I have a Jasco Z-Wave Smart Light Switch just like the one pictured below that I bought from Amazon. I had integrated it into my Vivint Smart Home system and use it to control my outdoor low-voltage lighting in the front yard. I enjoyed it immensely. Before installing this switch, I had to flip a light switch in the wall to turn front yard lights on and off manually. With this waterproof smart switch, now I can turn on/off lights directly from my smart phone app. But the best part is that I don't even have to turn them on/off myself anymore. I have a custom action that will automatically turn lights on at sunset and then automatically turn them off at midnight. I can even have lights automatically turn on when my outdoor camera or my doorbell camera detects a person and then automatically turn them off after 5 minutes.
There are of course other brand of smart switches, and they might be using something other than Z-Wave (a communication protocol), such as ZigBee or WiFi. But the idea is the same. As long as you can integrate it into your smart home system, you are good.
Then one day, my control panel complained that my switch is offline. So the troubleshooting began.
I unplugged the switch off the outlet outside and then plugged it back in. Didn't help.
Next, I try to run diagnostics and rediscoveries of all my Z-Wave smart home devices and see if that would improve things. Nope, switch still shows as offline.
Maybe it is bad signal strength? I wondered. So I took my panel off the wall (it has built int battery) and then set it right next to the switch and ran diagnostics again. Still no change.
Having no choice, I went to the last resort: removing the device from the panel and then learn it back in again. This was not my preferred solution because after I do this, I would have to recreate all my custom actions and device groups relating to this device. But guess what, I couldn't remove or add the device at all.
Do I even have power on this outside outlet? Maybe it got shorted from the rain or something? So I took a lamp outside and plugged it into the outlet. Problem confirmed: I simply didn't have power.
So next thing was to see if the circuit break has been tripped due to the short. You see, I have two circuit break boxes and the switches were not very well labeled (which is probably typical for most homes). So there I was, turning switches off and on for all the unknown control regions, effectively rebooting many things at my house, the stove/microwave, the washer/dryer, the furnace/AC, my garage door openers, my computers/routers/switches, my 100+ smart home devices, the list goes on and on. But after I pretty much reset all the circuit breaks, when I took the lamp out to test again, I still didn't have power!
I was completely dumbfounded!
About a week later (a week without my convenient outdoor front lawn lighting automation), a thought suddenly struck me: "Didn't I use to turn front lawn lights on/off using an in wall switch?" I ran to the location of the in wall switch immediately.
After I turned the switch back on, wah-lah, my lighting automation is back! I didn't have to reinstall anything, it just worked! So here's the important lesson learned:
The other lesson learned here is that your kids will always destroy your perfectly working things. But that deserves a whole series of blog posts of their own.
Ciao!
There are of course other brand of smart switches, and they might be using something other than Z-Wave (a communication protocol), such as ZigBee or WiFi. But the idea is the same. As long as you can integrate it into your smart home system, you are good.
Then one day, my control panel complained that my switch is offline. So the troubleshooting began.
I unplugged the switch off the outlet outside and then plugged it back in. Didn't help.
Next, I try to run diagnostics and rediscoveries of all my Z-Wave smart home devices and see if that would improve things. Nope, switch still shows as offline.
Maybe it is bad signal strength? I wondered. So I took my panel off the wall (it has built int battery) and then set it right next to the switch and ran diagnostics again. Still no change.
Having no choice, I went to the last resort: removing the device from the panel and then learn it back in again. This was not my preferred solution because after I do this, I would have to recreate all my custom actions and device groups relating to this device. But guess what, I couldn't remove or add the device at all.
Do I even have power on this outside outlet? Maybe it got shorted from the rain or something? So I took a lamp outside and plugged it into the outlet. Problem confirmed: I simply didn't have power.
So next thing was to see if the circuit break has been tripped due to the short. You see, I have two circuit break boxes and the switches were not very well labeled (which is probably typical for most homes). So there I was, turning switches off and on for all the unknown control regions, effectively rebooting many things at my house, the stove/microwave, the washer/dryer, the furnace/AC, my garage door openers, my computers/routers/switches, my 100+ smart home devices, the list goes on and on. But after I pretty much reset all the circuit breaks, when I took the lamp out to test again, I still didn't have power!
I was completely dumbfounded!
About a week later (a week without my convenient outdoor front lawn lighting automation), a thought suddenly struck me: "Didn't I use to turn front lawn lights on/off using an in wall switch?" I ran to the location of the in wall switch immediately.
Sure enough, the switch has been turned off even though I had it COMPLETELY TAPED OFF.
After I turned the switch back on, wah-lah, my lighting automation is back! I didn't have to reinstall anything, it just worked! So here's the important lesson learned:
Always check the in-wall switch first to make sure it is on for any of your smart home lighting troubleshooting tasks!!
The other lesson learned here is that your kids will always destroy your perfectly working things. But that deserves a whole series of blog posts of their own.
Ciao!
I repeat: your kids will always destroy your perfectly working things.
BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com
This is very helpful, since the light in my room I can tell Alexa to turn on my light! Now I know how!
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