Zwave - Unreachable - is this an issue

I have been building up the devices on Homey.

The 1st 20 zwave devices connected to Homey are Zwave Repeaters or Zwave plugs so all will relay signals to battery devices.

I am now adding the heat/smoke detectors etc and noticed at any given time I have 3 or 4 mains powered devices that are unreachable.

Funny thing is this includes devices that are 5 feet from the Homey and have uninterrupted line of sight to the Homey.

All come back successfully, immediately when using a Test.

Do I need to do some sort of Ping to keep these devices from going unreachable?

Any change the newly added zwave devices were included as secure zwave?

I just to have big issues when i had to many secure devices connected.

But i have my antene modified, and a very nice build zwave mesh network.

All were automatically added as secure.

All devices labelled unreachable are reporting energy usage consistently.

So donā€™t understand how an ā€˜unreachableā€™ device is reporting reliably.

Surely if it is communicating with Homey surely it is reachable?

When i had a lott on secure, i would get, for instance, temperature, but not lux.
So no, to many devices on secure, and Homey just misses stuff and slows down heavily.

After many years experience, my serious advice would be: Befour trying anything else, re-include (some/as many as possible) devices non-secure. If than problems persists, take further steps.

But for me, and many more, there were enough topics about it in the past, secure was the big deal: Homey cannot (or could) effectifly handle to many secure zwave devices.

I had issues with devices when i had 20 secure. Now i have a little over 70 zwave devices, about 10 secure. Everything works ā€œperfectā€.

You can add different devices non-secure.
A few years back, Fibara could be unsecurely added by selecting the Walli-socket-thing, and it would add the correct item (always tries that) but unsecure.
But now-a-days, most devices from Fibaro are automaticly added as non-secure(!), this to resolve the issue with to many secure working modules.

Thanks how do I choose whether to connect secure or insecure? So far it has been all automatic?

Which devices are it? Which Brand?
By any change also Fibaro?

Currently 4 unreachable devices, all reporting Energy usage.

1 Fibaro
1 Neo Coolcam
2 Greenwave

All respond immediately to a Test.

So not an issue.

I am getting some bizarre routing, but it looks like that is normal, at least my read of it on these forums.

Is it an issue if they are reported unavailable?
No!

If everything works you can ignore that.

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Itā€™s not about the unreachables: its about the number of secures, so Homey is to busy with decrypting to recieve the other messages.

I would re-include all secureā€™s, not the oneā€™s you think are miscommunicating (or something).

Fibaro, just remove, and re-include as a Walli Switch, it will be added as the real device, not a Walli, donā€™t worry :wink:

Yep, i had the same behavior back then: It looked like no reasonable explaination why some devices didnā€™t respond well, or all the other ā€œvariableā€ stuff that just to happen.

I have never ever had these straings things after re-including almost all my devices as non-secure, while i had those issues when i had about 20-30 devices, not even the 70 i have now.

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Afaik, since Homey firmware v7.x this doesnā€™t work anymore.

@Busta999 read this thread and use the UnZ-Cure app from the HCS.

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Okay, good to know, and thanks for the link!

I know this topic is marked as revolved, but nevertheless want to add it is just a trip down memory lane for me. Iā€™m still struggling with the same issues. I have a mix of 57 Neo Coolcam, Fibaro, Heiman and MCO Home, about half battery operated and the other half powered.

Devices became unreachable, not always coming back after a test or healing. Some devices were reachable but did only show status unreachable when sending a test. Also, the same devices reported movement but no lux or temp (even though the interval value was the same), or reported motion but not the end of the motion trigger. As a result, you guessed it, lamps were unnecessary switched on for hours.

I specifically noticed that the router function of the powered devices of Neo Coolcam lately is doing a poor job, because they are not always providing the router function (and for that reason a lot of unreachable battery-operated devices became unreachable).

I already enlarged the antenna on many Z-Wave wall plugs and this seems to help some bit, but the problems nevertheless persisted.

I had 3 other tryouts in mind, but havenā€™t had the time to do them.

  • Completely reset Homey to factory settings and then restore the latest backup. However, I wasnā€™t sure if this also reinstalled the Z-Wave or Zigbee and other devices. If not, It is a hell of a job because all flows would be broken as well. In that case, I wonder what the use of the backup is (and Why am I paying for it). Maybe someone already tried this?

  • Reinstalling all devices as unsecure. However, I donā€™t know what security risks are involved in doing this and also, which devices are to be reinstalled. Devices are currently displayed as ā€œSecure (x)ā€ and ā€œSecure (S2 (Unauthenticated))ā€. Are these all secure or not?

  • Build the Z-Wave mesh network on another device (I have an RPi for DMSR/P1 and HA running too) and see if this is more reliable.

Peter

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Hey Peter,

  1. No, x means not secure. S0, S1 or S2 means secure:
    image
    image
  2. I would just use homey with unsecure devices, well for the most part.
    My garage and other key stuff is secure, but not lights or switches.
    And i have 70 devices, about 15 i see as secure, and this way, it works fine.
    I Also have a modified antenna.
    It would still be kinda hard to switch your lights (unsecure). Unless someone really wants to get you, but if youā€™re personally targeted, unsecure lights would not be my worry; a lawnmower or other devices give plenty of ways to access the netwerk itself, giving way more access then your lights.
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Here, the difference between secure and not:
Secure uses way more nodes, basicly, because more messages are not recieved the first time by
Homey.

Secure

and unsecure

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My zwave mesh works well and it is very stable. I can not see dependency between number of jumps and secure or not secure. I am quite happy when I see a lot of jumps because it means I have a redundant mesh and a lot of alternative routes. :slight_smile:

Iā€™m using the Ring Zwave Sensors - I was wondering how I would turn those on non-secure?

I had the issue of a very instable z-wave system too. 30-40 secure Fibaro devices. I all deleted and re-included them, reparing multiple flows. Took a lot of time, but z-wave works fine now. Even better then before. Some fibaro devices nowadays include unserure by default. Others have a pincode and you can fill in 00000 and it wil include insecure. So it was a bit annoying, but worth te try. And I am still a Homey-fan.

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