All powered devices are dead

[Tor Magnus 11]

I'm so annoyed right now that it's hard not to throw the HC2 at the wall. For no apparent reason that I can work out the z-wave network is doing nothing. I've checked everything I can think of, it almost seems as if the z-wave controller is busted. But who knows as we can't see any debug information from the controller in the gui.

This is so not acceptable in a consumer product and considering that I've now got a house full of expensive devices which do nothing I'm wondering if this was at all worth it.

What to do, return the HC2 and look for alternative controllers?

[Tor Magnus 11]

And this morning most of them are back again. What in the world is going on?!

[Tor Magnus 11]

Strangerer and strangerer.

 

In the morning, all devices are working. During the day I get more and more dead nodes until in the evening all powered (not battery) nodes are marked as dead.

 

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

[Tor Magnus 11]

Working theory at the moment is that the cause is some older z-wave devices that have stopped working. I have now removed two of these from the network and it seems to be stable at the moment. I do of course have no idea if this is related as I have no means of finding out what what was happening in the mesh network.

[HomeSystem.sk 69]

Hey, I had similar issue with one customer. Devices getting dead nodes even though I knew they are not dead... And the sensors that were dead did not mark as dead...

Long storry short, I changed the location of HC2 and as a magic everything works perfect. So please, before you smash the HC2 with a hummer (I wanted to  ) try to change it location.

[Tor Magnus 11]

Thanks for the suggestion @HomeSystem.sk, I'll see if I can move it somewhere. Would of course be easier if it was possible to use it with WiFi instead of just cabled network.

[HomeSystem.sk 69]

Honestly, I would not want it to work with Wifi, it would just give more headache

[Sankotronic 2,370]

It is wireless system in the end isn't it. All devices that use radio signals are subjected to various interferences and obstacles in communication. Since mains powered devices are supposed to be always reachable in contrary to battery operated ones, if there is any interference in communication it is expected that they will be marked as dead ones before others! Sorry for my long sentences  

 

So when this happen, then you need first to drink a beer and settle down. Then you need to think what was changed lately that could cause this problem in z-wave channel communication. You will be amazed how little things like placing something small but made of metal can deteriorate signal strength if placed on the wrong place. Don't forget that radio signals are reflected from some specific obstacles so in some cases receiver of the signal can be distracted or confused by reflected signal if ti is strong enough and in some specific delay to main signal. Good example is placing HC box near wall in which you have iron rods (ferroconcrete) or electrical wires!

 

So @HomeSystem.sk gave you a good suggestion. I will just add that you need some planing in building wireless network and sometimes some compromises have to be done to make it work properly. By compromises I mean buying some mains powered devices to be placed on strategic place that maybe will not be used so much, but it will definitely make z-wave network more stable!