My SmartThings Z-Wave Experience So Far

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I think there is some confusion between what I posted and/or what you understood. I have no problems with Z-wave or Zigbee. Both networks are solid as stated above. My problems have to do with SmartThings itself, specifically “translation” from one protocol to the next.

For example, I have a Z-wave switch and a Hue Dimmer switch by my front door. The Z-wave switch controls a light by my door (not hue). If I press the Z-wave switch off, SmartThings/WebCore triggers and action to tell the Philips Hue bridge to turn off all the Hue Bulbs in my front yard (5 other bulbs). About 90% of the time, at least one bulb stays on. I have modified the WebCore piston to issue the Turn Off command, wait a minute and then re-issue the Turn Off command. This has gotten the fail rate down to maybe once per month. If I turn the Hue lights off pressing the Hue Dimmer switch to off, I get 100% success. So it appears as though the failure is in the commands being issued between SmartThings and Hue.

My zigbee mesh is solid. All zigbee sensors work as installed, no dropouts on the hub and the Hue network also works solid. My issue is specifically SmartThings issuing commands to Hue.

Interference is my wifi network and neighboring wifi networks causing my wifi to drop in and out. I have very strong signals in my house but I also have high noise levels across multiple wifi channels. Not related to Z-wave and I dont think I stated or implied that it was.

I do not know why I have WebCore issues with the sunrise or sunset statements. I use them for the front yard lights which are hue, but also with my garden lights (z-wave outlet) and my backyard patio lights (z-wave switches). There are days I come home and the lights are off and their are mornings I go out and the lights are on. It is not often, not as often as the SmartThings-Hue fumbles, but is noticeable. I would venture a guess of once to twice a month. I “suspect” this is a home wifi issue, where WebCore is getting processed but not communicated.

The WebCore delays are mostly not noticeable, except for where I use a Zigbee motion sensor to turn on a light. Delay is generally half a second to a full second, but occasionally longer. Just not sure why the delay. My hallways are short and you can easily be 5-ft in before the lights turn on sometimes…which at that point you start to step back to turn the light on…defeating the purpose. I have the same delay if I use the local Smart App and I suspect the cause is the custom GE device handler. Because I am using this device handler, the process is cloud based twice, once for WebCore and second for the device handler. Again, a local control would fix this. I need the custom DH for the double tap features that I use to establish scenes.

Yes, I do have some color hue bulbs that I wish to keep. None of them are controlled directly by a smart switch. They are mostly in lamps or accent lights, plugged in. Only in a few instances are they hardwired fixtures, and then the z-wave switch is in parallel, not direct control.

Motions are Lowe’s Iris Zigbee Sensors.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, there some things to consider in there.

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Issue is not in the z-wave mesh, but rather the cloud processing and the path from SmartThings to Hue. I find no issues with HomeKit and Hue, works great except for some distant bulbs. They work directly with Hue, but drop in HomeKit. This I am not concerned with yet. It is really the SmartThings to Hue that bothers me the most, second only to WebCore processing getting dropped.

Like all Apple products, HomeKit did start out that way, which is why I went SmartThings at first. HomeKit is looking better if I can just get it stable. I always avoid ADT at all costs, they remind me of AOL back in the day.

My only issue with Alexa is I do not have any Alexa devices, so not I have to go buy something else. If I can get Homekit/Siri working, I already have that infrastructure in place.

On the Alexa speaker issue, the new Ecobee switches seem to have that resolved. The only reason I did not consider these is because I was the same switch throughout, not a mix of switches. The GE Z-wave makes that affordable. Having 50 $90 Alexa switches is not efficient at all. They also do not dim.

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Ok, I’m more clear now about your issue. I would like to know from where are the Sanchez family. I’m from PR. Are those 5 bulbs in the yard getting good ZigBee signal? My story is, I had the Hue hub, I had 2 smart bulbs outside the garage connected to a dumb switch, 2 more in the lamps in my living room, and more, but those 4 are the story, I had the same issue as you, the farther bulb did not turn on or off sometimes, I was really mad with this, and when I started to disconnect the bulbs in the hub because I was moving to dumb bulbs and dimmers, I got the first lamp bulb and deleted from the Hue hub, boom, everything was working perfectly. What I mean, the people here says ZigBee network re configure itself when you disconnect the hub for 15+ minutes, I can say by my experience that Hue not necessary works like this, the bulb will try to update the network table but after finding the old route, it will go back to that route, only deleting the device that bulb is communicating will make the problematic bulb to change it route table. That was the only way I got that bulb to work properly, but maybe is not your case, you can try, but you also said that never happened using the Hue app so it looks like it’s a ST problem.

I would like to know why your wifi will make ST, Webcore and Hue communication to fail? what type of wifi router you use? What internet provider you use? I don’t understand how wifi will make any difference if Hue and ST are connected to the LAN, not to the wifi.

Your motion, did you test the motion if the problem is the sensor not picking up on time instead a piston delay? I have 2 z wave motions that they take sometimes forever pick up motion but the other 4 ZigBee (Bosch) sensors, they are great and fast, all using pistons to turn on lights so I think its a motion sensor issue, not the piston, in my case.

I have an installation(another my wife’s friend) where for some reason the ceiling lights in 2 bedrooms and in the dinning room were direct with no switch to turn the off, they had fans and the pulled the chain to turn them off, they wanted lights so I installed a micro switch on the ceiling and a Sylvania lightify ZigBee smart switch in the wall. It works fine, maybe the way of webcore and hue, ST with z wave is complicated. The switch just need your devices IDs and it controls the bulbs you want, maybe a piston command to this switch will work better than sending commands to 5 individual bulbs, but honestly, are those 5 bulbs color ones? because if they are white, you should change them to dumb and add a smart dimmer for the 5.

Sorry my English, let me know more, I like troubleshooting.

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Just a word of caution: Robot vacuums that start automatically and pets that decide to defecate in the room being vacuumed can be a disastrous combination.

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I’ve seen the videos and have died laughing! My dog is only 6 months but so far well house broken. More than likely, he would chew the robot to pieces, so I would say any purchases would still be 6 months out. By then, he should be more accident free. But a 50 pound golden retriever puppy…and a robot vacuum…yeah, that project will wait!

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Hola compañero Sánchez! Unfortunately, we American mutts. I did have a friend do a family trace on the Sanchez name and it goes back to Cadiz, Spain from the 1830’s. The name has been in Louisiana from this lineage for at least 6 generations. While I carry the Spanish surname, my mother’s, mother’s side of the family is pure Louisiana German, my mother’s father’s side is pure Louisiana French and my father’s mother’s side is old world English, but follow the trail of shame with the cajuns. Im come from a very diverse lineage of admonished europeans lol.

Im am truly sorry to see the situation unfold over in PR. You all are really getting shorted on this. As a life long resident of New Orleans, I have seen what government incompetence can do coupled with a devastating disaster. I now run a program to help rehab sanitary sewer lines that was from before our hurricane (2005) and it was combined with a hurricane roadway recovery program. Here we are 13 years later and still nothing. Hang in there!

I did not want to spend too much of your time troubleshooting my system, but I appreciate your interest :smile: I don’t have time to go through everything right now, but I did want you to know I will look at it later.

I will say that yes, the SmartThings Hub and Phillips Hue are hardwired to my LAN. Internet is Cox 50 MB/s. Internet is reliable but the Wifi drops in and out a lot. You are correct that should have no impact on the system. Requires more investigation.

The 5 bulbs outside (actually 7) get good signal. The furthest bulb out drops sometimes. But what is weird is it is always responsive to Phillips Hue commands issued from the Hue app, but drops when the command is issued via HomeKit. I can move the bridge, but then I drop the lamps in the master bedroom. My house is L shaped so the corner to corner distance is pretty far. But what is really weird about this issue is the failure with SmartThings is not necessarily with the bulb furthest out; the issue appears to be a random bulb. It seems that SmartThings issues the commands to Hue one bulb at a time and thus some commands get dropped. The partial fix is the write WebCore pistons that issue duplicate commands after a one minute wait…but still not 100% proof. The long term solution to this may be eliminating the hue bulbs and replacing them with Z-wave RGB bulbs as I have a very good Z-wave mesh. With 30 bulbs, I should have a good Zigbee mesh, but does not seem to be the case.

I only use the smart color bulbs in lamps (no switch) or where I specifically want the color effects (outside for holidays). All other bulbs are dumb LEDs on Z-wave switches.

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I been in FL for four years, but most of my family and my sons still in PR… I recommend a mesh system for your wifi, I had similar problems in my house until I changed to mesh, I’m using the google wifi, the 3 pack, but you can get more in the mesh if needed, not sure if apple has mesh. Yes, I’m in the dark side of android and google, lol.

The 7 bulbs, is cheaper a smart dimmer switch (and easier to control them), but if you going to get RGBs that’s another story.

I hope you solve it without spending to much, my wife and I are happy with smartthings, even with the outage a few months ago, I hope when my time of migration comes, it doesn’t screw up my system.

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I believe you can also have Webcore do a loop through a set of bulbs and turn them off that way, I think that way the “off” commands get sent to the bulbs gradually and don’t flood the network with all the commands all at once.

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I have looked into Mesh wifi, but I have not seen how that solves my problem. I currently have two WAP’s right now, diagonally spaced, about 40-ft apart. I have great signal strength, but I have a very large noise level as well. I have taken measurements of each channel in several spots in my house. I believe the long term fix for this is to move everything to 5 GHz/802.11AC, then setup a new system…which very well could be mesh. But going to mesh on the old 802.11n system makes little sense and very few of our devices are compatible with AC at the moment.

Yep, switches are cheaper than bulbs, lol. But like I said, in the front of my house, colored bulbs was the desire. Everywhere else, we went with switches.

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My specific WebCore language is a bulk command for off, on and setting basic levels and colors (same for all 7), but I do loop for the color changing on the holiday schedule; this approach was dictated by piston size. The purpose of this thread was NOT to troubleshoot my system but rather just share my experience, good and bad. Once I make a decision on how I want to proceed further, I will explore code troubleshooting over on the WebCore forum. Having said that, I do have a do loop script that cycles through each bulb when setting my holiday colors…again, I don’t find it 100%. I think what I probably need to do is determine the latency time between the two bridges and set the wait period between the loop cycles to that. But honestly, this step should not be needed. The fact that command for only 6 out of 7 bulbs are being delivered 90%-95% of the time indicates a flaw in the infrastructure, not the coding. Now is it my network? Or one of the bridges? Perhaps the multiple pathways SmartThings needs to reach out to the cloud in order to perform an action? Most likely some combination, but I suspect more weight falls on cloud dependence more than anything else.