Howdy - my ISY994i is running 4.7.3 and has been, for the most part, fine.  However, I just tried to add a ZWave device today and it failed about half way through (something about not adding a secure device).  I was then able to exclude it and wanted to to start over, but now I can't include anything.

When I try to use the Add/Include ZWave device, I get a popup saying "Z-Wave Command Failed" "[ZWave 1 Start Include ]".  

When I press the OK button, there is an "Exclude devices" dialog behind it.  I've already excluded the device like 10 times now.  I've also used the ZWave->Advanced->Stop Adding or Removing devices.  Doesn't help (all done multiple times now).

I really, really, really don't want to reboot the ISY.  If I do, it'll take 24 hours before all the battery powered devices check in and for that time, the ISY has bad data and my code that reports on dead devices starts burying us in warning messages on our phone.

Is there anything else I can do to get the ISY to clear whatever is stuck in it's craw over this?

Gerry

What's the device you're having problems with?

I don't use the 4.7 branch so I don't know what options it has. 5.0 has an option to stop trying to include devices. You can also turn off query at restart in the configuration screen which would allow you to reboot without it talking to your devices. 

The device is sort of not the problem (not now, at least).  The ISY is stuck in that it will not go back into include/add mode.  

4.7.x has the Stop Trying to Include option and as I mentioned above, I've used it a number of times, along with multiple re-excludes (to hopefully complete whatever process the ISY is stuck in).

4 hours ago, gduprey said:

The device is sort of not the problem (not now, at least).  The ISY is stuck in that it will not go back into include/add mode.  

4.7.x has the Stop Trying to Include option and as I mentioned above, I've used it a number of times, along with multiple re-excludes (to hopefully complete whatever process the ISY is stuck in).

Have you tried power cycling the ISY?

Thanks, but like I said earlier, I really, really really want to avoid rebooting the ISY.  I have about 45 battery powered devices and after a reboot/power cycle, the ISY doesn't know their state.  It can take up to 24 hours for all devices to post a heartbeat/checkin and during that time, all my various activity monitors complain and notify me  about bad/unknown status. 

 

I'm quite sure that power cycling/rebooting will fix this as it's clearly an internal state issue with the ISY, but I was hoping to avoid it if at all possible.  Unless someone has some suggestion about clearing the ISYs internal ZWave state, I suspect I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do it

@gduprey,

I am afraid you have no choice but to reboot as I suspect that either the dongle is dying or is full. Can you back it up?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

I was forced to reboot and after that, everything seems OK again.  I have a fair number of ZWave devices, but I'm thinking it's not "full" or busted/dying.  I think it just got into a "bad" state. 

I'll be adding a ZWave "security" device again later today and will report back if there are any problems, but I suspect it was just stuff in a undefined/broken state.

@gduprey,

Do you know how many Z-Wave devices you have? Also, were you able to backup your Z-Wave dongle?

With kind regards,
Michel

Is there any good way to get a count?  Some way to get such a metric could be very useful!

My highest ZWave Node ID is 58, but I know they aren't all in use.  Perhaps about 45-50 or so actual devices?

I was able to do a normal ZWave backup (took about 20 minutes).
 

That's actually a very good question.  How can we get a device count and not just for Z-wave?  I would be nice to be able to easily know X number of Insteon and X number of Z-Wave etc etc....

@gduprey,

Thanks so very much for the details. I do not think the dongle is filled up but there's definitely something wrong with the serial API itself (provided by Sigma). In short, what you experienced should never happen. Now that you have a good backup, If you wish, I can send you a 500 series you can try. At the minimum, it should not lockup as you had with this dongle.

With kind regards,
Michel

Thanks for that offer.  This was the first time I've had that happen, nothing else has been "janky" and the reboot seemed to fix it.  So for the moment, I **think** I'm OK and would rather not disturb things as it currently is all working.  Should such issues resurface again or things get unreliable again, I'll reach out and see what the options are available then.

As always, love the ISY - it is the rock solid workhorse of HA.  Prolly why when a little thing goes wrong, it stands out - because things don't "go wrong".

Gerry

Hi Gerry,

Thanks SO very much for the comments. They mean A LOT to all of us.

With kind regards,
Michel

On 5/28/2019 at 11:53 AM, gduprey said:

I was able to do a normal ZWave backups (took about 20 minutes).

I have more than 60 Zwave devices and my backup generally don't take more than 5 minutes.

Edited May 30, 20196 yr by asbril

The 300 series dongle takes far longer to backup than the new 500 series dongle. Asbril, aren't you using the new dongle?

6 hours ago, gviliunas said:

The 300 series dongle takes far longer to backup than the new 500 series dongle. Asbril, aren't you using the new dongle?

I was referring to Gduprey's mention that it takes him about 20 minutes to backup. I have the 500 dongle and my backup takes maximum 5 minutes. That is the backup to my computer and the backup to the ISY's scandisk is a matter of seconds.

Seems I heard the 300 series is a lot slower too.  And 20 minutes was a estimate as I wasn't there the entire time.  I've done the backup before and it was no less than 10 minutes (I was there for that) and possibly up to 25 minutes (when I returned).  Backing up the ISY itself is pretty quick.

With only Insteon and NRs (no Zwave) my ISY backup is about 20-30 minutes now.

32 minutes ago, larryllix said:

my ISY backup is about 20-30 minutes now

The world turns slower up north ?

1 hour ago, asbril said:

The world turns slower up north ?

Just our slower minds.....maybe it just seemed that long with the mj legalisation? 

hmmmmm….our angular velocity should be the same but our linear velocity...maybe not? I guess we are not from the fat part of the world.

Edited May 30, 20196 yr by larryllix

All,

As @gviliunas correctly stated, backup using 300 series is about 5 times slower than backup using 500 series.

With kind regards,
Michel