Advice on building a reliable Z-Wave network

[Damianjb 2]

Hi everyone.

 

We are working on the following project:

- 60 devices (aprox., mostly powered)

- 550 m² House. L shaped. Big garden complementing the L shape to form a rectangle.

- We've read (

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)

- We don't have a Zniffer

- We will build the network first with the powered devices from the center grouping the devices on the same radius.

- We will power the devices ONE by ONE.

 

1 - Should we perform a mesh reconfiguration after adding a single device or should we do it once we have a group of the same radius?

2 - Once all the devices are installed and powered. Should we let some idle time, without activating anything (1 day?) to let the network build itself?

3 - How much it takes usually to do a mesh reconfiguration? (aprox.)

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

 

[Tim__ 112]

I don't have such a large network,  but your approach of starting with closer powered devices is sound. With that approach I have never needed to do a mesh reconfiguration.

 

There is an article on this forum about how to setup a hc2 zwave network.  It covers things like reducing traffic eg turning off power notifications, when to use repeaters, etc

 

 

I believe that each element of the mesh is created when you include the device, so waiting a day won't help.

 

This (which I have not needed to try) may be of use as well:

 

 

[Damianjb 2]

Thanks for your answer @Tim__!

 

I've read the HC2 repair & Maintenance guide (a few weeks ago, it's awesome). About the 2 link, I have the Installer APP to see the route map and the neighbours. We are certified installers but we are new in the business and we want to start in the best way we can.

 

The mesh reconfiguration question was because we will include the devices one by one in our office and then take them to the client's house. We will be able to see the routes and neighbours but we want them to be as optimal as possible.

 

[petergebruers 1,261]

8 hours ago, Damianjb said:

We are certified installers but we are new in the business and we want to start in the best way we can.

Then go buy that UZB3 and build a Zniffer! Maybe read some of @robmac posts, or my posts about Z-Wave routing...

[Damianjb 2]

3 hours ago, petergebruers said:

Then go buy that UZB3 and build a Zniffer! Maybe read some of @robmac posts, or my posts about Z-Wave routing...

Hi @petergebruers!

Yes, we will try to import a zniffer, these devices are not sold in our country.

And we will keep trying to find information about routing. Believe me that we are learning a lot from this forum (and we want to), there are very interesting post from @tinman, @alex88, you, @robmac and many others.

 

In particular I just found

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. I still have to read it. I have also found the Z-wave Essentials book (you once recommended Z-wave Basics but I could not find it).

Thanks!!

Edited April 12, 2021 by Damianjb

[alex88 70]

@Damianjb good news, you are on the right track.

 

What @Tim__ said is what you will read in a few posts including @robmac's.... the network should be built from an approximation of the devices that have the strongest signal to the controller (usually the devices that are the closest to the controller) and then you move outwards in rings, if possible.

This is because the routing table is build in ID ascending order.... yes, this sounds dumb/basic, but this is the world of zwave. Once you know that, your installs should work fine + you MUST buy a zniffer. I barely use mine, but when I did it fixed problems that I could not detect in any other way. It's critical to  a healthy network and the reality is that you can also use it once and forget about it i.e. once the network is running fine you'd never use it again unless you suspected an issue, and then it's a few seconds to click on the app and start zniffing.

 

Good luck!

 

 

[Damianjb 2]

Thanks @alex88!

 

We will include and then install the devices from the closest to the controller. It is still not clear to me the importance of the Node ID order that you mention. I thought that the only thing important to the controller was if the device is in direct connection or through nodes.

And yes, we will try to get a Zniffer as soon as possible.

[alex88 70]

It's best to have all devices in direct connection to the controller, but of course sometimes this does is not possible and this is where the mesh network kicks in.

 

When a device is out of range of direct communication and the controller decides which device to communicate through to get to the controller, it starts looking trough the devices in ascending ID order, not as one may have thought, by a combination of signal strength and the number of devices already being routed through the device to the controller.

 

Hence the order in which you add devices can have an impact on performance.