I have working HA setup with Zooz Z-wave usb stick. It works great. I have one area of the house that I am having difficulties with Z-wave reach. Second z-wave controller would solve the issue.
I have ethernet cable available in that area. What are my options with HA to add second Z-wave controller? I am assuming there is solution for that. I just can’t find much information or I looking in wrong places.
I’ve never heard of anyone adding a second z-wave controller. Plus you said you have an ethernet cable available in that space so even if you got another Zooz Z-wave stick how would it connect since it’s usb? I think an easier solution would be to add a Z-Wave Range Extender. If you’re already using Zooz products than maybe try something like the Zooz 800 Series Z-Wave Plus Range Extender and Signal Repeater ZAC38.
In both cases, a second Z-Wave integration connects to Z-Wave JS UI.
It may not be common, but there are a non-zero number of users doing so.
I also do this for testing purposes, e.g. one network is the normal production one, 2 or 3 for testing.
@almighty59
I actually have z-wave extender in the room but it seems like it is not doing much. Repeater communicates with Zooz stick just fine. I have Z-wave outlet (works great) there that should work as Z-wave repeater. I have two locks and two door sensors that become unavailable from time to time. I have USB powered Aeotec multisensor in the same room. Works great as well. It looks like battery operated devices struggle there.
Maybe I need to dig deeper into Z-wave network troubleshooting.
Thanks for your time to post some topics for me. I will check them out. I have to educate myself more
I know that supporting and running multiple Z-wave gateways is not uncommon with other platforms. There is a reason for that. Limited number of devices and hops can require additional controller. I ran into on one large home while back. I guess I was hoping there would be simple solution to attach secondary z-wave controller.
Well, “secondary controller” has an entirely different meaning than “second controller” (at least to me). A secondary controller is an actual Z-Wave feature. Do you want to add a secondary controller to your existing network (which may still suffer from range issues)? Or do you want to add a second controller, meaning a completely separate z-wave network? I was assuming the latter.
I have dealt with Z-wave stuff with Homeseer and RTI. With Homeseer, I was able to add a secondary controller to the primary one. It was just simple Raspberry Pi device connected either via LAN or WiFi. It would mirror the network with device information, but you could add a device to either the primary controller or the secondary controller. Whichever was closer. They would both be on the same Z-wave network.
It would not suffer from the same issues because the secondary controller would be a physical device (Z-wave gateway) in a different location. So, Z-wave devices that were not connected directly to the primary controller would be easily added to the secondary controller. It was actually the main reason to use it to cover an extended area.
A secondary controller would be a second Z-wave gateway with a separate Z-wave network. Again. Both Homeseer and RTI can support multiple Z-wave controllers (multiple Z-wave networks). All Z-wave devices would be accessible. There was no need for a lot of super geeky stuff.
I thought maybe I had missed some obvious solution because it is always best to have as many devices connected directly to a Z-wave gateway as possible, and one Z-wave gateway may not be enough for larger houses.
My terminology might be off. 
In any case, a secondary controller or a second controller would help the problem as the Z-wave gateway would be in a different location.
Z-Wave JS UI can be a secondary controller, but it has limited functionality: https://zwave-js.github.io/zwave-js/#/getting-started/faq?id=does-z-wave-js-support-secondary-controllers
Both use cases require running two instances of the Z-Wave driver software, which is no different than other solutions.
Fwiw, I have several of these and for me they act as very poor repeaters. Whenever they are in a route to an end device the response time is slower and after a day or so the route breaks and the end device uses a more successful one. Consider adding an 800 series smart plug in the room. For locks there are a number of people that advocate for having a line power device within a few meters if the lock. I don’t have any experience with locks. Search the forum for more info.
@PeteRage
I will be adding Zooz 800 Series Z-Wave Plus Range Extender ZAC38 today if it gets delivered. So I will have a device there that is designed to work well with my long-range Zooz stick. I guess my biggest problem is to tell problematic devices to use the optimal route and use the range extender.
After checking what routes the locks are using, it’s not optimal. I have to include the lock out of its intended location because it needs to be literally inches from the Z-Wave gateway for inclusion. It gets installed after the inclusion. How the route is set after that is a mystery for me. I will try to put it right next to the range extender after the inclusion and try to rebuild routes from the devices menu to see if it will try to use the extender.
Is there any way to manually force or navigate a new device to use a certain node (in my case, the new extender)within HA?
I might try to run the “rebuild network routes” option from zwave-js, but it scares me a little bit as things are working pretty well otherwise.
Great question. Never use the option to rebuild all routes. It’s highly unrecommended.
Zwave is a mesh network so the network gets stronger and more resilient as more line powered nodes are added. As more nodes are added there are just more viable routes. Routes break all the time (like whenever I run the microwave) and the node will switch to its next route. And if there is only one route, then timeouts and failures result. Where your network is on this journey I don’t know.
Here is an example of the Round Trip Time to a plug on a bedroom lamp. I read this as it had a route directly to the controller ( < 40 ms), something happened and it settled in on a one hop route that is 60ms. I don’t worry about this, it’s just the way zwave works.
Anyways once you add the repeater.
a) backup the NVM (not related to solving the current issue, I always make an NVM backup before and after installing a new device - that way when the stick fails I have an up to date backup)
b) rebuild one at time the routes for your line powered devices starting with the ones closest to the stick, this should take no longer than 5 seconds per line powered device.
At this point the core mesh has been recalculated. Then if you can find some patience wait a while (day or so) as this will allow all the calculated routes to be used, fails and eventually find stable routes. I run scripts that poll all my line powered devices on a staggered schedule every 30 minutes to keep the routes “exercised”, that way when a command needs to be delivered it’s on a recently working route.
If the lock starts working better great. If not then try recalculating the route for it. Trigger that in zwave then go wake-up the device.
@PeteRage
Some really good recommendations. I will try your approach.
Thank you!
@freshcoast
As some of us with first installation of HA I have just blindly installed recomemnded Z-Wave JS not knowing difference between Z-wave JS and Z-Wave UI.
I just wanted to thank you for nice guide to do that. I have over 50 devices and the switch was super easy.
