Cannot Delete Devices From ICHA

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  • Last Post 24 December 2015
brett.e.baldin@gmail.com posted this 23 December 2015

Is there a method for actually deleting devices from ICHA? The delete button seems only to hide the device in question and not delete it from the database. I have a few devices that are no longer in use and a couple that are totally gone and cannot be excluded and I cannot get rid of these orphaned devices.

Also - ICHA seems to randomly remove devices for no reason. This usually happens after a reboot but I have also seen it after excluding another device. I receive a pop-up that the device no longer appears to be available and prompts me to remove it. If you say no, the device will no longer function anyway and has be manually excluded and included all over again, added back to scenes, etc. This has happened with two separate Aeon Gen5 Z-Sticks.

When I just rebooted the system on restart tried to remove almost ALL of my devices. I kept saying no until I could close the program. Removed the Z-Stick and stopped and started services again, then opened the program and let it load all devices from the database. Closed and reopened program again and then inserted the Z-Stick and it seems to be working with all the devices again. This is a very annoying problem because I have a couple of dozen devices buried in walls and ceiling boxes and it is a major undertaking to exclude and include them when this type of thing occurs.

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rscott posted this 23 December 2015

Is there a method for actually deleting devices from ICHA? The delete button seems only to hide the device in question and not delete it from the database. I have a few devices that are no longer in use and a couple that are totally gone and cannot be excluded and I cannot get rid of these orphaned devices.


If you delete it and it comes back, it's because the USB stick still "knows" about the device and is telling InControl to add it. If you need to remove the device from the USB stick and you aren't able to exclude it, you can use this tutorial to remove it from the usb stick.


Also - ICHA seems to randomly remove devices for no reason. This usually happens after a reboot but I have also seen it after excluding another device. I receive a pop-up that the device no longer appears to be available and prompts me to remove it. If you say no, the device will no longer function anyway and has be manually excluded and included all over again, added back to scenes, etc. This has happened with two separate Aeon Gen5 Z-Sticks.


That prompt you get happens when the USB stick tells InControl that a known device is no longer part of the z-wave network. For example, if you were to pull the z-stick and do an exclusion on something, then re-insert the z-stick, the z-stick tells InControl that X device has been excluded and that's when the popup appears that you mention. Could there be a scenario that someone presses a button on a light while you are trying to exclude something else? I've had that happen a number of times - I have to do all my exclusions while the family is away.


When I just rebooted the system on restart tried to remove almost ALL of my devices. I kept saying no until I could close the program. Removed the Z-Stick and stopped and started services again, then opened the program and let it load all devices from the database. Closed and reopened program again and then inserted the Z-Stick and it seems to be working with all the devices again. This is a very annoying problem because I have a couple of dozen devices buried in walls and ceiling boxes and it is a major undertaking to exclude and include them when this type of thing occurs.


It's almost sounding like something is wrong with your z-stick. Does anything show up in your logfile at the time you see this happen (errors or otherwise)?

brett.e.baldin@gmail.com posted this 23 December 2015

I would tend to agree with you on the Z-Stick, except it has done the same thing on two different Gen5 Z-Sticks so I don't think that is the issue. I have also tried to remove devices according to the tutorial with ZenSys but all I ever get is a line in the logs that shows device fails to remove. I am open to the possibility that this may have something to do with USB itself as the stick also occasionally freezes with one color solid. It always recovers, but can take 10-15 seconds to do so.

rscott posted this 23 December 2015

When you start up ZenTools, it should give you some info in the logs about your controller. I don't recall the exact wording, but it'll be something like RealPrimary, Secondary, etc. Can you give me that info?

brett.e.baldin@gmail.com posted this 23 December 2015

Network Role: SUC, RealPrimary, SIS, NodeIdServerPresent, OtherNetwork

brett.e.baldin@gmail.com posted this 24 December 2015

I managed to get all of the orphaned devices deleted although the process was not easy at all. I found a post from a couple of years ago where another person saw a similar issue.

What I did was use Zensys as outlined in the page you sent. Remove Failed does not work as detailed. What I was able to do is to use Replace Failed instead. Highlight the node to be removed and hit Remove Failed Device. Wait for a minute or so and then Abort the window. Re-highlight the node and then hit Replace Failed. This may or may not work the first time. If the device changes to Generic Device:00 then this will probably work the first time. If not, repeat. It may take 5 or 6 times to finally get rid of the device this way but eventually it will remove itself.

When you are done, close Zensys and put IHCA back online. You should receive notification that the devices will be removed from the system. Choose OK to remove. When done, close ICHA. Stop and restart the service, and then reopen the program. The failed devices should now be gone from the database completely, and should no longer appear in hidden devices.

It appears that these hidden / failed devices play a significant role in network performance due to polling. After I was able to finally remove all of the orphaned devices the lockups on the Z-Stick dropped to almost none. Devices were far more responsive than before. It also helps to increase the polling interval as much as you can, especially if have lots of devices. I am running 300 seconds on mine now. I cannot turn it completely off because the GUI will then not reflect switch changed states etc. For those devices that are used to trigger other devices (mirrors) you may have to reduce the polling time to minimums in order to get as good of performance as possible (this still does not work very well). Polling of all battery devices should be turned off and it is necessary to adjust parameters manually for best performance on your network.

I do still get an occasional freeze on the Z-Stick but they are few and far between with the modifications.

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