balli Posted November 13, 2022 Posted November 13, 2022 Has anyone had a luck getting reliable connections to Zooz gen 7 devices? I have ISY with 500 series zwave card (ISY and the 500 card have current firmware). I've had a couple zwave thermostats and Aeon switches in a different floor than the ISY that have seemed to work fine through the years. Because I have a whole house full of failing 15 year old Insteon stuff, I've been seeing of I can migrate some of these to zwave. I have a Zen76 only about 12 feet (and a layer of sheetrock), from the ISY and I constantly get failed commands (full of messages about waiting x number of ticks for retry in the logs). I found a couple old Honeywell lamp modules (zwave plus) and I can put these 40 feet from the ISY and they work 100% reliable). I bought a Zooz zen14 to try to use as a repeater and it's hanging in free air about 20 feet from the ISY and I can't even communicate 100% reliably with that. Putting one of the Honeywell modules beside the ISY has helped a little, but I still can't get 100% reliable z-wave to Zooz devices. I have another pair of Zen76 about 30 feet from the ISY with one of the Honeywell modules mounted in the same spot, but on another floor. Honeywell works perfectly, and the zen76 is maybe 65% reliable on any given command. You'd think at least the Honeywell modules would act as a repeater to the near by Zooz devices. I ordered a bunch of Aeon gen 7 repeaters. Hoping maybe I make this work with them. This all seems like a bad flashback to the old x10 days and isn't making me very confident about using zwave. Oh, the Zooz devices will work reliably if they're within a couple feet of the ISY.
Techman Posted November 13, 2022 Posted November 13, 2022 The ISY 500 Zwave controller has an effective range of about 25 feet. Putting a repeater about 15 feet from the ISY should help. Being that the ISY Zwave antenna is inside the enclosure its range is somewhat diminished. You should mount the repeater as high up as possible and away from obstructions. You should also keep the ISY away from obstructions and other RF devices that could possibly interfere with the Zwave RF signal. Keep in mind that any Zwave 700 devices will communicate with the ISY as if they were 500 series devices.
balli Posted November 14, 2022 Author Posted November 14, 2022 Yea, I put a Zooz zen14 hanging from an outlet in the ceiling about 15 feet from the ISY. I had hoped it would repeat to my problem switches which are maybe another 20 feet away, but no luck. One problem switch reports it's route to the ISY is via a Honeywell lamp module on another floor and the other shows it's route through a Honeywell lamp module that I have plugged in right beside the ISY. Odd because there are other closer Zooz devices in both cases. Seems like Zooz gen7 has lousy z-wave radios and maybe don't repeat properly. Maybe I'll try relocating my ISY. It's attached to the wall beside my electrical panel along with a cable modem and various network switches (but not my router).
IndyMike Posted November 14, 2022 Posted November 14, 2022 1 hour ago, balli said: Seems like Zooz gen7 has lousy z-wave radios and maybe don't repeat properly. Hello balli, I have had nothing but good experiences with the Zooz gen7 devices. I do not have any Zen76, but do have 4 Zen77 (dimming version) as well as a number of battery devices and a Zooz ZST10-700 controller. As Techman implied, I would submit that your problem is the 500 series controller in the ISY994. I struggled with this for years with my system. Kept adding repeaters to the system trying to fix intermittent problems. I finally moved to the zooz 700 system (controller, locks, switches) and have been extremely happy. Most of my battery devices now direct connect to the controller. To put that in perspective - my controller is in the basement, battery devices are in the garage (75', attic 35', 1st floor, 2nd floor). It may be painful, but I would suggest moving on from the 500 series controller. I moved to Home Assistant on a Raspberry PI for my Zwave devices. I am still using the ISY994 for Insteon. Home assistant interfaces nicely with the ISY994 (I can share scenes, and actions). To be clear - your Zwave communication problems are not the fault of the ISY. It is the 500 series Zwave controller that is constraining things. Unfortunately, the ISY994 does not support 700 series Zwave controllers. The following Zwave network map doesn't show that well. Items on the 2nd level down have direct communication to the 700 series controller in my basement (10 devices). 3rd level devices require 1 hop to make it to the controller (4 devices). Keep in mind that I only have 4 wired devices (repeaters). Everything else is battery. Hope this helps, IM
balli Posted November 14, 2022 Author Posted November 14, 2022 Thanks for the detailed response. I guess the main thing making me blame Zooz is the fact that my Honeywell and Aeotech devices are dead reliable at longer distances than Zooz. To be fair these are all "open air" devices while most of the Zooz gear is in plastic electrical boxes. Hopefully you're right and this can me made to work. I'm sick of trying to buy used insteon parts from Ebay
Techman Posted November 14, 2022 Posted November 14, 2022 2 hours ago, balli said: Yea, I put a Zooz zen14 hanging from an outlet in the ceiling about 15 feet from the ISY. I had hoped it would repeat to my problem switches which are maybe another 20 feet away, but no luck. One problem switch reports it's route to the ISY is via a Honeywell lamp module on another floor and the other shows it's route through a Honeywell lamp module that I have plugged in right beside the ISY. Odd because there are other closer Zooz devices in both cases. Seems like Zooz gen7 has lousy z-wave radios and maybe don't repeat properly. Maybe I'll try relocating my ISY. It's attached to the wall beside my electrical panel along with a cable modem and various network switches (but not my router). Try doing a "Synchronize Nodes" from the admin console Synchronizing ensures that the ISY and the Z-Wave network have the same device information for a node.
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