ZEN30 radio differences?

I have a strange issue so it’s sparking the question - is the ZWave radio or antenna design somehow different in a ZEN30 than in other switches, like the ZEN71?

I have two smart switches in my garage on opposite sides of the garage. One was an old GE Z-Wave switch from the 2015 era, and the other was a ZEN71. They worked great for over a year (well, the GE was fine for much longer than that, the 71 was added about a year ago). (Note my hub is a Qolsys IQ 4 panel now, but previously was Smartthings.)

Anyway - I replaced both the GE and the 71 each with a ZEN30 (so I could use the second relay button with no connected load as a direct association trigger to other things). They work great, BUT almost every morning (or every other morning at least) both of these ZEN30’s report an issue on the IQ 4, and they stop responding to zwave commands. To ‘wake them up’ I need to simply manually turn on/off the light by pressing the paddles on each, then they come back to life.

I just find it odd that the GE and the 71 never had this issue. So, hence my question - do the 30’s have a smaller internal antenna or something ? I’m wondering if they require more zwave signal to operate. My next step is to break out the Zniffer and sit out in the garage at 5-6am to see if I can catch this (they always do this at 5am for some reason - never another time of day).

Thanks for your thoughts.

Can’t say I know why it happens, or if there is a difference. I’ve been on the Zooz Zbox Hub for quite some time. I have 3 of the Zen30s currently, and so far for me it’s been the Zen71s that seem to go to sleep for me. It’s very rare, but every so often I’ll have one that seems to go to sleep and like you said just flipping it makes it wake up and work again.

I’ve made some good headway on this issue with a Zniffer this weekend. I’ll post more once I have a chance to organize my findings, and give this a few days to settle out and prove my current solutions. But - spoiler alert - I think I needed better and more repeating nodes in my garage. I dropped a ZEN04 in the garage and I think my problems may be gone… But I’ll give it a few more days and see.

More to come.

PS: I just noticed a strange flair on my account here.. apparently I joined a year ago today!?

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