Smartthings slow response with Zwave (Fibaro)

ikeric · January 19, 2021, 6:15pm

Hi there, been struggling with this for weeks! I have ST connected to various devices and all ok, but the Zwave Fibaro light switches (singles, dimmers, doubles) are all struggling with what appears to be signal strength. Even when they are really close the hub they are best unresponsive. However, the really strange part is that if I use the Alexa ST skill to control them rather than the ST app natively, they work much much better! Not perfect, but definitely a lot more reliable … surely it should be the other way around?

I’ve tried zwave repairs, deleting and re-adding devices over and over, and I can occasionally improve things a bit (of they learn some very strange routes when I look on the IDE) they never work reliably from ST?

Any ideas?

RBoy · January 19, 2021, 6:24pm

Try this:

FAQ: How to improve the performance (responsiveness, speed) and reliability of a Z-Wave mesh FAQ

[image] This is a very common issue that folks will face when using Z-Wave devices. Over time you’ll see that your device connectivity gets slower, commands take longer to execute (higher latency), sometimes they don’t execute (loss of packets). This happens due to a variety of reasons and this Wiki will provide you with some tools to fix these issues. While this isn’t a magic bullet to fix all Z-Wave problems, it should resolve the majority of common issues with a Z-Wave Mesh. I’m not going to get into how a Z-Wave Mesh operates or Z-Wave vs ZigBee, but I will focus on 3 key issues that can severely impair the performance and reliability a Z-Wave mesh. Ghost devices: Ghost devices are devices that are no longer connected to the mesh but they still show up in the routing tables of t…

Andremain · January 19, 2021, 6:34pm

Try changing the device handler to z-wave switch generic which runs locally in order to make sure it is not the dht.

github.com

SmartThingsCommunity/SmartThingsPublic/blob/master/devicetypes/smartthings/zwave-switch-generic.src/zwave-switch-generic.groovy

/**
 *  Copyright 2015 SmartThings
 *
 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
 *  in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed
 *  on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License
 *  for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
 *
 */
metadata {
	definition(name: "Z-Wave Switch Generic", namespace: "smartthings", author: "SmartThings", ocfDeviceType: "oic.d.switch", runLocally: true, minHubCoreVersion: '000.019.00012', executeCommandsLocally: true) {
		capability "Actuator"
		capability "Health Check"
		capability "Switch"
		capability "Polling"
		capability "Refresh"

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ikeric · January 19, 2021, 6:42pm

Thanks. I’ll need to figure out how to change the DH but I’m sure its worth a try. I have read numerous articles on slow response/failures/loss of packets etc, and tried everything I’ve read, but so far no joy.

Any suggestions as to why Alexa works so much better … it’s using ST to do the activations so why would it be so much better?

ikeric · January 19, 2021, 6:46pm

Sorry, meant to say all the Zwave devices are powered, and all within 10M (most much closer) to the hub. around 15 devices in total.

Andremain · January 19, 2021, 7:00pm

Go here login, go to devices and find a fibaro single switch. Edit it and at the type select z-wave switch generic. Save it, close the app and open it again.

ikeric · January 19, 2021, 7:37pm

Thanks so much. Just tried it on one of the particularly problematic devices and its now working so so so much better When I use ST app it turns on/off immediately as I would expect but the control on the app still spins for 3-10 secs before completing? With Alexa it all just completes straight away but I’m not sure Alexa really waits for the feedback packet before presenting user with acknowledgment? Zero failures since changing the DTH (albeit small amount of testing)

I’ll do some more and keep testing and let you know.

How about the double switch and the dimmers? They are currently Fibaro Double Switch 2 and Fibaro Dimmer 2?

These are all brand new devices (inc ST hub) so I wasn’t expecting to run into this

Andremain · January 19, 2021, 8:41pm

Alexa is faster because it skips the health check. The importand thing for you is that your automations will now be faster. The fibaro dimmer switch has local execution but for the double switch there is no alternative as far as i am aware off.

ikeric · January 19, 2021, 9:15pm

Hi there, so I changed all the single switches as per your advice and they are so much better. As I’ve been trying things for so long I hadn’t actually realised that most of the remaining problems were either a) single switches or b) other switches that route through single switches. I’ll test some more tomorrow but so far so good

I had wondered about the ‘local’ vs ‘cloud’ execution, but I never drew that conclusion as the ‘double’ switches (that seem to be ‘cloud’?) were (and still are) the fastest and most reliable of all of them The dimmers have always been a bit slower but on the whole ‘reliable’ (apart from mesh routing issues that have now been resolved).

Is there any drawback to using the ‘generic’ handler’ … presumably I should forward this to Fibaro if nothing else?

Thanks so much.

Andremain · January 19, 2021, 9:54pm

Ha.! Nice try Fibaro doesn’t give a s**t! Trust me, i tried… As for the double switches, they are the worst for me. They take a long time to change state and sometimes i get wrong indication on the device as the light can off and the app showing it as on.

The drawback for using that handler is that you loose the fibaro settings and no metering. For chnaging the settings, you could always switch back, make your changes on the switch and revert to this one, but the metering part is not really solvable at the moment as the zwave metering switch has execute commands locally to off, which means it cannot be triggered locally throught automations. Keep in mind that the only way to use local automations is via the smart lighting smartapp not via the automations.

tue.nielsen · February 9, 2021, 3:16pm

I have a lot of Fibaro Dimmer 2.
Natively they run “local”, so it should not be a cloud issue.

However i experience a lot of delays when switching on/off.
Delay can vary from 1-90 seconds
it happens on all dimmers, both far away and closer to the hub.
50% of the time it reacts instantly but other 50% of the time it has a long delay on switching on/off.
Tried everything, with zwave repair, changing channel, moving hub away from wifi etc.

i think it has something to do with zwave on smartthings or device handler for the fibaro.
All my Zigbee units works perfect.

Does anyone have solution?
or does anyone know of a better DTH for Fibaro Dimmer 2?
Also have some Fibaro Wall Plug Type E that does the same, any DTH for this?
Have tried to change to some generic DTH but doesnt seem to work…

Andremain · February 9, 2021, 3:34pm

Yeah i am starting to think this has something to do with z-wave itself.

Try performing a z-wave repair

tue.nielsen · February 9, 2021, 10:14pm

Tried a lot of zwave repairs. Does not help anything.

Is somebody having zwave devices that always work instantly or within max delay of 3 seconds?

Or does smartthings just have general problems with zwave and changing delays of up to 90 seconds?

I only have fibaro devices to compare with

Andremain · February 9, 2021, 10:38pm

Yeah fibaro with Smartthings are totally unacceptable. That is why i am moving away from fibaro

ikeric · February 9, 2021, 10:45pm

Hi there, I had numerous issues similar to yours. After help from Andremain and many hours of repairs, resetting devices etc etc, I now have something that ‘just about works most of the time’!

The following made the biggest difference

Andremain · February 9, 2021, 10:52pm

Clark btw you can now use the z-wave metering switch that also shows the consumption of the device as i have recently discovered that execute commands locally is not needed in order to use it for local automations.

ikeric · February 10, 2021, 7:37am

Thanks … I’ll give that a try next time I’m messing around with them! Don’t suppose anyone’s heard anything about if/when Fibaro might allow firmware updates via Smartthings? I really need these devices to work

Andremain · February 10, 2021, 8:02am

Yeap. Never

Adam_Young · February 10, 2021, 8:14am

Vote with your wallet don’t buy any more fibaro

Andremain · February 10, 2021, 8:53am

Trust me i wont

Smartthings slow response with Zwave (Fibaro)

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