How to remove an Aeotec Door/Window Sensor 7 that won't respond

[madcodger]

So, I thought I would try the Aeotec Door/Window Sensor 7 as a dry contact sensor. Big mistake. I got it configured so that, as far as I can tell, the dry contact replaces the tilt sensor, but it's incredibly unreliable, even just six feet away from the ISY, detecting and reporting a change in the contacts perhaps one out of 20 times. Junk, as far as I can tell.

At this point, I just want to get rid of this sensor. However, I tried removing/excluding the node as I have with other devices, removing and reinserting the battery, and I've tried to activate various aspects of the sensor (the dry contacts, motion, tamper, tilt, etc - All to no avail. So, I can't remove/exclude this thing so that I can return it. Does anyone have any ideas? I saw that Michel replied to someone a couple of years ago with this advice for a similar situation, but this seems rather drastic if it can be avoided:

"It seems that that node is NOT failed. i.e. it still exists in the dongle. At this point I think it would be best to factory reset your dongle, do Synchronize nodes, and then restore your old backup. Once that's done, all nodes that cannot be initialized can be removed (hopefully) with remove failed node."

Is there any other way to remove this thing??

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[KSchex]

Hi..I don't have an answer for you.  I am sure UDI or one of the ISY guru's can weigh in here.   Your problem is very similar to mine.  Two separate times I have tried to update to the latest 5.0.15(B) from 5.0.14 and had my 5 Aeotec battery powered sensors fail (3 Aeotec 6 window and door and 2 Aeotec hidden door).  The sensors show up in the admin console, seem to communicate but don't show any status change.  When I tried to exclude they would not go away so I couldn't try to re-include them.  I had to reload my 5.0.14 where it all worked again.

So far I have had good results with Aeotec products.  In my case I believe 5.0.15B has a problem and am waiting for a response from UDI for my submitted ticket.

What firmware version are you running?

 

[madcodger]

Thanks for your reply.I am running 5.0.15A, which is what was on my ISY out of the box just a few weeks ago. I’ve owned an ISY since the days of the 99, using Insteon and later the 994 of course, ending on 4.7.3. While I always complained about the UI, and had early Insteon issues not specific to the ISY that were later resolved (as that tech evolved and they worked bugs out), I found the ISY to be rock solid.I’m not getting that warm feeling from this Zwave implementation.

My switches and thermostats, on line power, are fine. But all battery devices are flaky and unreliable so far. I have another building on the same property in which I’m running Homeseer and a separate zwave network. I’m adding more sensors to that this weekend to see how it goes. So far, it seems much better even with greater distances between the sensors and devices, but it’s really too early to make a final call on that.

Given the unreliability of the system, I just signed on to having an older, wired Napco system on the property revived by a local alarm company, primarily to give me temp monitoring in this remote property over winter. I had planned to yank that and put in an Elk as I’ve had two M1Gs in the past, but I’m running out of time before we head back south for the winter, and have to make some judgement calls. That alone cost me a multiple of what I have in the ISY and initial sensors, and of course the Napco won’t talk to the ISY,  at least not easily. Not thrilled with this so far, but hoping it gets worked out. A remote upgrade is out of the question given that I’ll be a long way from the device, if they do find a problem with 5.0.15..

[KSchex]

@Chris @madcodger

Thanks for the reply.  I have a small system.  My plan was to update to the latest 5.0.15A(Beta) then implement more devices, Alexa, control over the net etc.  Not any more.

Best of luck..