Yale Real Living Z-wave locks not working via Z-wave relays?

I have three Yale Real Living Touchscreen Deadbolt (YRD220) locks that I’ve connected to my Smartthings Hub. However, I can only achieve a reliable connection to any one of the locks if it is in direct range of the hub. If the locks connect via other Z-wave devices, then the connection is mostly unreliable. Smartthings does not accurately report the state of the locks across the network and only occasionally does the lock actually lock or unlock as directed from Smartthings. All other Z-wave devices on the network are reliable, and all of the Yale locks respond fine through their touchscreens or if the ST hub is moved close to them.

It is not possible to place the Smartthings hub in direct range of all 3 locks simultaneously. The best arrangement is the front door lock about 25’ from the ST hub and only a few feet from a Z-wave light switch. The other two door locks are 2 or 3 Z-wave hops from the hub and within 10’ of wired Z-wave devices. How can I make the distant locks work with the Smartthings hub across the Z-wave network?

You may have run into a “beaming” issue. Z wave locks require that the repeater closest to them support beaming. Not all Z wave devices that repeat do, this is a separate feature. It’s only the one closest to the lock that has to have this feature.

More info in the community – created wiki:

http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Beaming

What’s the exact brand and model of the switch that’s near the lock?

In addition to what @JDRoberts mentioned, have you tried doing a Z-Wave network repair after you added all your locks?

FWIW, I have seven YRD240s (in two locations) that work flawlessly in ST, but I also have a bunch of GE light switches and outlets between the locks and the hubs.

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Thank you both.

I have tried the network repair, but it didn’t change anything.

Beaming sounds like a possible issue. The path to the locks is:

  1. ST hub
  2. GoControl/Linear GD00Z-4 Z-Wave Garage Door Opener X 2
  3. Linear WO15Z-1 outlet
  4. Enerwave ZW15R outlet
  5. Linear WS15Z-1 Z-Wave Wall Switches X 3
  6. Yale YRD220 X 2

Does just the nearest device to the lock have to support beaming? Can there be confusion if multiple devices are beaming simultaneously to a lock?

Thanks again.

There won’t be any confusion, so you don’t have to worry about that. Ideally the closest repeating device to the lock should support beaming, but as long as there’s a repeater within one hop of the device that supports beaming it should be OK.

Z wave only allows for up to four hops per message, however, so we need a little more information about your network.

You don’t have to worry about using a hop just because devices are close together, though. The following isn’t quite technically accurate, but it’s close enough to give you an idea if you imagine that the message will go to the reachable repeater which is farthest away, which will then pass the message to the next reachable repeater which is farthest away, etc. So if you have a room with three light switches in it, meaning they’re all within one hop, it will only take the message one hop to get across the room it won’t bounce from one switch to another and use up all your hops.

So just starting from the lock, what’s the physically closest repeating device to it, and how far is it from the lock?

Oh, and the Linear WS15 does support beaming, so that should be OK.

http://products.z-wavealliance.org/products/1029/embedpics

So how is your network physically laid out? That is how far is it from the hub to each repeating device along a line of sight path to the lock?

It’s 40ft from the hub to the garage door openers.
Then 40ft from the garage door openers to the Linear outlet.
And another 40ft from the Linear outlet to the Enerwave outlet.
(This constitutes a bridge from the main house to a guest house.)

Then it’s a cluster with the Linear switches and one Yale lock all within 4 feet of the Enerwave outlet, and the other Yale lock about 10 feet from the Enerwave outlet. Neither Yale lock is communicating properly.

You may have just run out of hops, then. :disappointed_relieved:

There’s nothing you can do about that, Z wave as a protocol assumes that the hub will be centrally positioned in the network, not at one end of a long string.

If you could move the hub to where the Linear outlet is, you might be able to reach the locks.

The other alternative would be to convert to zigbee modules in the locks and build a chain of zigbee repeaters instead. The ZHA profile that smartthings uses allows for up to 15 zigbee hops into the hub and another 15 out again.

What if I remove the Enerwave outlet and force the Linear outlet to hop directly to the Linear Switches, then it would be Hub>Garage>LinearOutlet>LinearSwitches>Yale.

That’s only 4 hops.

(BTW, the Linear outlet is an outdoor outlet in the middle of a driveway circle, so the hub can’t go there.)

Yeah, that would probably do it. Certainly worth a try. :sunglasses:

Thanks for the help. I’ll report back after I try this out – hopefully tomorrow.

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You probably already know this, but just remember to run a Z wave repair after you remove the Enerwave.

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I removed the Enerwave outlet and ran the Z-wave network repair. Everything is working. Thanks!

Is there a way to visualize the Z-wave network as the ST hub sees it? Such a utility could make my life easier as I add more stuff.

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Glad to hear it!

Unfortunately, SmartThings does not provide customers with mapping utilities.
It’s possible to add a secondary controller, typically a USB stick, and then use its utilities to map the network, and some community members have done that: