Challenges adopting Bali Blinds via Z-wave

Configuration Z-Wave
1

I’ve just added Home Assistant to my house and am trying — but failing — to pair some older Z-wave controlled Bali Blinds with it. I’d appreciate any advice.

I’m using a Zooz 800 USB controller and several Zooz 800 repeaters, managed using Z-Wave JS UI.

The blinds in question are described here and I was able to find the following older threads referencing this (but the instructions didn’t work for me): here and here.

I’ve reset the blinds, and then I place them into inclusion mode (LED confirms this). I go to Z-Wave JS UI, click the hamburger menu, then the infinity sign, and the Nodes Manager appears. I choose “inclusion”, hit next, type in name/location, hit next, choose default security, hit next, and then I get 30 seconds of inclusion… during which no new devices are found. Any advice on what I might be doing wrong?

Notes

  • Honestly this is the first attempt I’ve made to adopt a Z-wave device that doesn’t have Smart Start, so I may be doing something really boneheaded….
  • Note that the blinds have to be added through a repeater, because they are far away from where the hub must be located. The repeater shows up as successfully connected in Z-Wave JS UI, and it’s quite close to the blinds.
  • I don’t know anything about the security level supported by these older blinds (i.e., no encryption vs. S0 vs. S2). I’m assuming the “Default” option has me covered there (though I did also try adopting with S0 and with “no encryption” security and had the same result).

Thanks in advance for any advice!

2

Assuming you don’t have an RF coverage gap, you might be experiencing a bug in the SDK where NWI of a 500 series device doesn’t work through 700/800 series repeaters. Allegedly it works on the second attempt, but will reliably fail the initial inclusion. Have you tried immediately starting a second inclusion attempt after the first fails (e.g. don’t factory reset or do anything else in between)?

Also, avoid S0 encryption at all costs.

3

That is backwards. Start inclusion in ZUI first, then on the device.

4

Thanks! I tried several times back to back and nothing appeared to work… Then miraculously an hour later I opened my Z-Wave JS UI device list and the blinds are happily listed there (albeit without security)

Now if I could only get the devices to appear in Home Assistant… but I appear to be having this issue…