[RELEASE] Iris SmartPlug Z-Wave Repeater with Diagnostics

I have just gone berserk I have many devices, with SmartThings, most controled with Alexa. Now I have added a BOND which controls all by non SmartThings fans via Amazon Echo. I have now with help from @ErnieG set that to work through IFFFT and SmartThings. Just about everything is now under control. The house even talks when I get mail. So much fun and frustration at the same time.

:sweat_smile:

Before you know it, you’re going to need this…:smile:

For those using these devices who have migrated from Iris. It is likely that at some point in time the Smart Plugs were updated by the Iris hub to firmware v0x20085010. There is a change in the LED behavior on a SmartPlugs with the newer firmware. Pressing the button 8 times to initiate Z-Wave discovery will result in the LED indicator flashing once once followed by a 1 second pause before the cycle loops.

EDIT: A further clarification on devices updated to the 2008 firmware. Z-Wave device discovery now only requires 3 rapid presses of the button instead of 8. This is more in-line with how the rest of the industry does it.

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FYI:
Web URL for SmartThings https://account.smartthings.com is usually referenced out here in the community as the SmartThings IDE or your IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Just wanted to help you in navigating your way around or what to call things when posting :slight_smile:

http://docs.smartthings.com/en/latest/tools-and-ide/

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@SteveWhite

Hi Steve,

I’ve installed your DTH and it looks and seems to work great. However, since i added the Z-Wave Repeater to my system, it seems that the repeater might be causing a Z-Wave mesh conflict with my Kwikset 912. Until I added the IRIS Smart Plug about 5 days ago, my 912 almost never lost connectivity with the ST Hub. Since then it’s lost connectivity to the hub 4 or 5 times.

First, have you heard of anyone else with a similar issue? Secondly, as a test, I’d like to remove just the Z-Wave repeater to see if it stabilizes my 912 connectivity. Do I need to reset the entire plug or can I just do a Z-Wave exclude alone?

Thanks in advance. I hope it’ something else because I really like the idea of the Z-Wave repeater and using your DTH. We’ll see.

Since you added the Z-Wave side of the SmartPlug to your system did you run a network repair? If not, it’s doubtful it’s even participating. I would recommend running a Z-Wave repair to allow the hub to rebuild its routing table. This might fix it without having to remove the plug.

Thanks for your response. Yes, I’ve run the several times. It passes the repair each time.

Don’t forget that there were 2-3 ST outages.
Did you remove it, run a network repair and see if problem goes away?
Also, repeater only comes into play only if path to a device is more then a number of hops from hub.
I have 5 of them with no issues.

That’s true (the outages). I have run several Z-Wave repairs since installation. They ran fine - until the door lock stopped communicating. The IRIS Smart Plug has always passed the repair process.

In any case, I’m currently removing all traces of the IRIS Smart Plug (both ZigBee and Z-Wave) from my system. I’ll then do a factory reset and try again.

However, as I go through this process, I see that there are several Z-Wave entries in the IDE for Smart Apps (Action Tiles, WebCoRE, IFTTT and Amazon Echo) that I have already deleted via each app. These same entries (after deletion) do not show up on the in the ST app on my phone. Several other apps ‘disconnected’ from the Smart Plug just fine. It appears that something is not right.

Hopefully, once I exclude/delete everything and do a factory reset of the Smart Plug, the next attempt will turn out better. Thing is, other than the issue with my door lock connectivity and now the indications of ‘ghost’ app entries in the IDE, the IRIS device (both protocols) seemed to be working well.

It’s absolutely possible that you have a bad Z-Wave radio on the SmartPlug. Lowes did have a bad run of them when they first came out. They’ve also released a firmware upgrade (0x20085010) that contained some Z-Wave behavior changes. The drawback is that you need an Iris hub to update them.

One thing to look out for, make sure that the plug can fully interrogate successfully through all 6 phases. I have witnessed several of my plugs fail the association phase. They will show as online but aren’t properly paired with the hub. The only way to fix this is to exclude the Z-Wave side of plug and try it again.

As of a few hours ago, I’ve excluded and removed both sides of the plug from my system so I can test to see how things run without it. BTW, I checked my firmware previously and I have the (0x20085010) version on my plug.

As I type this, (as per above) I’ve removed the plug from the system - both configuration-wise and physically and have been running for a few hours. It seemed fine for a while. But now, Z-Wave devices have started falling off the system. I’m running a Z-Wave repair and almost all of my Z-Wave devices aren’t communicating. Since the first indication of an issue was with my Kwikset 912 (even though I originally tied that issue with the IRIS Plug - since it was the most recent addition) I’m going to physically remove it from the system (physically) to see if it was really that device all along. I’ve recently learned that the 912’s Z-Wave module sometimes get flakey after about 1 year.

Isn’t this fun?

It is, but not for you.
Based on your last post, it doesn’t appear to be the plug with problems. I would unplug the hub (people say for 20 minutes) with no batteries inside the plug it back in so it will recreate (refresh) the network

Update: I removed the Kwikset 912 batteries and ran a Z-Wave Repair. It ran fine (obviously didn’t connect to the 912) and all of my other Z-Wave devices that had just fallen off, are now back onboard. . Since this indicates that the issue is with the 912 Z-Wave module and NOT IRIS Smart Plug , I’ll end this part of the conversation. Once I get my 912 issue solved, I’ll put the IRIS Smart Plug back online. Thanks for to all for the feedback.

I don’t think battery powered devices usually show up in a z-wave repair since they’re usually sleeping.

I’m not sure that’s the case but my Zooz 4-in-1 sensor, 2-Gig CT-101 thermostat and Kwikset 912 are battery powered Z-Wave devices (my CT-101 has a ‘C’ wire too) - and they indeed do show up in the repair list if they fail.

Anyway, after a successful Z-Wave repair without the 912 connected, I put the batteries back in the 912 and reran a Z-Wave repair - and it was successful. I don’t believe it’ll stay that way as I believe the 912’s Z-Wave module is flakey, but I want to confirm that that’s the issue before buying a replacement module or whole lock.

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Looks like the Tile update they did messed up your interface. It seems to be fixed in other DTHs but this one seems to still be a bit wonky. Just FYI. I only noticed because all the repeaters in my system were shown offline. I had to go into each one and run a Z-wave test and they all came back. Doing a z-wave rebuild now.

Hi Mike,

Tiles are still messed up, at least on iOS. There shouldn’t be any more errors popping up, but font rendering across the board, including native DTH are still not right. As far as the devices going offline, when that happens, tap the configure button. This will reset the Z-Wave associations and re-start the polling scheduler (which can at times like outages, stop running) in the ST cloud. That should put things back where they belong, until the next outage. :slight_smile:

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Is the zwave radio in Iris unit standard Zwave or Zwave plus? I’ve done some basic googling but didn’t turn up much.

z-wave plus

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