Placement problems

Community Playground Getting Started & Initial Setup
1

Hi all

I have a vera3 with about 35 nodes, varying from circa 2008 intermatic switches to new ge switches.

I recently added a switch towards the outer edge of the house. It paired and worked fine when I had the Vera plugged in right next to it (which of course you must do to pair it). When I moved the Vera back to its original home on the other side of the house it stopped responding to zwave commands. There are a lot of as wave devices (probably about 6 that are closer and on the way to that switch) between the Vera and the new switch and it’s only about 60 feet away.

I thought all non battery powered nodes act as repeaters…if so then why does the switch not work when it’s not close to the Vera?

Then I moved the Vera to be other side of the house and sure enough the devices on the the side of the house where the Vera was originally located stopped working. It seems that the whole network isn’t relying on repeaters, it needs a Clear path to its target

What’s going and how do I debug this? Thanks

2

[quote=“mikoz, post:1, topic:189717”]I thought all non battery powered nodes act as repeaters…if so then why does the switch not work when it’s not close to the Vera?

Then I moved the Vera to be other side of the house and sure enough the devices on the the side of the house where the Vera was originally located stopped working. It seems that the whole network isn’t relying on repeaters, it needs a Clear path to its target

What’s going and how do I debug this? Thanks[/quote]Most if not all powered Z-Wave devices do act as repeaters/routers.

Routes are calculated nightly, unless you run a network repair(heal) to do it immediately. Routes must be recalculated every time you move a device, especially the primary controller(Vera).

Z-Wave can only route across a maximum of 4 hops. Although I don’t think that this will be a problem for you. But, this sometimes makes it necessary to find a more centralized location for Vera.

If you’re running UI5 or an older version of UI7, then run a network repair(heal). If you’re running a newer version of UI7 that lacks this option, then wait overnight. The network will likely figure it out and your device may already be working for you.

3

Hi,
Thanks. I do think it is a hopping problem, when the controller is in certain locations it must be hopping differently and exceeding the 4 limit. Placing the controller in the middle of the spider web of devices resolves it, it seems to be the only logical explanation.

I will experiment with custom routing, thanks.

-mike