Is it possible to fix routes?

Devices & Integrations
1

In the Samsung IDE, if I click on a mains powered device, I see the route that device is taking to the hub. I noticed that some of these routes are inefficient. For example, a device at one end of first floor is hopping to another device on second floor and then to hub which is on other end of first floor. Going to the second floor and back to hub, the signal will go through lot more walls and objects and take a longer path.

A better route is to hop to a device closer to hub on first floor which will take the signal through a shorter path, less number of walls and in open air. I have tried Z-Wave network repair, but these routes seem to be stuck. Is there a way to fix them?

Thanks,
Arun

2

You cannot microengineer routes the ZWave and Zigbee protocols choose the best route at the time based on conditions. If the device is malfunctioning then you can run a repair in ZWave or a heal for r Zigbee tonfix things. But no you cannot and nor should you try to specify a specific route.

In short if nothings ‘broken’ dont try and fix it.

3

What if it IS broken? :blush:
For example, I have a few devices that are supposed to be kept at <4 hops. Sometimes they have as many as 6. Moving the devices or hub is not an option. Anything I can do?

4

Zigbee: power down the hub for > 20 minutes. If its a v. 2 hub take out any battery. The end device wil honintonpanic mode abd start rebuilding routes as soon as the hub comes online.

ZWave: look for ZWave repair under the details menu of your actual hub device in the app or under ZWave Utilities on the IDE

5

It’s unlikely that it’s broken: it’s quite possible that the report is broken, which is a different issue. :wink:

Remember that the report just shows you the last path that was taken at the time that the report was created. It doesn’t show you all of the possible paths or even the path that’s usually taken. So honestly, it’s just not that helpful. (It’s not the way most zwave utilities would report the network table.)

In addition, the path which is chosen depends in part on a number of factors that are not documented in the report. Such as the amount of network traffic on a different repeater. Or a need to balance messaging throughout the network.

So all that the report shows you is the most recent path at the time that the report was created. It doesn’t tell you why that path was chosen and it doesn’t give you the statistics on any other paths.

Finally, I wonder if there might be some confusion about what hops are. :thinking: Allowing for up to 4 hops on a Z wave device could give you 6 devices listed in the report style that smartthings uses (again, which is a report style that is elsewhere used for Zigbee devices, but not usually for Z wave devices). That’s because it includes the originating device and the target device. So you could certainly have a report line that went from Lock A to outlet B to switch C to switch D outlet E to the Hub. 6 devices listed, but only 4 hops.

So all in all, it’s very unlikely that the routing itself is broken or even inefficient. It’s just probably taking into account a number of factors that are not represented in the very limited reporting that smartthings gives us.

If everything is working fine, as @nathancu said, I wouldn’t worry about it. But If do you have a device which is not responsive, I would first run a repair and look for those error messages, Then look at route reports over several days for that device and see if anything stands out.

Or if you’re really serious about it, get a decent diagnostic tool, but you will usually pay about $150 for those:

(I was a network engineer and had worked with both Z wave and Zigbee before I ever got smartthings for my own home, so I’m pretty familiar with the protocols. :sunglasses:)

2 Likes
6

@JDRoberts, thank you! Yes, I was confused on the number of hops. Your clarification was very helpful. My immediate pain is a Schlage lock that lives on a shed outside of the house, with RBoy LUM. RBoy says no more than 4 hops. I’m assuming this is the reason the lock doesn’t reliably update from hub, and doesn’t always provide the notifications that are properly set in the SmartApp. I have an Orbi mesh satellite that’s physically pretty close to the lock, and also have 2 beaming devices close by. I’ve tried Z wave repair, with no love… What logs did you mention that I should be checking, and what further steps do you think I can take?

7

The Orbi is Wi-Fi mesh, right? That’s not going to have any positive effect on the zwave lock.

What’s the model number of the lock, what’s the brand and model number of the beaming repeaters, and when’s the last time you did a Z wave repair?

Also, just so you know, all Z wave messages are limited to a maximum of four hops, it’s part of the protocol. Zigbee devices using the protocols that smartthings supports can go up to 15 hops into the hub and 15 hops out again.

8

@JDRoberts, thanks- yes, Orbi ZWave mesh. I guess I don’t have an understanding of the technology… My thinking was that the Orbi would improve the Wi-Fi, and that would help with the lock. Lock is Schlage BE469 (ZWave). The nearby beaming devices are ZWave light switches. I do a ZWave repair anytime I have any types of issues, definitely I’ve done it within the past week.

9

Wi-Fi and Zwave are two completely different things. I don’t think your Orbi even has a Z wave radio. They operate on different frequencies.

Your smartthings hub is a plastic box that has multiple radios inside of it. It has a Z wave radio, Zigbee radio, and depending on the model it may have a Wi-Fi radio. Each is operating on a different network. Z wave repeats only for zwave, Zigbee repeats only for Zigbee, Wi-Fi I can’t help either of those and in fact might make zigbee worse.

Imagine you live in a city on the side of a big river. There is a bridge over the river. If you want to send a package to the other side, you have two choices. You can give it to someone who will drive a car over the bridge. Or you can give it to someone who will pilot a motor boat across the river.

If there’s been a big storm and some trees blew down into the river, that might make it harder for the boat to get across. But clearing the trees out of the river is not going to have any effect one way or the other on the car traffic that is going over the bridge.

Similarly, if the storm did not affect the river, but it did blow some trees down on the street leading to the bridge, clearing those trees would help the car traffic over the bridge, but it isn’t going to have any effect one way or the other on the boats going back-and-forth across the river.

Same way, if you buy a faster boat, it’s not going to make any difference to how quickly your package arrives if you are delivering that package by car.

If you buy a faster car, it’s not going to make any difference to how quickly your package arrives if you are delivering that package by boat.

That’s essentially what’s going on in your house with Wi-Fi and zwave. Improving your Wi-Fi coverage doesn’t have any affect one way or the other on how quickly the Z wave messages arrive. And adding more Z wave repeaters won’t have any effect one way or the other on how good your Wi-Fi signal is.

They are independent networks. So the Orbi WiFi mesh router has nothing to do with your Z wave lock. They can’t talk to each other, they can’t help each other.

When you ran the Z wave repair, did you get any error messages?

1 Like
10

Brand and model number?

1 Like
11

They’re Leviton switches, I believe it’s DZ15S-1BZ

12

OK, it sounds like you’ve got all the right hardware, so I would suggest you get in touch with Rboy support and let them help you figure out what’s going on with the lock.

13

Thanks @JDRoberts, that’s much clearer for me. I just ran a ZWave repair. The only error was one that was expected- a faulty 240VAC contactor. I’m unsure if there are various ways to do the repair, so just in case- I did this through New app > Hub > Zwave Utilities. Thanks for any assistance!

1 Like
14

They’ve been very responsive when I contact them, but they just tell me that I need beaming devices. Do these errors tell us anything?

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15

How close is the Leviton switch to the lock?

As for your logs, I can’t help you with those. I rely on a voice reader and it doesn’t do well with those kinds of entries.

16

I have 3 Leviton switches within about 15 feet and only 1 wall between the switch and the lock. One of the switches is less than 10 feet away (again, with 1 wall betw).

The data from the IDE said

Current States:

  • CodeChanged: 7 Failed

Metrics:

  • Messages Transmitted to Device (Failures): 1