Is there a way to determine Z-Wave network traffic load

[steve-elves]

I have an EISY box with a Z-Matter Z-Wave/Zigbee dongle, on a home system with about 42 Z-Wave devices (no Zigbee, plus about 25 Insteon devices). I was attempting to create a microcontroller device to control my garden irrigation valve solenoids and measure actual water flow using a YF-S201 turbine flowmeter; the device I was programming is a Z-Uno microcontroller.  I've used them before with no particular issues - they hooked up to my ISY/EISY and have performed reliably.  This time, however, the EISY Z-Wave control started to become flakey and then pretty much quit entirely.  Even with the new device disconnected and removed from the configuration, now all my existing devices won't respond to commands (either manual or programmatic) and statuses are all either missing or static.  I've rebooted the IoX and the EISY a couple of times, but I've been reluctant to factory reset the Z-Wave dongle.  I noticed that the EISY box itself got very hot before I disconnected the new Z-Uno (over 56 °C!), now it's cooled down somewhat, but still my Z-Wave appears to be almost dead.

When I click on some simple lights, they MAY turn on - sometimes after 5 minutes!  There's a similar wait to turn them off if they go on.  I think something is seriously broken, but I'm not sure about the best way to start troubleshooting.  The long delay to respond could be a symptom of excess Z-Wave network traffic, so I'm hoping there is a diagnostic already built-in that could shed some light on it.  The Z-Wave network speed was set at 10; I reverted it to the default of 15 with no noticeable improvement.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received!  I'm loath to purchase a new dongle without knowing that it is the culprit, as they're $175 here in Canada!

Edited August 5 by steve-elves

[Techman]

Attached are a couple of articles that may help you troubleshoot your issues.

Zwave repair terms.url Zwave comprehensive guide.url

[steve-elves]

Thanks for sending these, Techman - they are going into my reference bin for sure!

I think I confirmed that my issue was pretty much a self-inflicted wound - I had configured my Z-Wave device incorrectly, and it was trying to send a message containing the status of a binary input every 30 ms!  Of course, that totally bogged down the network very quickly to the point that none of the other Z-Wave devices could communicate.  Even worse, the power demand really ramped up the temperature of my EISY!

Once I figured out what was happening, I deleted the bad actor (and some no-longer-existent devices as well), rebooted, and everything came up working as it should (whew!).  I corrected my code, and now my little home-baked Z-Wave device is happily allowing me to do my own garden irrigation control!