# Basic Z-Wave questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions & Help\ **Tags:** z-wave\ **Created:** [May 14, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527 "2023-05-14T19:04:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![K\_S](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/k_s/32/11635_2.png) [@K\_S](https://community.homey.app/u/K_S)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/1 "2023-05-14T19:04:14Z")
For many of my z-wave devices, especially (but not exclusively) those furthest away from Homey Z-Wave connection seems to be very poor. I get either “Network request failed”, “Transmit\_No\_Ack”, “…timeout”, etc. More or less everything I read here, explains that as a mesh technology, z-wave connectivity problems are solved by ensuring there are mains-powered z-waves devices near the ones suffering poor connectivity because they automatically act as repeaters. So how far is near enough? In most cases the devices regularly failing for me are within 1-2.5 metres of the next nearest device. we have 80+ z-wave devices of which ~50 are mains powered (mostly fibaro relays/dimmers and aeotec multisensors). Surely this should be adequate? I’ve re-added the devices from scratch 4 times, (2 days effort each time. the 4th time, in developer.athom . com I clicked ‘Reset Z-Wave network’, mistakenly thinking it would work like Fibaro home center, where it rebuilds the mesh, rather than uninstalling all the devices!) I also moved the homey all over the house in different locations, but it doesn’t make any difference. Somewhat unhelpfully some devices in showing connection errors in the browser-based homey UI and app are reachable in the ‘Test’ part of developer.athom . com. Am I missing something basic here? Can anay body with experience of overcoming these things provide some guidance ---
**Author:** ![Dennis\_H74](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/dennis_h74/32/11177_2.png) [@Dennis\_H74](https://community.homey.app/u/Dennis_H74)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/2 "2023-05-14T20:17:46Z")
I have the same but for now only with Aeotec switches … lots of power mesh around also ☹ Working for a week … then suddenly the message. Removing them from power solves ( for another week ) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2023, 10:21pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/3 "2023-05-14T22:21:40Z")
Which Homey model. Please. > [@\[Tip\] Problems with Homey?](https://community.homey.app/t/problems-with-homey/35744): > > When u have problems with Homey and you are reaching out to the community members here on the forums it’s important to give as much info as u can. First of All: New Homey Family members 09-2021 and 01-2023 Since September 2021 there are new Family members: Homey (Service / Premium), and the first “old” Homey is rebranded as Homey Pro (early 201x) Since Januari 2023: Homey Pro Early 2023 is getting delivered to the early adopters. And while using Homey with or without a Homey Bridge on m… Is it related to this? > [@Homey Pro 2023 Zwave issues](https://community.homey.app/t/homey-pro-2023-zwave-issues/79656): > > Since migrating to HP23 I am finding that many of my zwave devices (Aeotec SS6 and ZW116) are not working consistently. I use time of day an and motion activated timers to switch things on and off. Many times they don’t switch. Using the App I go to these devices and sometimes it works there but often it doesn’t. I can go back in a while and it works OK. When it doesn’t work it gives a red banner “TRANSMIT\_COMPLETE\_FAIL” ---
**Author:** ![K\_S](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/k_s/32/11635_2.png) [@K\_S](https://community.homey.app/u/K_S)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2023, 6:25am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/4 "2023-05-15T06:25:49Z")
2019 Pro (but the same pattern of behaviour since previous model to be honest) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Bittner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_bittner/32/16698_2.png) [@Peter\_Bittner](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Bittner)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 3:52am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/5 "2023-05-16T03:52:44Z")
Have you used the developer tools to have a look at your ZWave network? ---
**Author:** ![K\_S](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/k_s/32/11635_2.png) [@K\_S](https://community.homey.app/u/K_S)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 5:37am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/6 "2023-05-16T05:37:48Z")
Yes, I see between 2-4 hops from Homey to each device/node, and every so often ‘unknown nodes’ but not sure what else can derived from that list for the lay user ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Bittner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_bittner/32/16698_2.png) [@Peter\_Bittner](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Bittner)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 6:22am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/7 "2023-05-16T06:22:43Z")
> [@Homey Pro (Early 2023) - Sunset Flows](https://community.homey.app/t/homey-pro-early-2023-sunset-flows/79866/35): > > No, Better Logic isn’t needed. Have a look at my post here. Get rid of the unknown nodes and test and heal nodes not working. ---
**Author:** ![K\_S](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/k_s/32/11635_2.png) [@K\_S](https://community.homey.app/u/K_S)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 10:37am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/8 "2023-05-16T10:37:04Z")
Yes, thanks, I do exactly that when it comes up, but as the next post in that thread, it often doesn’t actually mean they’re unreachable. It seems to be another z-wave unreliability ---
**Author:** ![K\_S](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/k_s/32/11635_2.png) [@K\_S](https://community.homey.app/u/K_S)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 8:45am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/9 "2023-06-22T08:45:00Z")
Does anyone else regularly get this message when backups fail: “Unfortunately, something went wrong while creating a Z-Wave backup: error\_reading\_nvm” ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/10 "2023-06-22T18:24:21Z")
> [@K\_S](#): > > nvm nvm = [non volatile memory](https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/nonvolatile-memory)? When it’s about a Pro 201x Temporary remove a few (preferrably memory hungry) apps you can miss for a while or Try to remove all additional voices (that was a solution with not enough available _diskspace_ on a system partition, but worth a try!). Speech shouldn’t exceed 160 to 170MB > ![Screenshot from 2023-06-22 20-29-09](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/b/5/b5423b221c838980f1a1e329a3c7bea92ae63e32.png) ---
**Author:** ![K\_S](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/k_s/32/11635_2.png) [@K\_S](https://community.homey.app/u/K_S)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 10:15am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/11 "2023-06-23T10:15:16Z")
Thanks for explaining. I don’t think I’m hitting any memory limit though. These are what it shows: ![Screenshot_20230610-074632](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/5/7/57a8fc7aeb5e37645c7a0173cdbf5432a960c858.png) ![Screenshot_20230610-074612](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/uploads/athom/original/3X/6/b/6bd2d009ef3ae10e267c9a9ba77bd729121a1985.png) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Kawa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex025/user_avatar/community.homey.app/peter_kawa/32/173848_2.png) [@Peter\_Kawa](https://community.homey.app/u/Peter_Kawa)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 11:22am UTC](https://community.homey.app/t/basic-z-wave-questions/80527/12 "2023-06-23T11:22:40Z")
But disk usage for ‘Speech’ is 468MB. > [@Peter\_Kawa](#): > > Speech shouldn’t exceed 160 to 170MB > > Try to remove all additional voices (that was a solution with not enough available _diskspace_ on a system partition, but worth a try!). Just remove all voices except the current one (Settings \> Speech). (Homey downloads voices when you switch languages, but it never removes them when you switch back to the original language. Somehow, then the backup tool probably can’t create it’s temp file any longer). Anyways, just give it a go, I’m pretty sure it solves your backup issue.