Knee Deep with Z-wave (moving from Homeseer)

Configuration Z-Wave
1

So after about a week on Homeseer, i finally decided to try Home Assistant however have been blocked severely due to z-wave components. I understand the Z-wave implementation is different between Homeseer and HA, however i have read many success stories on the forums for HA so one can only assume that my issue may not be unique to just me.

So my environment:
ESXi Server running Ubuntu 18.04 VM (Generic Linux Install)
Aeotec Z-wave Stick GEN5 USB Passthrough

Issues:

  • Not all Z-wave devices appear
  • Some devices appear as unknown
  • Switches do not respond (i can see the requests and responses in the event logs)
  • In the event Switches do respond, it can take up to 60 seconds - 120 seconds
  • When switches operate (close to what i describe as ‘Normal’), switching a toggle on and off in quick succession does not work properly i.e. if i toggle On, Off, real quickly, it will still stay on

I have tried restarting HA service, rebooting the system, leaving overnight, removing and re adding nodes, however that has not resolved any of the issues

Sequence of overall events:

  1. Sync individual Z-wave devices to Z-wave stick using standard Pair/Inclusion
  2. Ran Homeseer and discovered all devices
    (Homeseer devices worked very smoothly and without issue - the main reason why i want to move to HA is due to Integration possibilities - however i am stumped at the Z-wave door for HA).
  3. Set up a new VM for HA, and moved the same USB stick from Home Seer to HA

The reason why i described this process, is because i dont know if by inserting the stick in Homeseer first, it created some permanent data about Homeseer in my Z-wave stick which is causing me pain for HA.

Any help or guidance is much appreciated, as i really want to get off Homeseer, as much as it is 1000% reliable and easy to set up with little tinkering - i want to work with HA.

1 Like
2

Un-pair your devices from the z-wave stick. Reset your z-wave stick to factory settings. Plug it in to home assistant and add the devices using the home assistant zwave configuration panel.

3

This is just that the device and manufacturer are not know to the OpenZwave database, you can help update the database with your devices by submitting the info of your device to their github repo to help everyone. Your device should work fine even as “unknown”.

Also what version of ESXi are you using? You might want to follow these instructions for a more reliable Zwave experience.

4

@tom_l rying to avoid this if possible. Dont want to unscrewing light switches unless its absolutely necessary (i have alot of light switches)

5

@firstof9 Can you elaborate on how i can help update the database with the devices?

ESXI i updated it from 6.0.0 U2 to 6.7 and followed instructions to remove/disable vmkusb

I have 35 z-wave devices but i can only see 8? on the front end

6

Sorry but you have to. Read the warning box on this page;

7

Here’s a link on how to contribute.

Are all these devices paired to the Aeotec Z-wave Stick previously or another Zwave hub/stick?

Un-pairing and re-pairing the devices may be a step you need to complete. Luckily you can do this from the devices via the “Remove Node” button.

8

This is definitely required. Without doing this HA has no idea of the device capabilities. See my post above.

9

Aeotec Z-wave stick + Aeotec Nano Switches, Nano Dimmers, MS6’s - im practically an Aeotec Shop. Removing is one thing, but it was the inclusion that concerned me. I reached out to Aeotec and they advised i can run through some steps to get the Nano Switches into pairing mode (meaning i dont need to open up the wall plate). Based on your feedback and @tom_l - i think i have no choice but to start from scratch.

10

Agreed that this is definitely required so that HA knows the capabilities. That said, when I moved from HomeSeer to Home Assistant I did not go through a full unpair/pair process. I just simply redid the inclusion process on all nodes that were not appearing or not working. This process corrected things for me. For me, I primarily only had initial issues with battery powered items. Putting the stick into inclusion mode and doing the pairing process on those specific nodes fixed them for me.