Mr B Posted January 13 Posted January 13 Having a problem keeping the ZMatter dongle connected when using a USB extender. I purchased this one from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C5R4DVRF?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title) as I had seen that someone else had noted that they were using it and had posted a link in the forums. My problem is that the ZMatter dongle won't stay connected for more than a few hours before either the ZWave or the Zigbee side or both stop communicating. Seems I have to have it plugged directly into the eisy itself for it to stay connected. Anyone have any suggestions? (I had also tried a short USB extension cable in the past with similar results). Thanks in advance for any advice.
mapeter Posted January 13 Posted January 13 Interesting that you bring this up. I purchased the same extender early February 2024 and it had been working without any issues. Then mid-day on New Year's Day, the eISY stopped communicating with Z-Wave devices. It started working again after a reboot, but only for a couple of hours. I had to plug the ZMatter dongle directly into the eISY for it to be stable again. Looking forward to hearing if others have any ideas.
Mr B Posted January 24 Author Posted January 24 (edited) @mapeter With a lack of any replies to this topic, I finally found some time to do some digging and found at least one post where someone mentioned reseting the port for the ZMatter dongle. Here's what I've done so far: - I followed the instructions in the eisy Wiki under "Can't connect to ZMatter Z-Wave board / dongle" and overrode port detection for the ZMatter dongle to cuaU1, rebooted, and made sure that both Z-Wave and Zigbee were connected. - I shut down my eisy then moved the dongle off of my eisy to an 3 ft USB 3.0 extension cable that was connected to the same USB port that the dongle was in then powered my eisy back up. So far, after over 24 hours, the eisy hasn't lost communication with the either the Z-Wave or Zigbee side of the ZMatter dongle (fingers still crossed). I went the route of the USB extension cable instead of the USB extender because I noticed that when trying to resolve the problem with the extender, rebooting the eisy still didn't reconnect the the ZMatter dongle completely (Z-Wave reconnected but Zigbee did not) unless I power cycled the USB extender when I rebooted the eisy. One of my concerns was that since we are usually away from home for weeks at a time during the summer, being able to reboot my eisy remotely if something like this happened and have Z-Wave and Zigbee reconnect was very important. The USB extension cable moves the dongle far enough away for me and removes the weight of the dongle on the USB port in the eisy which was my primary concern. Not sure if this will be a permanent fix but I'll keep you updated. Update: 6 days with no problems so I'm going to call this fixed. Edited January 29 by Mr B Marked solution 1
Solution Geddy Posted January 24 Solution Posted January 24 On 1/12/2025 at 8:20 PM, Mr B said: I had also tried a short USB extension cable in the past with similar results I've got my Z-Matter dongle connected with a standard USB Extension cable of about 3 feet (similar to this one: https://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-3-Feet-Female-Extension-105432/dp/B002KKZAIU/). I've had it this way for the last couple of years just to get the device mounted on the back of my equipment cabinet to be away from the case or other metal cases in the cabinet I have network and other electronics in. I have a few Z-Wave devices and a few Zigbee devices and can't remember a time that they were unreachable or noticed the dongle to not be connected. It has happened, but not often enough for me to worry about it. Usually a reboot/power cycle of the eisy brought things right back. Honestly, for the first 6 months or so of having the eisy+Z-Matter it was directly connected to it. I only added the extender as a precaution to remove the weight off the device directly, but also to put the antenna more in the "open". I believe there were a lot of comments about running USB Extension cables a couple of years ago(maybe when Polisy came out, but again when eisy was released). Might find those posts using Google Site Search since forum search won't find archived topics.
Mr B Posted January 24 Author Posted January 24 Thanks for the info @Geddy. My ZMatter dongle would not stay connected on my 3 ft USB extension cable reliably until I overrode the port. It has stayed connected for nearly 2 days now. Hopefully it continues to work now. I had used that exact setup with the eisy at our previous house (sold with the house) with the same type of cable (I had bought a 2 pack) and never had a problem with Z-Wave or Zigbee staying connected. 1
mapeter Posted February 4 Posted February 4 Hi @Mr B, I will have to hook up the extender again and try overriding the port. Thanks for the tip!
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