Z-Wave

Device Sentinel fully supports individual Z-Wave devices right out of the box, but we are still building out support for watching the Z-Wave controller itself.

Here is exactly what works today, what is missing, and how you can help us finish the job.

What Works Today

Every Z-Wave device on your network gets the full treatment automatically. Device Sentinel learns each device's reporting rhythm, calculates its freeze window, and actively monitors it for freezes, unavailable states, and unknown states.

If a device exposes a battery or signal entity, those are fully monitored too. Your Z-Wave devices will appear normally on your problem list, in your daily brief, and across all reports.

What Is Not Built Yet

Because we do not have Z-Wave hardware on our test rigs, there are a few controller-level features we haven't been able to measure or build.

No Controller Sensor: You will not see a "Bridge: Z-Wave" sensor. However, you are still protected from alert spam: if the Z-Wave integration itself crashes or fails, Device Sentinel catches it as an integration outage. You still get one row naming the integration, and the devices behind it are safely cleared of blame. When it comes back, that row counts your devices home as they rejoin, and a slow mesh gets a few minutes before any device is reported on its own.

No Pairing Recognition: Device Sentinel cannot currently see when your Z-Wave controller is in inclusion mode. When you include, replace, or repair a device by hand, you must turn on Maintenance Mode first. This tells the system that the recovery was your doing, preventing your manual fix from being learned as the device's normal rhythm.

No Second Opinions: Device Sentinel does not currently read the controller's native ping status, so freeze verdicts stand entirely on Device Sentinel's own learned statistics.

None of these limitations stop Device Sentinel from catching a dead Z-Wave sensor. They only change how much manual context you need to provide when you are actively working on your network.

Help Us Build Z-Wave Support

We cannot build support for a coordinator by guessing from manufacturer documentation. We have to see what a real controller publishes when it starts, stops, and returns, and what its devices actually look like during an inclusion.

If you run a Z-Wave network and are willing to help us map this out:

1. Download your diagnostics: Go to Settings > Devices and Services > Device Sentinel, click the three-dot menu, and select Download diagnostics. (This file contains your device names and structure, but absolutely no passwords or tokens).
2. Open an issue on our GitHub repository titled Z-Wave reference system and attach the file.
3. Tell us which controller you use, roughly how many devices you have, and your mix of mains-powered versus battery-powered devices.

Expect a few small, guided experiments after that, like restarting your controller at an agreed moment and sending us the log output.