What I've learned about Schlage Locks and Z-Wave

[asbril]

33 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

I'm still not understanding. Any hardwired zwave device repeats as do full fledged repeaters. Many have simply found certain devices work better than the full blown repeaters. Insteon has nothing to do with the strength of one's zwave devices or zwave communication.

The important part is making sure a person fully invests in building a strong mesh network. A person can use the Aeotech siren (highly recommended), outlets that support beaming (least efficient but cleanest look) or plug in modules such as the Aeotech Smartswitch 6. As long as there is a strong mesh network for zwave, there will be no issues.

Again..........  I fully agree with you that Insteon has nothing to do with the Zwave lock !  My only, and final, point is that the more hardwired Zwave devices one has in a Zwave network, the better it will work and repeaters have shown to be a so-so solution. When I installed a Schlage Zwave lock in my Son's condo, it worked straight away, and has worked perfectly since, because he has about 35 Zwave light switches throughout the condo.

[lilyoyo1]

31 minutes ago, asbril said:

Again..........  I fully agree with you that Insteon has nothing to do with the Zwave lock !  My only, and final, point is that the more hardwired Zwave devices one has in a Zwave network, the better it will work and repeaters have shown to be a so-so solution. When I installed a Schlage Zwave lock in my Son's condo, it worked straight away, and has worked perfectly since, because he has about 35 Zwave light switches throughout the condo.

I get you now. The way you worded your other statements it came across much differently than this one. Being that Insteon is irrelevant to zwave I didn't see why it was relevant to say it wasn't optimum to use zwave with Insteon. 

With that said, a person doesn't need a house full of zwave devices. They simply need enough to bridge the gap between controller and furthest devices to control properly. I'm only adding that part because a person can be mistakenly misled to believe they need to re-done their whole house just to control a lock. Your son has a house full of zwave so he shouldn't have any issues. Depending on his place, he probably would have the same success with just 2-6 devices as well. 

Depending on location, house size, distance, etc. I always recommend starting with a minimum of 2-4 devices and move on from there. 

[dbuss]

1 hour ago, asbril said:

Of course you can run both Insteon and Zwave networks. It is just not optimum to add a Zwave lock with just Zwave repeaters as network.

As stated, it's important to have a good Z-Wave mesh network to have your Z-Wave devices work reliably. It makes no difference to the RF signal if it's being repeated by a repeater, switch, outlet, siren or other device. Although, reading through the forum, you will find that some devices do perform better as repeaters than others. If you want to form your Z-Wave mesh using your ISY, two locks and repeaters only devices you can certainly do that. From a practical point of view, it seems better to use devices that repeat and also perform other tasks.

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[stusviews]

7 hours ago, asbril said:

Of course you can run both Insteon and Zwave networks. It is just not optimum to add a Zwave lock with just Zwave repeaters as network.

 My Schlage locks work flawlessly with only repeaters (sirens).

[asbril]

24 minutes ago, stusviews said:

 My Schlage locks work flawlessly with only repeaters (sirens).

Stu, you make my point. I have seen too many posts on repeaters not working that well and people using other Zwave devices such as Sirens.

[lilyoyo1]

2 hours ago, asbril said:

Stu, you make my point. I have seen too many posts on repeaters not working that well and people using other Zwave devices such as Sirens.

A repeater is any hardwired device that can resend a command. Some use devices that only resend signals (aptly named repeater). Others prefer dual use devices. Stusviews uses sirens, I use outlets, others may use standalone repeaters. All work without needing to have a full install of devices. 

[arw01]

1 hour ago, lilyoyo1 said:

A repeater is any hardwired device that can resend a command. Some use devices that only resend signals (aptly named repeater). Others prefer dual use devices. Stusviews uses sirens, I use outlets, others may use standalone repeaters. All work without needing to have a full install of devices. 

Lilyoyo, which outlets are you using?  I have a pvc outdoor outlets that is very close to the garage schlage and within eyesite of the second one.  That might very well work.

 

[wdhille]

SO just to jump in on this, going back to my original post... And pretty much everyone here is saying this. To work reliably the Z-Wave (and I assume other technologies) need a mesh network, with redundant paths to the device you want to control. It's hard to do, but I had to get out of the mindset  that my RF link should be solid to one repeater than line of site to the lock. That just was not reliable. Right now my four Schlage BE964 locks seem to be almost rock solid. The device you buy needs to do "beaming" to talk to the lock. I'm using Inovelli plug in switched outlets and they talk to the Schlage locks. Obviously the sirens folks are talking about work too.

Just for fun, (or rather to control the Neon in one of my clocks...) I put my three the GE/Jasco 4101 back on the network. They won't talk DIRECTLY to my locks, but they ended up beefing up the mesh network so my Inovelli devices have reliable and redundant paths back to the ISY. 

It would be soooo cool if we had an easy to use automated app to visualize the network paths. There is plenty of software around to do that manually, but for us to figure out the path each command takes to a device sounds boring. Plus, other than being interesting, I'm not sure what good it would do...

So, as many have said multiple times, the more devices the better. My initial approach to control four locks was to buy three devices that were also repeaters. From an RF perspective, that should have worked, but it didn't work well. I now haves even or eight  "Z-Wave" things in my network that form a small mesh network and now seem tot work ok with my Schlage locks. 

If I had only one lock, and it was a few feet from my ISY this would not be an issue. But with four locks in two different buildings physically spread out over several hundred feet, that's what worked. 

[lilyoyo1]

9 hours ago, arw01 said:

Lilyoyo, which outlets are you using?  I have a pvc outdoor outlets that is very close to the garage schlage and within eyesite of the second one.  That might very well work.

 

I use the Cooper (Eaton) aspire line of outlets. GE has a zwave plus outlet if you want the latest technology. The Cooper's however "feel" like a much higher quality device.

[arw01]

Thank Lilyoyo, will put that into my Amazon wish list.  Have a couple of outlets right by the lock I could put on in, one out by the garage as well outside.

Anyone seen a GFCI zwave outlet?

And I thought this could be of interest:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15654

 

[lilyoyo1]

5 hours ago, arw01 said:

Thank Lilyoyo, will put that into my Amazon wish list.  Have a couple of outlets right by the lock I could put on in, one out by the garage as well outside.

Anyone seen a GFCI zwave outlet?

And I thought this could be of interest:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15654

 

You're welcome. I've never seen a zwave GFCI outlet but then again I don't have a need for one so I haven't researched it that hard. 

That monoprice module looks promising. I don't like the size of it however. I'd prefer the aeotech Smartswitch 6 or fibaro smartphone. Both come with an outlet and single USB. While that one has 2, plugging 2 devices in would slow down charging so much (1.2) that it wouldn't be worthwhile. If I really needed that setup, I'd get a standard USB wall plug and put a relay module behind it. 

[nwchicago]

I’m using not the zooz Zwave plus smart plug in addition to the aeotec alarm.
Setting up the zooz was pretty easy.
It also has the ability to share Zwave radio signal strength from the point it’s plugged in which is nice.
I haven’t tried much with it so far, but it seems addressable, shows signal strength and seems simple to add and a secure device.
Here is the link on amazon.

Zooz Z-Wave Plus Smart Plug ZEN06 with 2 USB Charging Ports, White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTRZXHF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_kmRGavOfcUOio

On another note, one of my 6 Schlage locks has started acting up. In particular it doesn’t lock or unlock by Program or pay admin console. I am wondering if I need to recalibrate the lock itself. I do hear the mechanism / servo activating within the lock.

Has anyone had this happen before?

Thanks.

Chicago


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lilyoyo1]

6 hours ago, nwchicago said:

I’m using not the zooz Zwave plus smart plug in addition to the aeotec alarm.
Setting up the zooz was pretty easy.
It also has the ability to share Zwave radio signal strength from the point it’s plugged in which is nice.
I haven’t tried much with it so far, but it seems addressable, shows signal strength and seems simple to add and a secure device.
Here is the link on amazon.

Zooz Z-Wave Plus Smart Plug ZEN06 with 2 USB Charging Ports, White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTRZXHF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_kmRGavOfcUOio

On another note, one of my 6 Schlage locks has started acting up. In particular it doesn’t lock or unlock by Program or pay admin console. I am wondering if I need to recalibrate the lock itself. I do hear the mechanism / servo activating within the lock.

Has anyone had this happen before?

Thanks.

Chicago


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does your lock work locally when entering your code and locking it via the button?

You shouldn't have to do anything to the lock itself. Try running a network heal to see if that helps.

[nwchicago]

Yes, my lock works locally.

I have performed two network heals.

No change.

When setting the lock up initially, I recall there was a calibration that teaches the lock how far to extend the bolt (or something like that).

I've changed the batteries and wonder if the calibration is lost.

Has anyone recalibrated a zwave schlage lock?

Thanks.

Chicago

[lilyoyo1]

45 minutes ago, nwchicago said:

Yes, my lock works locally.

I have performed two network heals.

No change.

When setting the lock up initially, I recall there was a calibration that teaches the lock how far to extend the bolt (or something like that).

I've changed the batteries and wonder if the calibration is lost.

Has anyone recalibrated a zwave schlage lock?

Thanks.

Chicago

It sounds like so.e type of interference issue more than a hardware issue. Recalibrating the lock will set the orientation as to whether it's a left or right hand door which it sounds like that part is already set properly. 

Since your problems started when you added the new device, I would remove it from the ISY run a heal, and see what happens.

If push comes to shove, you can bring the lock closer to the ISY and run tests that way

[Matherz]

HI! sorry I dont think this relates too much to what yall are saying but I had a question about the lock. I am making an iOS app to lock and unlock my door but when I hit this URL: 

Quote

http://192.168.1.23/rest/nodes/ZW004_1/cmd/DON 

    It gives me a 200 message telling me it has completed the task but my lock doesn't respond. I was wondering if one of you could point me in the right direction with this? 

 

PS. My lock is connected to the ISY hub and it works if I go to the console and hit lock and unlock there.

[nwchicago]

I have a program that auto-locks several of my schlage locks and in fact I get a similar result without the error.

Anyone else make any progress on this?

I am a bit concerned that if I remove the ISY from my zwave, i'll need to add it back somehow securely.  I have an Aeotec zstick - does anyone know how to do securely add something using an aeotec zstick then add it back to my isy controller?

 

Thanks.

 

chicago