Let's start talking about the new Z-wave JS integration

Is the new zwavejs keep old entities names from old/1.4 zwave integration? Does it support associations? Have bulb paired with wall switch.

I doubt that either way that you go (zwavejs or ozw) that will be the case. At least and especially not initially.

Currently no. We’ve been discussing a migration wizard, but even with that there will be a few entities that it won’t be able to migrate automatically

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Will lock code commands be supported in the 2021.2release?

From my perspective, I’ve been running the Openwave integration for some time now, living with its little issues, since I believed that it was the future of Zwave for HA. The reason I moved away from the built-in zwave support, was the time the zwave network takes to “restart” is a pain, when I am constantly evolving HA, and frequently restarting. Which in turn restarts the ZWAVE network. With the OZW integration, at least the OZW integration does not restart with HA. Unfortunately, some state discrepancies cause havoc in this scenario, but I have learned to live with it, and workarounds are in place.

This is now another approach, and it leaves me a bit confused as to what horse to back here.

I am ok with re-configuring all the entities in HA, but having to re-build my Z-Wave network on the controller level is a deal-breaker.

I really have two questions for now:

  1. Where does the future of zwave in HA lie (what method/integration)?
  2. Will I be able to “migrate” without having to reset the Z-Wave controller?
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good to get this started here, I just posted this, in the wrong thread maybe:How to test the OZW Beta without fully switching over

quoting myself:
I have a perfectly fine operating Zwave install (now deprecated) https://rc.home-assistant.io/blog/2021/01/27/release-20212/#breaking-changes the OpenZWave is currently not maintained, which doesnt sound good at all…and it was still in Beta…

Like to hear what people are doing. Should we make the jump to Z-wave js already, or give it just that bit more development time (given the fact we cant have them running simultaneously)

detail: I almost never restart this instance since it is dedicated to Z-wave, so am never bothered with issues reported on that subject. I simply publish some state-changes of the wave integration over MQTT state stream , and all other mqtt clients in the network can pick them up.

  1. Where does the future of zwave in HA lie (what method/integration)?

Currently Z-Wave JS is the path forward, as it looks like the upstream OpenZWave library that we depend on isn’t going to be maintained.

  1. Will I be able to “migrate” without having to reset the Z-Wave controller?

No need to reset the controller. Migrating will require renaming all of your entities in Home Assistant, but we’re discussing a migration wizard to handle the majority of that.

Like to hear what people are doing. Should we make the jump to Z-wave js already, or give it just that bit more development time (given the fact we cant have them running simultaneously)

If you’re happy with how your system currently functions there’s no reason to be an early adopter of the new integration. Give it another month or two so some of the bugs can get ironed out and more features can be added.

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that would have been my first thought, especially because it requires the migration of the entities:

and of course that’s great news, especially for users of a Aeotec stick and a Mac. the Aeotec backup tool is only available for Windows, (not even sure we would need that, but just in case…)
so if HA would accommodate that migration that would be very nice indeed!

set and clear user code services are already supported. Details in the beta release notes: https://rc.home-assistant.io/integrations/zwave_js/#services

Coming from the builtin zwave Integration (OZW 1.4) and the Aotec Z-Stick Gen5 I’ve been thinking a bit about how a test scenario / moving back and forth could look like. My idea:

  1. With a second Z-Stick (~50 EUR) and an spare RasPi3b I have one could build a stand-alone test environment by cloning the config from the old stick and my primary HA Blue instance to the new stick and the RasPi.

  2. For testing stop ZWave on primary instance and fire up the rest instance, remove ZWave integration, installe zwave-js-server, check how everything behaves, prepare renaming of entities or change scripts, automations, GUIs, etc. No more time? Shut it down and start the primary instance again.

  3. Once done just move test to prod and have a ZWave Stick as spare (always handy…)

  4. Alternative: Move Zwave JS server to device located in a sensible place and HA instance to hosting platform of your choice.

I’m really excited to see how it turn out and looking forward to OZW 1.6!

Just my 2 cents… I always recommend the Aeotec stick over anything else just because of the backup utility. I backup my stick every month or after I add/remove nodes. I have not had to use it yet, but the way I understand it is that I could just buy a new stick, restore a backup, and be up and running pretty quickly if it failed for some reason. Would be nice if there was a Linux utility.

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I only have a few Zwave devices that I have been running from Smartthings. Wanting to move off of Smartthings and keep everything local I got the AeoTec stick and repaired devices using Zwavejs2mqtt. My Aeotec Door/Window sensors work fine after I moved my Smarthings hub away from the stick. I guess 2 Zwave Networks don’t play well together.

I then migrated my Yale Smartlock that worked perfectly with Smarthings over to ZwaveJS. Problems pairing till I finally removed the door lock and paired it beside the stick. Everything paired find and it discovery went well. Re-installed the unit and at first no problems I could Lock and Unlock. Then after about 15 mins it showed as DEAD and I have not been able to get it to report as ALIVE.

Wondering if anyone on this forum might have an idea why I am having issues with this. Thanks

Did you also put in a network key for your zwave network?

Yes, it paired up in secure. I have found if you try to pair without the key it will not let you removing unlock or lock it.

Can you tell JS to reinterview the node? I’m working on my migration right now and I can see my Yale lock in there without issue.

Tried that and it fails, comes back telling me the node is DEAD. One thing I did notice. I looked at the Network Map and it has my GE Fan Switch as a connected node. Wondering if that is tripping it up. BTW: with Smarthings it just worked.

As a side note the GE Fan Switch (3 speeds) would not process the “Off” correctly. Would send “Off” when it should send “0”. I ended up putting together a FAN Template and sending my own MQTT Messages, Got it working perfectly now. But that was allot of effort.

I hate ZWave! I put a Aeotec Range Extender about 8 feet away from the door lock. This paired fine, but later showed as DEAD. Went ahead and re-interviewed the door lock and after several tries it read all the details including the user codes. But instead of actually displaying the lock type it shows as unknown manufacturer but it works.

Are you using MQTT to interact with the server or WS? I’m running the latest rc of HA but having fun trying to get the ZwaveJS integration to talk to it. It shows the nodes ready but when I click on devices or entities I get nothing back on those pages. I know I’m trying to be a pioneer here

Using MQTT, as I am running it on a remote Raspberry PI. I like the separation as I can start and stop either component. In other words Home Assistant is not dependant on ZWave starting.