I am having problems posting to the forum. The text entry boxes are not responding correctly and when I get to the end of a line, the text overwites on top of the same line. So I can’t even see this text as I type it…
Ok, it looks like the REPLY box is working correctly, so here is my actual post.
I have two GE Zwave switches, one is a dimmer and the other is a standard switch. (This is setup for my question) I have enabled my debug logs in my SmartThings app to “display extra events.” I did this because after having some problems with my standard GE switch, I logged in to the IDE site and noticed that it is going “INACTIVE”, which I can see under my device list. It does not seem to be possible to bring it out of INACTIVE status on its own and when it is INACTIVE, it cannot be controlled by the app, which is quite annoying–this is my problem. It’s like an OFFLINE status or something. Now, the LQI signal part…for comparison, My GE dimmer switch (no problems with this one) is located in the same room as my hub and in line-of-sight about 12 feet away and the LQI signal is reading 35%. (Seems LOW) My standard GE switch is in my Master Bedroom which is one room over with a bathroom in between, so only two walls, both drywall. That LQI signal is reading 25%. I have a Multisense on my back door is which also two rooms over and it reads an LQI signal of 100%, just to note as a comparison. Also, the Multisense that is on my Garage Door is reading 100% as well.
What is the significance of the LQI signal in relationship to the device going INACTIVE? Is there any correlation between the signal being low and its status? Are these LQI signals really low? Is this because the GE switches are just not as good of quality as the SmartThings Multisense?
Any advice or suggestions would be helpful.
As a side note, I had absolutely no issues with my GE switch until I updated the SmartThings iOS app. I doubt this is related, but anything is possible.
Update on INACTIVE status. I have been watching my device list and my Garage Door Opener just went INACTIVE and so I went to my app and pushed the button…and the Garage closed and the device became ACTIVE. Therefore, I was incorrect in assuming the INACTIVE status was equivalent to OFFLINE. It seems to more accurately be a “sleep mode” or something. So this is probably unrelated to my GE Switch not working/being non-responsive.
I never clearly stated my problem before either. My problem is my GE Switch in my Master Bedroom is not working consistently. It went out last night after the iOS update and could not be controlled at all by my app and this morning it was not working either, but then it randomly came back and is working now. Just trying to isolate the issue.
well it doesn’t look like anyone has any ideas for my situation. this is depressing. I’ll give an update anyway just in the slight chance that a SmartThings engineer wander by here…First off, I noticed that my GE outlets do not display an LQI signal. Ooops. Due to my naming the motion sensors and the outlets very similarly, I accidentally associated the LQI signal with the outlet rather than the motion sensor. So the LQI status that I reported on earlier was for the motion sensors made by SmartThings, but it is still rather interesting that they display much lower signals than my Smartsense Multis that are farther away…?
I ended up returning my GE standard outlet for a replacement in the odd chance that it was defective and the new outlet does the same thing. It works some and then doesn’t. It won’t refresh its status in the app almost constantly and is just not working about 75% of the time overall. I had the feeling it was a signal issue even though it isn’t that far away (40 feet and two interior walls) but to be sure, I’ve moved the outlet into a closer room, one room over (25 feet and one interior wall) and for the last hour it seems to be working and refreshing consistently. We will see…I figured Zwave would have better range than this. I feel bad for people with bigger houses. Mine is only 1400 sq ft.
I think the ACTIVE and INACTIVE states are related to multisensors, if the sensor is moving or vibrating it becomes “active”. As for the GE outlet, it’s most probably a range issue. Z-Wave creates a mesh network, the more Z-wave outlets you buy and install the better the signal propagates. Zigbee has better range (relatively speaking, your mileage may vary).