Trigger Reactor when a zwave device goes offline

@rigpapa, know of any way to trigger a reactor sensor if a device goes offline? i am trying to monitor some appliances (refrigerator and freezer) that are in a not weather friendly location. I’ve had a GFI pop down there and ruin everything that was in the freezer. My first idea was to plug them into something that could give me an energy reading to see if the appliances were still on, but none of the outdoor rated zwave devices give energy readings. So, I’ve given up on that and decided that if the outlet is dead (i.e. the GFI tripped), then it would be great to get a notification. i have just found no obvious way of doing that and was wondering if you had any thoughts. Thanks!

If these were WiFi or IP-based devices, I would recommend using either the SiteSensor plug-in, the very capable NETMON, or its older equivalent by another developer, WoL Plus, to monitor those IPs on your local network, and have Reactor respond accordingly.

That is, if you can reach them from your intended location without compromising the security of the target network (e.g. by opening ports just for this purpose, etc.).

BUT, ALAS, your question concerns Z-Wave devices, so let’s see what @rigpapa suggests!

Hi @LibraSun, thanks for the suggestion, but the devices i got are zwave ones.

https://byjasco.com/ge-z-wave-plus-plug-outdoor-smart-switch-500s

i guess i can go out an buy some wifi ones and try, but was trying to do this with what i already have on hand.

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You can configure notification from the native Vera notifications for when devices go offline. A device will be considered offline if it doesn’t respond back to polling, so you’d ideally wanna set a short polling interval so that you get a notification sooner. These notifications can be configured in the notifications under the users and account info. There you can click notify when devices go offline.

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The best thing to do is test. Go verify that one of your switches is up, running, and happy right now. Then go out, unplug the switch (plug the 'fridge in direct to the receptacle, of course), and let the switch sit dead for a while. At some point (hopefully not too far out), Vera will report it dead. I imagine polling will need to be enabled with a reasonable interval for this device, so if you’ve done some of @rafale77’s optimizations, that might be one you need to undo. When the device reports dead, I suspect you’ll notice its CommFailure state variable has gone from 0 to 1. If that’s the case, there’s your Reactor condition.

Edit: you might also add a “sustained for” option on that condition, so that a temporary comm failure doesn’t cause World Wide Panic at Casa Sebby.

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Here is my rather basic suggestion:


NOTE: I’ve had that particular Power Strip unplugged for a few months now. For other, still-active devices on my Z-Wave network, the ‘ConsecutivePollFails’ parameter = 0. Thus, I consider this a valid test for when one of them might drop offline.

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thanks all! i will do some experimenting

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Ok, did some playing around and… @LibraSun you were absolutely correct. I used the awesome “Device Spy” feature of Reactor and after a few minutes of being unplugged, i got the following:

Watching #23 Diningr Rom Lights; waiting for changes in device states…
urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:ZWaveNetwork1 / ConsecutivePollFails = 1
urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HaDevice1 / PollRatings = 4.90
urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:HaDevice1 / PollRatings = 4.80
urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:ZWaveNetwork1 / ConsecutivePollFails = 2

I believe the consucutivePollFails will be the key to solving this issue. the second consecutive poll fail happened at about the 10 minute mark, which should be enough time for the freezer to still be healthy and also give me some cushion in the event there is a random poll failure in there. thanks all!

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