ideal, especially as tedious as excluding devices and re-adding them is but itā€™s really the only way to correct the issue at hand. We cannot revert a firmware update as itā€™s automatic and any replacement hub will carry the latest firmware (which is the current one on your hub). Now, if you do tear down the network and set it up once again and the issue continues, then it may be a hub issue. If thatā€™s the case we can definitely replace it for you to rule out a bad z-wave module.

If you are a bit hesitant to jump in and start from scratch with your z-wave devices, you can try whatā€™s known as a ā€œfirmware flashā€. Simply hold down the recessed button on the back of the hub until you see the LED on the front strobe/blink yellow, then let go. This will cause the hub to download the firmware once again and refresh the modules. In some cases this brings back some devices and helps. If not, then you know the only option is to tear down and re-build.

Give that a shot and let us know how it goes!

Kindest regards,

Luis
SmartThings Support

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Wowā€¦

Yup, I must be wrong with all the crap Iā€™ve experienced with 24.11 and the beta program leading up to this disaster. Why do I say that? Well I just checked my ticket, and itā€™s resolved?!?!?

image

How was it resolved you ask? I have no freakinā€™ idea because the ticket was closed WITH NO comments or feedback by anyone from ST!!!

This is the only thing in my ticket from them:

Created October 12, 2018 06:04
Last activity October 15, 2018 15:06
Assigned to David
Id #627131
Status Solved

Total B.S.

Like I said above, Iā€™ve noticed improvements recently, but to not have any communication from ST here, or in a PM (especially since Iā€™ve called out the folks in this thread and in the beta), or even in my formal support ticket is total crap.

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