Zooz Remote Switch ZEN34 sending constant battery updates

Is anyone using the Zooz Remote Switch ZEN34 in their setup? If so is anyone seeing constant battery update messages in the log?

I've set the device's configuration to send battery updates once an hour but I'm getting them constantly instead.

I can temporarily stop them by waking up the device but they start up again soon enough.

BTW, this is my new favorite Z-Wave device: I use it to replace a standard wall on/off switch (my boxes are very small and no neutral wire anyway) so these are perfect! All of my lights are smart bulbs anyway so I don't need an actual dimmer or relay at the switch. Each switch supports up to 5 taps on the top and bottom so I can control 10 scenes/devices from one switch!

Thanks!

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Yes. The Indigo log shows frequent, repetitive battery updates for ZEN34 remotes.

Happens about once per hour and might give 10 to 50 updates all at once in the log.

[matt (support)]

That is unfortunate as sending those updates will drain the battery more than necessary. Those are unsolicited reports – Indigo isn't requesting those. I just checked the manual I have and there aren't any additional configuration parameters related to battery level so I don't believe there is anything Indigo can adjust.

I did just add (to the next release of Indigo) a device UI setting to hide the battery level status update commands so they won't appear in the Event Log. They'll still be sent, but it will prevent your log from showing them.

Thanks Matt!

I've opened a ticket with Zooz. I'll report back what they say.

Michael

I was having the same issue, reported it to Zooz, but also changed the wake interval to once per week, and it's not noticeable any longer.

Unfortunately, I'm still seeing tons of battery updates from my ZEN34 switches even after setting the update frequency to weekly (or any other setting).

I created a script to tally the number of updates-- the below counts are for a 7-hour period yesterday.

Zooz support was not helpful.

Anyone figure this out? I love these switches but I'm just about ready to box them up and send them back.

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I'm continuing to research my constant battery updates from my ZEN34 switches.

I have 10 switches-- 2 are behaving correctly but the others are not.

Interestingly, I purchased an identical switch from Aeotec and it is doing the exact same thing.

My log entries for a malfunctioning device and a correctly functioning device are below-- here's what I've noticed:

1. When a nodeAwake is received, Indigo says it is "skipping battery check (next check in xxx mins)". This device is set to wake up every 5 minutes (while I'm troubleshooting it) so why isn't Indigo issuing a requestBatteryLevel command? Where is it getting 330 minutes from?
2. The initial battery report shows the correct battery level (45%) but the additional reports always show 100%.
3. I haven't been able to see any difference between the correctly functioning devices and the malfunctioning devices. I have reset/unpaired/paired the bad devices multiple times.
4. My devices have the latest firmware 1.30.

Any help in resolving this is very much appreciated.

Log Example for malfunctioning ZEN34 device:

Z-Wave Debug RCVD nodeAwake: 01 08 00 04 00 2E 02 84 07 97
Z-Wave Debug . . nodeAwake: node 046
Z-Wave Debug . . . . . . . : skipping battery check (next check in 330 mins)
Z-Wave Debug SENT goToSleep: 01 09 00 13 2E 02 84 08 24 CB AA
Z-Wave Debug RCVD packet: 01 18 00 13 CB 00 00 06 01 7F 7F 7F 7F 7F 00 01 03 07 00 00 00 02 01 00 00 41 (hex). <<== WHAT IS THIS?

Z-Wave Debug RCVD requestBatteryLevel: 01 09 00 04 00 2E 03 80 03 2D A7
Z-Wave Debug . . requestBatteryLevel: node 046, level 45
Z-Wave received "046 - Bathroom Switch 1" status update battery level 45%

Z-Wave Debug RCVD requestBatteryLevel: 01 09 00 04 00 2E 03 80 03 2D A3
Z-Wave Debug . . requestBatteryLevel: node 046, level 45
Z-Wave received "046 - Bathroom Switch 1" status update battery level 45%

Z-Wave Debug RCVD requestBatteryLevel: 01 09 00 04 00 2E 03 80 03 64 EA
Z-Wave Debug . . requestBatteryLevel: node 046, level 100
Z-Wave received "046 - Bathroom Switch 1" status update battery level 100%

Z-Wave Debug RCVD requestBatteryLevel: 01 09 00 04 00 2E 03 80 03 64 EA
Z-Wave Debug . . requestBatteryLevel: node 046, level 100
Z-Wave received "046 - Bathroom Switch 1" status update battery level 100%

Log Example for correctly functioning ZEN34 device:

2022-04-26 07:54:36.870 Z-Wave Debug RCVD nodeAwake: 01 08 00 04 00 2A 02 84 07 81
2022-04-26 07:54:36.870 Z-Wave Debug . . nodeAwake: node 042
2022-04-26 07:54:36.871 Z-Wave Debug SENT requestBatteryLevel1: 01 09 00 13 2A 02 80 02 25 DD B7
2022-04-26 07:54:36.959 Z-Wave Debug RCVD requestBatteryLevel1: 01 18 00 13 DD 00 00 04 01 DA A5 7F 7F 7F 00 00 03 0C 00 00 00 03 01 00 00 21 (node ACK)
2022-04-26 07:54:36.960 Z-Wave Debug RCVD requestBatteryLevel1: txTransmitTicks 4, txHopCount 1, txRSSIs 218 165 127 127 127, txACKChannelNum 0, txLastTxChannelNum 0, txRouteSchemeState 3, txRoute 12 0 0 0, txRouteSpeed 3, txRouteTries 1, txLastFailedLinkFrom 0, txLastFailedLinkTo 0
2022-04-26 07:54:36.960 Z-Wave Debug . . requestBatteryLevel1: requeuing 1 unsolicited packets
2022-04-26 07:54:36.961 Z-Wave Debug waiting up to 3.0 seconds for module reply after sending request
2022-04-26 07:54:36.961 Z-Wave Debug . . nodeAwake: inhibit count++ to 1
2022-04-26 07:54:36.962 Z-Wave Debug . . nodeAwake: started inhibit sleep timer
2022-04-26 07:54:36.962 Z-Wave Debug RCVD requestBatteryLevel: 01 09 00 04 00 2A 03 80 03 64 E4
2022-04-26 07:54:36.963 Z-Wave Debug . . requestBatteryLevel: node 042, level 100
2022-04-26 07:54:36.963 Z-Wave received "042 - Office Switch 2" status update battery level 100%
2022-04-26 07:54:36.964 Z-Wave Debug . . nodeAwake: inhibit count-- to 0
2022-04-26 07:54:36.964 Z-Wave Debug . . nodeAwake: stopping inhibit sleep timer
2022-04-26 07:54:36.965 Z-Wave Debug SENT goToSleep: 01 09 00 13 2A 02 84 08 24 DE BB

2022-04-26 07:54:36.986 Z-Wave Debug RCVD packet: 01 18 00 13 DE 00 00 02 01 7F 7F 7F 7F 7F 00 00 03 0C 00 00 00 03 01 00 00 5B (hex)
2022-04-26 07:54:37.953 Z-Wave Debug RCVD requestBatteryLevel: 01 09 00 04 00 2A 03 80 03 64 E4
2022-04-26 07:54:37.953 Z-Wave Debug . . requestBatteryLevel: node 042, level 100
2022-04-26 07:54:37.954 Z-Wave received "042 - Office Switch 2" status update battery level 100%

[matt (support)]

When a nodeAwake is received, Indigo says it is "skipping battery check (next check in xxx mins)". This device is set to wake up every 5 minutes (while I'm troubleshooting it) so why isn't Indigo issuing a requestBatteryLevel command? Where is it getting 330 minutes from?

To help reduce battery usage Indigo will request the battery level at most every 12 hours. Every command received (and acknowledged) by the module and every command sent by the module reduces the battery, so Indigo will immediately tell a module that wakes up to go back to sleep, unless it has been around 12 hours since Indigo last requested the battery level. If you choose the Interfaces->Z-Wave->Reload... menu item Indigo will query the battery level on the next wake. That is, the last query time isn't saved across interface reloads so you can force it by cycling the Z-Wave plugin.

The initial battery report shows the correct battery level (45%) but the additional reports always show 100%.

I have no explanation for why it is doing that, other than it must be a firmware bug. Decoding the bytes the module is sending it is indeed reporting (unsolicited by Indigo) that the battery level is 45% for the first two reports and 100% for the last two shown in the log snippet.

Z-Wave Debug RCVD packet: 01 18 00 13 CB 00 00 06 01 7F 7F 7F 7F 7F 00 01 03 07 00 00 00 02 01 00 00 41 (hex). <<== WHAT IS THIS?

That is a ACK back from the module for the goToSleep command sent by Indigo. Indigo logs it a bit differently than normal (just as the raw hex and doesn't get decoded) because Indigo specifically doesn't check if an ACK is returned after sending a goToSleep command. This is because some modules fail to ACK after a goToSleep (they go to sleep too fast), and we don't want to log an error in that case since it is benign.

Unfortunately, none of this really helps the situation – the raw packets in both cases (bad module and working module) look as I would expect, with the exception that the bad module is sending a lot of unsolicited (and inaccurate) batteryLevels back to Indigo.

Matt-- thanks very much for taking a look at my post.

I might ask Zooz to send me the file for the latest firmware but if that doesn't work then I guess these devices just aren't ready for prime time!

Thanks again!
Michael

Definitely tell them. They were responsive a couple years ago when one of their IR/multisensors was sending WAY too many updates. They issued a firmware update pretty quickly, and it worked.

Matt-- thanks very much for taking a look at my post.

I might ask Zooz to send me the file for the latest firmware but if that doesn't work then I guess these devices just aren't ready for prime time!

Thanks again!
Michael

Thanks for the updates in this thread, michaelcreamer.

I have two ZEN34's. One fills the log, as you describe. The other over-reports, but not nearly as much. Bought and installed both at the same time.

Please let us know if Zooz provides useful information.

I am making some progress.

I upgraded my v1.0 ZEN34 devices to v1.30 and they are now working correctly.

Two other v1.30 ZEN34 devices are also working correctly.

The remaining ZEN34 devices are still sending constant battery updates.

I am going to continue to unpair/reset/upgrade the problematic devices to see if they will start working or if I can discover any patterns in the logs that might point me to a solution.

Stay tuned!

Michael

[matt (support)]

Indigo 2022.1.0 is now available and adds device setting UI to hide the logging for the battery commands. Note this doesn't prevent them from being sent – it just prevents them from showing in the log.

Finally fixed!

Zooz has finally released version 1.40 of the ZEN34 firmware that stops the endless, unsolicited battery reports!!

I upgraded all 10 of my ZEN34 switches yesterday and so far so good.

You can request the firmware directly from Zooz Support:
https://www.support.getzooz.com/new

Michael

Finally fixed!

Zooz has finally released version 1.40 of the ZEN34 firmware that stops the endless, unsolicited battery reports!!

I upgraded all 10 of my ZEN34 switches yesterday and so far so good.

You can request the firmware directly from Zooz Support:
https://www.support.getzooz.com/new

Michael

Thanks for posting the FW information. Very helpful.

Do the updates still require Windows and does Zooz still lack a single page with FW updates for all of its devices ?