PatPend

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Because of the layout of my house, I'd like to add a second primary Zwave controller and bridge it to my ISY994i over the LAN using, for example, MQTT or configuring the second controller as a nodeserver. I was thinking a RPi running HA and Z-Wave to MQTT plus Z-stick, and bridging it with polyglot. But that has a lot of moving parts, is there a better/simpler way to add a second primary Zwave controller and bridge it to the ISY?

I spent some time yesterday doing this in various combinations. I swapped the module at location F (that was not responding) with the one at location E (which was). After the swap the E location module worked and the F did not work. I also tried removing the modules, resetting them, and including them using a pigtail right next to the ISY. After this the results were similar but not identical. The E module still worked consistently but with a 1-2 second delay. The F module would work maybe once out of 10 times to turn on, but never off, and otherwise was unresponsive with the ISY throwing "Can Not Communicate" errors. Mesh confusion? I ran "Update Neighbors" on each node which didn't seem to do anything. Not sure if updating neighbors happens immediately or takes time, since the ISY shows "Ready" right away I assume it's immediate. Is this correct? Or do the modules do their thing in the background? Is it okay to updates neighbors one right after another in a row, or should I wait some time in-between to allow each module to sort itself out? Speaking of modules, the ones closest to the ISY and working great are an Aeon Smart Switch 6 plug-in (A), UltraPro/Jasco 39348 (B,C) on-off switches, Honeywell/Jasco 39358 fan speed control (D). The problematic modules are all Leviton ZW15R switched duplex outlets. All of the above are ZWave Plus. I suspect the Leviton modules are weak sauce. The distance between E and F is 25.5' and the outlets have a clear line-of-sight to each other - there's nothing in the way except for the wooden legs of a few bar stools. In the bar cabinet to the right there's an ice maker and a mini-fridge. You can see the edge of a black box which is a bluetooth subwoofer for a TV about 5' above. Could these typical household devices interfere with the signal? I ordered a few Enbrighten/Jasco 55256 outlets to see if they have more mojo than the Levitons. Maybe being from the same manufacturer they will play more nicely together?

Appreciate the input! NWI is and has been turned on. I removed node A thinking perhaps the route was taking a hop there before heading to the first floor devices B C and D, two of which are in adjacent gangs of a 5 gang box and the other in a second 5 gang box just above. My thinking (incorrect as it turns out) was that the signal was routing ISY->A->B->D->E and not having enough hops to reach F. But this made no difference. So now I have B, C, D and E working, and F which was included at the ISY successfully but not working at position F. So I tried to remove F from the network... and the removal succeeded! So clearly the ISY can talk to F. Then I tried re-including F and it failed with the error "[ZWAVE-INCL-NODE] Inclusion failed". It appears the ISY is able to communicate at least partially with F. I did a factory reset on F, and tried again with the same result. What exactly does this error mean? I am thinking to remove all ZWave devices, factory reset them all, factory reset the ISY 500 series dongle, and rebuild the network from scratch. I have a sinking feeling this won't do anything but burn more time. Holding buttons, fiddling with hot pigtailed modules trying not to get electrocuted, waiting for flashes, resetting modules - what a drag - and gives me the sense I would be better off forgetting about futureproofing with ZWave and just stock up on Insteon modules while I can and hope they outlive me.

Pulling what's left of my hair out. I have been trying to add Zwave Plus devices to my network consisting of an ISY-994i v5.3.4 with a 500 series Zwave dongle, a serial PLM and a few dozen Insteon modules - and failing miserably. The ISY is in the basement. One plug-in module (module A) about 20' away in the basement works fine. Three modules in a first floor room above the ISY work fine (modules B,C are on-off switches, D is a fan speed control). Another module E about 20' away from B, C, and D through an intervening wall full of A/C ducts works okay (outlet). Any modules added beyond module E either work intermittently or not at all. My initial impression is that ZWave signals are super weak and not up to the task, in fact one could say the entire Zwave system is rigged to make you buy lots of modules to gain any sort of reliability. But I digress. Modules A through D were included into the network at their install positions, apparently they are close enough to the ISY to it to register these units. The rest were included using a pigtail cable to power the device from an outlet adjacent to the ISY, after which the modules worked at that location. When they were moved to their installation locations about 15-25' from module E, they do not work. By my count they are three hops away from the ISY: ISY->B/C/D->E->F = three hops so that should not be the issue. What's driving me nuts is a few days ago, before installing module E permanently, it worked fine on the pigtail at a location 25' beyond E's permanent location, let's call that location F. So I know RF is propagating to location F. But now, with module E installed, a module at location F does not work. ??? So my first question is, doesn't including modules adjacent to the ISY then moving them to another location mess up the mesh topology, and if so how is this corrected? "Update Neighbors" doesn't seem to to anything. "Heal network" is no longer supported in 5.3.4 so that's not it. If the network is self-healing how long does it take to sort itself out?

It's working now, thanks everyone.

Insteon and ISY newbie here. I have basic stuff working but stuck on this detail: How do you how do you change the default "on level" of a SwitchLinc Dimmer 2477D using a program? I'm trying to implement the example shown here but it doesn't work with a single dimmer e.g., the same device acting as both controller and responder. The on level remains at the manually preset level regardless of day or night. I tried to directly change the device "on level" using action > your devices > "device name" (w/o using a scene) but "on level" is not available as an option (only current level, backlight level, beep duration etc.) Thinking I need to split the SwitchLinc into a controller and responder to separate the physical switch from the dimmer but have no idea if this is possible or the right way to go. Where should I go from here? Thanks, Russ