System Alive Checker for Z-Wave Topic is solved

[LordMax]

Hi!

I have setup some Z-Wave devices. But I want to know if the device is "reachable", a system that pings the device to see if its out of battery or turned off. Does anyone know if theres a plugin or a smart blocky script that can test this? Thanks beforehand!

Best regards Max

[waltervl]

There is a zwave battery level plugin https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/Z-Wave_Ba ... vel_plugin

I do not know if it checks for reachable, I have no zwave devices.

[LordMax]

Thanks, I am running domoticz on a windows machine, how do you install plugins on windows?

[waltervl]

Thanks, I am running domoticz on a windows machine, how do you install plugins on windows?

See wiki page: https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/Using_Python_plugins
But plugins not always guaranteed on Windows.
When you search there are also some specific Zwave Lua and DZVents scripts around.

[lost]

I have setup some Z-Wave devices. But I want to know if the device is "reachable", a system that pings the device to see if its out of battery or turned off. Does anyone know if theres a plugin or a smart blocky script that can test this? Thanks beforehand!

Hello,

IMO, you can't "ping" a z-wave device. You may use pooling for those AC powered but that's no more recommended (may be needed for some old or buggy modules, or very specific stuff: see hereafter) as this loads z-wave network needlessly. For battery ones, as they only switch their radio on when they have a status to report (to save power), there is no solution: They don't listen 99.999% of the time, so good luck to "ping" them!

Battery level looks to trigger mail notifications as I now had some after upgrading to last stable (coming from v4.10717 as I skipped 2020.x versions) and z-wave devices that looks no more responsive will appear as dead (red in the interface).

So, IMO, this is now core Domoticz functions for z-wave modules.

On my side, I only pool one specific device but that's a special one & a very specific purpose: AC powered but battery backed (and still behaving like an AC device on power outages): Aeon Siren. I use pooling on this one (every 20s) and a Lua script checks last seen date. If unseen for more than 1mn (thus 3 pools missed), this trigger a jamZwave switch. See wiki for z-wave alarm, I wrote a chapter on this.

This z-wave jamming switch will then automatically raise the sensitivity of my own alarm system, as some (or none using z-wave technology, but I have a mix) devices may not been able to report.

[LordMax]

I have setup some Z-Wave devices. But I want to know if the device is "reachable", a system that pings the device to see if its out of battery or turned off. Does anyone know if theres a plugin or a smart blocky script that can test this? Thanks beforehand!

Hello,

IMO, you can't "ping" a z-wave device. You may use pooling for those AC powered but that's no more recommended (may be needed for some old or buggy modules, or very specific stuff: see hereafter) as this loads z-wave network needlessly. For battery ones, as they only switch their radio on when they have a status to report (to save power), there is no solution: They don't listen 99.999% of the time, so good luck to "ping" them!

Battery level looks to trigger mail notifications as I now had some after upgrading to last stable (coming from v4.10717 as I skipped 2020.x versions) and z-wave devices that looks no more responsive will appear as dead (red in the interface).

So, IMO, this is now core Domoticz functions for z-wave modules.

On my side, I only pool one specific device but that's a special one & a very specific purpose: AC powered but battery backed (and still behaving like an AC device on power outages): Aeon Siren. I use pooling on this one (every 20s) and a Lua script checks last seen date. If unseen for more than 1mn (thus 3 pools missed), this trigger a jamZwave switch. See wiki for z-wave alarm, I wrote a chapter on this.

This z-wave jamming switch will then automatically raise the sensitivity of my own alarm system, as some (or none using z-wave technology, but I have a mix) devices may not been able to report.

I have an alarm setup and I would like to know if it gets "sabotaged" or runs out of battery, and if it gets destroyed or "sabotaged". The alarm is built with window/door sensors, movment sensors and a siren. But as you said they stay asleep until they find activity. If I run the battery plugin and the sensor gets sabotaged will it still warn for battery or will it just appear as normal?

[lost]

I have an alarm setup and I would like to know if it gets "sabotaged" or runs out of battery, and if it gets destroyed or "sabotaged". The alarm is built with window/door sensors, movment sensors and a siren. But as you said they stay asleep until they find activity. If I run the battery plugin and the sensor gets sabotaged will it still warn for battery or will it just appear as normal?

IMO, you must rely on modules functions: A lot have a sabotage switch (real internal switch, if they are opened ; or vibration, to trigger if they are re/moved, like Fibaro "eye") you may include in your system on top of the ones attached to PIR/open-close base function.

For battery, as I said looks this is now a core function for z-wave devices (if not disabled by setting 0% level): This may be reported by devices at wake-up interval or when reporting a status (check sensors manual/configuration options). So IMO this'll likely not fit your needs (wake-up interval is usually huge) and you don't need a plugin. Only issue I see is low battery notification level is global (set in configuration/others tab): Problem is I have devices that start to misbehave at 5% battery reported level (so 10% default level warning is OK even if you leave home a few days), others (like Neo-Coolcam PIRs) at 30%! So this setup may be made per device to cope with buggy ones.

But that's just designed to report battery, not an alive status!

You may be able to use other functions of your devices, like ability to report temperature: You may set a report time & use last seen on this!

[LordMax]

I have an alarm setup and I would like to know if it gets "sabotaged" or runs out of battery, and if it gets destroyed or "sabotaged". The alarm is built with window/door sensors, movment sensors and a siren. But as you said they stay asleep until they find activity. If I run the battery plugin and the sensor gets sabotaged will it still warn for battery or will it just appear as normal?

IMO, you must rely on modules functions: A lot have a sabotage switch (real internal switch, if they are opened ; or vibration, to trigger if they are re/moved, like Fibaro "eye") you may include in your system on top of the ones attached to PIR/open-close base function.

For battery, as I said looks this is now a core function for z-wave devices (if not disabled by setting 0% level): This may be reported by devices at wake-up interval or when reporting a status (check sensors manual/configuration options). So IMO this'll likely not fit your needs (wake-up interval is usually huge) and you don't need a plugin. Only issue I see is low battery notification level is global (set in configuration/others tab): Problem is I have devices that start to misbehave at 5% battery reported level (so 10% default level warning is OK even if you leave home a few days), others (like Neo-Coolcam PIRs) at 30%! So this setup may be made per device to cope with buggy ones.

But that's just designed to report battery, not an alive status!

You may be able to use other functions of your devices, like ability to report temperature: You may set a report time & use last seen on this!

Ok, I think the best way is to use the battery check. But there is a "Wake-Up" function in my devices config, the device will wake up 1 time everyday to check for updates in the config, maybe I can do something with that? Thanks for the help, I belive what I can do now is to experiment by myself!

[LordMax]

Thanks, I am running domoticz on a windows machine, how do you install plugins on windows?

See wiki page: https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/Using_Python_plugins
But plugins not always guaranteed on Windows.
When you search there are also some specific Zwave Lua and DZVents scripts around.

I have successfully (almost) installed the plugin, everything is almost ready but I have the problem where the actuall plugin doesnt show up in the Setup/Hardware. It is in a Domoticz/plugins/BatteryLevel folder and python is installed but it just doesnt show up...

[waltervl]

What does your logging after a restart of Domoticz say about python?

[LordMax]

What does your logging after a restart of Domoticz say about python?

I missed that, it logged:

Code: Select all

PluginSystem: Failed dynamic library load, install the latest libpython3.x library that is available for your platform.

I will try to install it, I only installed python3