Any issues with the latest SmartThings patch? Mine stopped working

[Fallon]

Initial tests were hampered by what I assume was frozen chicken poop, but it seems to be working fine after a force close. I can see the door from my office & it force closed fine. 15 degrees out so I wasn't about to go check. My test routine rand fine & it closed automagically.

Will keep an eye on it, but this appears to work as designed & replace the functionality missing from the current driver that was in the earlier driver.

[Fallon]

On the sensitivity slider, is a higher number more sensitive or less sensitive? Might want to clarify that in a future version of the app.

[John Rucker (Solar-Current.com)]

The higher the number the more sensitive the door is to objects.

[Fallon]

Thanks. Sensitivity was up at 77, dropped it way down. It takes about 30 seconds for my linear actuator to open/close, so plenty of time for the poultry or cats to move out of the way. Hopefully the lower sensitivity should overcome the frozen chicken poop without needing to worry about force close.

[Fallon]

And it looks like the issue might be back. It stopped responding to SmartThings a few days ago. Cycling the power doesn't resurrect it at all though, the button to manually open or close it still works just fine. Whenever I look at the app it just reports the door status as Unknown.

Checking the Zigbee mesh health shows 253 of 255 to the CoopBoss ID, so that appears to be healthy.

Looking at the device logs in SmartThings shows replies (voltage & amperage reports) from the device 6 days ago, even after power cycling it a few times.

CoopBoss H3Vx (Device) Events — displayed | all | from device
Date   Source   Type   Name   Value   User   Displayed Text
2017-02-21 8:00:09.101 AM MST
13 hours ago   APP_COMMAND         openDoor      
2017-02-20 11:59:01.992 PM MST
21 hours ago   APP_COMMAND         closeDoor      
2017-02-20 8:00:08.347 AM MST
2 days ago   APP_COMMAND         openDoor      
2017-02-19 11:28:53.749 PM MST
2 days ago   APP_COMMAND         closeDoor      
2017-02-19 9:00:08.160 AM MST
3 days ago   APP_COMMAND         openDoor      
2017-02-18 11:59:01.473 PM MST
3 days ago   APP_COMMAND         closeDoor      
2017-02-18 9:00:07.024 AM MST
4 days ago   APP_COMMAND         openDoor      
2017-02-17 11:59:01.563 PM MST
4 days ago   APP_COMMAND         closeDoor      
2017-02-17 8:00:08.253 AM MST
5 days ago   APP_COMMAND         openDoor      
2017-02-16 11:59:01.453 PM MST
5 days ago   APP_COMMAND         closeDoor      
2017-02-16 8:00:07.811 AM MST
6 days ago   APP_COMMAND         openDoor      
2017-02-15 11:59:01.478 PM MST
6 days ago   APP_COMMAND         closeDoor      
2017-02-15 1:28:51.679 PM MST
6 days ago   DEVICE      doorVoltage   12.296      CoopBoss H3Vx door voltage is 12.296
2017-02-15 1:28:51.347 PM MST
6 days ago   DEVICE      doorCurrent   0.000      CoopBoss H3Vx door current is 0.000
2017-02-15 1:28:51.303 PM MST
6 days ago   DEVICE      doorState   unknown      Door State Changed to unknown
2017-02-15 8:00:07.290 AM MST
7 days ago   APP_COMMAND         openDoor      
2017-02-14 11:59:02.447 PM MST
7 days ago   APP_COMMAND         closeDoor      

[John Rucker (Solar-Current.com)]

Just so I understand the situation correctly. According to your logs SmartThings hasn't heard from it for 6 days?  You can see that it is still on the network with good signal strength from your xBee usb stick running the XCTU program.  You can still open and close the door in the SmartThings app with the manual open close button but the status is not updated it just stays at unknown. Or when you say manual button your talking about the physical button out on the coop and that still controls the door, not the manual button on the SmartApp?

By looking at your log it looks like the power was cycled on Feb 15 at 1:28 in the afternoon and that is when the door went to unknown.  I know you rebooted the CoopBoss have you tried rebooting the SmartThings Hub?  If you have batteries take them out and unplug it for a few minutes then plug it back in. 

If rebooting the hub doesn't fix it looks like your going to have to remove it from the network and add it back as before.  What a huge pain! I don't know why you have to do this!!  I have two coopboss running on our network and never have had to do that. 
As far as I know your the only one that has turned off the built in automation of the CoopBoss and uses SmartThings automation instead.  This should be fine I don't see a problem with it but I wonder if somehow that may be causing the issue.  Would it be possible to disable all the SmartThings automation and turn on auto close and auto open feature of the CoopBoss?  You can turn off the auto open if you want to manually open it in the morning.  I noticed you had your door closing at midnight.  When you switch over to the CoopBoss automation it will close the door based on your close door light level.  We have ours set to 1 and at that level the chickens make it in 99.9% of the time.  Once or twice a year one will get left out usually because she is fighting with another hen.  You will want to keep an eye on that for a few days just to make sure everyone gets in at night. 

When the CoopBoss is running correctly is everything getting reported correctly?  Do you see the light level and temperature form both temperature probes in the SmartApp? Just want to make sure the temperature probes and light sensor are still hooked up.  When you get it reconnected to the network can you send me your log again.  I want to make sure everything is being reported correctly. 

[Fallon]

Button works to open & close the door fine. SmartThings isn't updated & using the app to try & open/close does nothing.

I'll Re-add it here in the next few days when I get a chance & try the default light sensor route.

[John Rucker (Solar-Current.com)]

I'll Re-add it here in the next few days when I get a chance & try the default light sensor route.

Checking in.  Any news?

[Fallon]

The wife just got the coop cats fixed, so we left em trapped in the coop for a few days. That and a brief snow kept me from fiddling with it. Today I deleted it out of SmartThings, went out & reset it, then re-added it back. Works to remotely open & close again. Haven't set anything back up in SmartThings & will try the solar sensor for a bit & see how that goes.

[Fallon]

No real news. Still working automatically closing & manually opening in the morning.

It did close in the afternoon once, but it was a Sunday that they released one of the beta updates (I'm a SmartThings beta participant). I'm guessing it was triggered by the update & haven't investigated further as it only happened that once.

[John Rucker (Solar-Current.com)]

That is strange for it to close in the middle of the day.  Please let me know if that keeps happening we may want to tear into the logs next time.   I wonder if some old rule or automation you had setup may have fired when the update occurred??

Thanks very much for the update! 

[Fallon]

Had a 2nd erroneous close & my wife thought I was just messing with her when she was out playing with the chickens & feeding them. It was later in the evening, but not dark enough it should have tripped the auto close. She might have been standing in front of the sensor a bit & threw a shadow. Not sure how long she was there or how fast the heuristics on your averaging & data validation would have tripped the solar sensor.

No connectivity problems yet though. Tempted to re-enable the automation.

[John Rucker (Solar-Current.com)]

I wonder if the physical button out on your coop is picking up noise from somewhere?  I think you have the old non shielded (just two white wires) cable running to your button.  About a year and half ago I switched to a shielded cable for the manual button to make it more resistant to RF interference.  Did your wife maybe turn on a light or a motor out by the coop around the same time the door opened?  If so I bet that is what's going on.  If your CoopBoss' manual button wires are sitting on top of coop's AC power wires you may want to move them so there is space between them.  I would be happy to send you 6' or so of shielded cable to replace your two wire non shielded cable if you think this is the problem.

Did I understand you correctly that your not using the auto close feature of the coopboss?  Just curious why?

[Fallon]

It's set to auto-close at light level 1 & I am manually opening it when I get up for now. Other than the 2 odd auto-closes my only other issue is leaving the deck light and/or the coop outside light (both on smart switches & tied together) will not let the Coop Boss get dark enough to auto-close. My turn off all lights at midnight routine takes care of that if its an issue though.

I'm sure I have some shielded Ethernet cable around I could use for that. I think I have some direct bury stuff too, which will be UV shielded as well, the current stuff is fading a bit, not that fading is surprising or really problematic at all. Where do you tie the shielding to ground on your installation? Shielded cable generally doesn't work as well as you'd expect unless only 1 end is tied to ground somewhere. I'll have to check the DC power is near the AC lines for a few feet & I think the button is near the AC lines for a foot or 2 as well.

[John Rucker (Solar-Current.com)]

Ahh, okay good to know your using the auto close.  Thanks.

As for the shielded cable yes you should only ground one end of the cable.  Tie the shield wire to the ground terminal on the Aux port and you should be good to go.  It is labeled but let me know if you can't find it I will upload a picture.