About 2 weeks ago, I started having issues with my automation. I noticed that many of my zwave device were OFFLINE. I tried doing a zwave Network repair, but that hasn’t helped. Would appreciate any thoughts or help…
try powering off those two devices and power them back on and see if that helps. just to be clear… not referring to turning off/on in the app but unplugging them
Well that didn’t last long. The next day devices were OFFLINE again. And it seems like its not always the same devices OFFLINE.
ST support is absolutely no help. They obviously don’t read the text sent to them - or view all the attachments. Seem’s it always the same “send us logs, provide us access” template response. (Even when i’ve already sent the logs they asked for and have their access set for the next month.
I don’t mean to complain, really, I just need assistance. I don’t really want to delete my 140+ devices, re-add them, and rebuild all my webCoRE pistons and other automations in the ST app.
Would appreciate any help… Willing to pay at this point…
Hmmm…from the description it sounds like there may be a weak spot in the mesh somewhere. This can be caused by a failing repeater, local interference, or just not enough repeaters to begin with. When network traffic gets busy messages may try alternate routes, causing them to hit a weak spot they didn’t previously. That’s why you may see different devices going offline on different days: it just depends on who hit the weak spot that day.
It’s hard to troubleshoot this just on a message board, but there are two things you could try next. Both involve some tedious troubleshooting, so I certainly understand if you don’t want to try these, I’m just trying to think of possible next steps.
use a professional troubleshooting tool. This will cost about $150 on sale, but given the number of zwave devices you have it might be worth it because you’ll get a lot of diagnostics you can’t get through ST itself. Search the forum for toolbox to find discussion threads.
alternatively, post a diagram of the physical layout of the home showing the location of each device. Note the brand and model number of each and, if the drawing isn’t to scale, the physical distance between devices.
Also note RF blocking features: large appliances or metal cabinets; aquariums or other water features; leaded glass; concrete or brick or stucco; metallic foil wallpaper; water pipes in the walls; walls with foil backed insulation; ceiling fans. You don’t have to mark doors and windows unless you have metal doors or leaded glass.
I understand that may be way more work than you want to do, or you may have privacy concerns, but if you do even a fairly generic one we can take a look and see how the backbone looks for your network.
I should also add that this may not be a zwave problem per se, but something specific to the SmartThings architecture. So if it was me, I would get the toolbox to get true detailed diagnostics on the local network. But I know $150 is a lot of money to spend to fill a gap in what ST provides.
You may want to start looking at which pistons can be moved over to Routines and prepare for the day when webCoRE will end. When ST migrates over to Edge and LUA, the legacy side of the platform will cease and that will include webCoRE and Smart Lighting.
Try getting in touch with Zwave Products and see if they are expecting it to come back into stock, I believe they are the primary distributor. These days with supply chain issues, everybody’s having challenges, unfortunately.
Thanks for the reminder. I might as well start on this conversion at this point. I have a couple questions:
Is there any documentation / primer for Routines & Scenes? Mostly interested in complex statements - similar to webCoRE capabilities. Like: If my Life360 presence is PRESENT and the outside temp is above 72F and it’s between the hours of 3:00p - 11:00p, THEN turn on the veranda ceiling fan (but turn OFF when any are not true. Or, complex nested AND and OR statements…
Is there a web interface available, or can Routines & Scenes only be set up in the ST app? (I have a LOT of automation, as you can imagine, and it’s simply easier to complete that amount of work on laptop / web interface.)
In my brief perusal of Routines, I didn’t see any way to do the equivalents of a “WAIT ()” or a “plus or minus OFFSET of minutes” (like, to sunset, etc) in webCoRE.
My ST network & automations (via CoRE and then webCoRE) worked pretty flawlessly for the last 6 years. Huge disappointment is this current OFFLINE issue. Gonna try placing some of my unused zwave outlets in various places in the house, to see if their repeater function has any effect on the mesh…
not similar so you will lose a lot of features of webcore.
only ST app but there is CLI that can be set up to use the Rules API.
they are there… sorta but there are major limits. right now, there is a limit of 60 minutes +/- but there is the virtual calendar using Edge you can install which adds that functionality to use a higher number. You will be disappointed when switching.
In some cases you will need to use 2 routines to replace 1 piston. For example if you turn a light on at sunset, you would need to a 2nd routine to turn it off at midnight.
You can use virtual switches like variables. For my wash is done routine, I have a virtual switch called Washer running that is control by a 2nd routine and is used in the wash is done routine.
Wow… OK. I’m a classically trained programmer (C, VB, PowerShell, etc) so my pistons are complex, complete with error detection (did the front door really lock? if not text me. Oh, it wasn’t closed, so notify me of that…)
If there are major limitations, causing me disappointment, maybe I should hold off on converting away from webCoRE. Is there a credible timeframe for when webCoRE will not be accessible?
From the platform’s point of view, Webcore is like any other custom groovy smartapp, so would be discontinued September 30th according to recent public statements.
You might want to look into SharpTools. Paid license third party app, a lot of people find it well worth the fee of $30/year. There’s a free tier you can test out. And a free trial of the premium tier. Dashboard and rules engine. They have been working on getting ready for the new architecture and that version is in Beta now. You can find lots of discussion here in the forum.
Web-based, visual UI.
(It doesn’t run locally, but neither does Webcore.)
Not having any luck with Zwave Products / ToolSet availability.
Are there any other tools I can look for?
I’ve noticed that if I power reset the zwave devices, or power reset the ST hub, then all my devices come back ONLINE, but then slowly many of them go OFFLINE again. And it’s not always all the same devices that go OFFLINE. (Most of the same ones go OFFLINE but not all of the same ones…) This behavior makes me suspect I have a rogue zwave device causing the issue. Too much traffic? How can I see mesh traffic?
I can’t really turn the devices off one-by-one, since most are electrical switches and outlets (not battery powered). Whew… any suggestions to debug?
Also, I’ve noticed now when I do a zwave repair via the IDE, I don’t see any log entries. Not even “repair started” or “repair completed.”
I called ZWave Products and they just said it is out of stock. Not sure when, maybe 2? maybe 3 weeks? Maybe longer…? LOL
Looks like there’s a Stick 7 now… any reason not to get the 7 instead of the Gen5? (I presume 7 is better than Gen5, but since i’m not familiar with the product, I’ll just ask…
