Z-stick non-functional

I bought a Zooz S2 Stick 700 today, and it fails to do anything except give me error messages. I've enabled it, configured it, and got only error messages. I downloaded the driver and installed it, still won't work. I'm using Indigo 2021.2.0, and Monterey 12.2.1. I've also tried it on various USB ports. I've also rebooted the Mac several times.

This is the text from the event log:

Enabling interface "Z-Wave 2021.2.0"
Starting interface "Z-Wave 2021.2.0" (pid 866)
Started interface "Z-Wave 2021.2.0"
Error unknown command bytes received E0 E0 (ignoring)
Z-Wave Error rcvd unexpected bytes (sent ACK): E0
Error unknown command bytes received E0 00 (ignoring)
Z-Wave Error rcvd unexpected bytes (sent ACK): E0 E0
Error unknown command bytes received E0 E0 (ignoring)
Z-Wave Error rcvd unexpected bytes (sent ACK): E0
Error unknown command bytes received E0 E0 (ignoring)
Z-Wave Error serial port communication error: device reports readiness to read but returned no data (device disconnected or multiple access on port?)
Z-Wave Error Z-Wave Controller might be disconnected
Z-Wave Error silently retrying serial connection every 5.0 seconds
Error unknown command bytes received E0 E0 (ignoring)
Error unknown command bytes received E0 E0 (ignoring)
Interface Failure lost connection with interface
Error resending previous command (busy or unexpected command)
Error unknown command bytes received E0 E0 (ignoring)
Error resending previous command (busy or unexpected command)
Error PowerLinc not responding -- attempting reset
Power Failure possible power failure
Z-Wave Error rcvd unexpected bytes (sent ACK): E0 E0 E0 00
Z-Wave Error rcvd unexpected bytes (sent ACK): F0
Z-Wave Error rcvd unexpected bytes (sent ACK): F0

I'm at the end of my very limited trouble-shooting ability. Any help would be much appreciated.

Mike D.

[jay (support)]

It looks like the serial port you have selected isn't the correct one. What is the name of the serial port you selected and what driver does the Zooz interface use?

I have two ports available in the pull-down menu: usbserial-A600B3YP, and BLTH. I've tried both.

The driver I installed is : CP210x Macintosh OS VCP Driver 6.0.2 - October 26, 2021


Mike D.

[jay (support)]

You must have some kind of USB bus issue. That interface uses the built-in apple modem driver, which would create a named serial port in the form of: usbmodemXXX where XXX is some number.

Since you don't see it, that means that macOS isn't seeing the dongle (you might remove the driver you installed as it isn't required and could be causing issues).

My guess is that something on your USB bus is interfering with communication with the interface. Try unplugging all other USB devices except the interface, mouse and keyboard. Then look to see if it shows up when you type this command in a terminal window:

Code: Select all

ls -la /dev/tty.usbmodem*

If you see something like this, then your Mac still isn't seeing it:

Code: Select all

MightyBook:~ jay$ ls -la /dev/tty.usbmodem*
ls: /dev/tty.usbmodem*: No such file or directory

OTOH, if you see something like this:

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 MightyBook:~ jay$ ls -la /dev/tty.usbmodem*
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel   18,   2 Dec 22 02:05 /dev/tty.usbmodem142201


then macOS is recognizing it. Restart the Indigo Server and it should show up in the serial port popup. Then you'll have to start reconnecting USB devices to figure out which one is a problem, then try to isolate that one on a separate USB hub or something.

This is what I'm seeing:

miked@Michaels-Mac-mini ~ % ls -la /dev/tty.usbmodem*
zsh: no matches found: /dev/tty.usbmodem*

[matt (support)]

Based on the Zooz manual I believe that modules uses the usbmodem driver, which is built-in to macOS. Since you aren't seeing it show in the menu (or from the Terminal), either your controller is malfunctioning or it uses a different driver than the usbmodem (as the docs indicate). Either way, I think you should contact Zooz to see what they say.

I know that some series 700 controllers (like the Aeotec Z-Stick 7) require the SI Labs driver. You can try installing that driver (2nd link) I found here., but again based on the Zooz documentation it should be needed or useful for the Zooz 700 controller.

[jay (support)]

Did you try removing all your USB devices as described?

The only USB devices connected are the keyboard, mouse, external hard drive, and Insteon interface (all via powered USB hub. I tried a different one, no change) If by "second link", you mean the VCP driver, I installed it previously, no change, then uninstalled it.

I guess the next step is to contact Zooz support.

Also: the Zooz stick is not showing up in the Mac System Preferences/Network list of devices.

[jay (support)]

Try unplugging your external hard drive - we've seen cases where poor USB implementations on hard drives interfered with the serial communication that these types of devices need. And unplug the PowerLinc for good measure - we want as clean a USB connection/bus as we can get.

Also, it would show up in the network preferences, but it would show up in the System Information app, when you select USB. It should show all devices on the USB bus so you should be able to spot it there (probably won't be named Zooz, but since you'll only have keyboard and mouse it would be the only other thing).

After shotgunning various items for a while, it now appears to work fine. The problem with that approach is that I can't point to a single change and claim that was what fixed the problem.

Thanks for your help.