Newbie Zwave & MQTT questions

[FastEddie]

Greetings all,

I’ve been intrigued with home automation capabilities for a few years now. I started with a BlackFriday SmartThings kit with rudimentary sensors. I began searching other benefits I could realize with additional sensors/actors, and that’s when I came across HomeAssistant and was astonished at the community. So, I performed my normal analysis paralysis and jumped in.

I researched and decided upon:

• 2 Raspberry PIs, one master and one slave which would control the Zwave network (and communicate over MQTT) to avoid downing my Zwave network every time I changed/reloaded my master
• A2 microSD cards for the longevity
• Zwave over Wifi as much as possible to limit Wifi interference with other devices

What I currently have

• (2) Raspberry PI 4 4GB running HomeAssistant 0.117 64 bit (with the 128GB microSDXC Extreme Plus UHS-I cards)
• Nortek HUSBZB-1 (Zwave/Zigbee controller)
• 6 Inovelli Red Dimmer Switches (Zwave)
• 1 Inovelli Red Light/Fan Switch (Zwave) (1 to test before I buy more)
• 4 Inovelli Ilumin A19 RGBW Bulbs (Zwave)
• 2 Yale locks (Zwave)
• Rachio Spinkler System (Wifi)
• MyQ Garage Door Sensors (Wifi)
• Misc Smart plugs (Wifi)
• Old SmartThings multisensors
• Old SmartThings water sensors
• Old SmartThings motion sensors

I’m ready to move forward, but in trying to research how to properly setup Zwave I quickly became confused and haven’t found any guides or posts to clear my confusion. The Zwave and MQTT addons vs integrations are not clear to me. So, I tried to structure my questions so that others looking for similar info would benefit.

Zwave questions

1. Which version of Zwave? - I read that the OpenZwave version in HomeAssistant is v1.4 and will not be updated. But I did read the “Future of Z-Wave in HA” thread about QT-OpenZWave which will be v1.6. I found “OpenZwave (beta)” in the integrations, is that the recommended version?
2. Addon vs Integration - Do I need both the OpenZwave addon and the OpenZwave (beta) Integration?
3. Network Key - As seen above in my inventory, I do have Yale locks and I believe that infers I will need a network key defined. Is it binary that my Zwave network all operates with a network key or not? Or can be it be hybrid? (I’m presuming it’s binary, and if I want hybrid I would need to add a different Zwave controller with the opposite config as the primary)
4. Network Key gotchas - If I do start out with a network key, besides ensuring the key is backed up/known, what are any other gotchas newbies should be aware of?

MQTT questions

1. Guides - Are there any helpful guides that you are aware of that detail how MQTT works in general and with HomeAssistant?
2. 1 Rasberry PI device or 2 - As mentioned above, I read about the benefits of separating Zwave controller off of the primary device. Is this still required with the new version of OpenZwave (beta) w/ MQTT? Or does the new OpenZwave (beta) version allow me to reload HomeAssistant without impacting the Zwave network?
3. If only 1 device - addon vs integration - Do I need both the Mosquitto broker addon and the MQTT Integration?
4. If 2 devices - addons vs integrations - Which MQTT addons/integrations do I need on the primary vs secondary Raspberry PI?

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide.

[stevemann (Stephen Mann (YAML-challenged))]

I’m, not sure I can directly answer your questions, but I will reply with my setup.

Broker: I run Mosquitto on a Raspberry Pi3. Not that I have a problem with the broker in HA, but I already had several devices hard coded with the Pi’s IP address when I started using Home Assistant.

Z-wave: This is the reason I started using Home Assistant. I wanted to use a few Z-Wave devices and I was directed to Home Assistant and the Aeotec Z-Wave stick as the easiest way to integrate Z-wave into Node-Red. (When I started using HA, I was using Node-Red for everything).

That said, I have been replacing my Z-Wave devices when they fail with Sonoff devices flashed with Tsmota. (Mostly the Sonoff Mini).

I also have started using some 433 MHz devices and using the Sonoff RF Bridge. Remarkably stable and easy to integrate because button presses or sensors codes are simply sent by MQTT. I mention the RF Bridge because Sonoff also has a Zigbee bridge that I haven’t tried yet.

Most of what I’ve learned about MQTT comes from here or the Node-Red forum. The hardest part for me to get my head around, and I still don’t, is understanding Javascript object notation. But simply sending sensor data or switch commands over MQTT is really simple.

[gcoupe (Geoff Coupe)]

Re your first Zwave question - I’m also new to Home Assistant, and I asked a similar question:

Failed to setup fibaro/neo coolcam wall plug

Sorry to butt in to this conversation, but I’m new around here (I currently run a Domoticz installation, but I’m exploring the possibilities of HA for ZWave). If there are three possibilities, which is the preferred option? I would have thought it was number 2 (native HA), but when I set up ZWave from the Add-On store yesterday, I seem to have ended up with number 3 (OpenZwave beta). Being a beta, is this not the preferred option? And if it’s not, where do I find the Native HA add-on for Zwav…

The answer seems to be that the original Zwave integration in HA will become legacy, and will eventually be replaced by the OpenZwave (beta) integration. The original Zwave integration was based on OpenZwave version 1.4, while the new OpenZwave (beta) is based on OpenZwave version 1.6 - so it will know about newer devices - and information about new devices will be added into version 1.6.

You don’t want to install both versions of the integration - choose one. I’ve gone for the OpenZwave (beta) integration plus the Mosquitto broker addon (and installed the Mosquitto addon first).

The Zwave network can be hybrid AFAIK - the network key will be used only for those devices that you add in Secure mode (e.g. locks). Your Zwave controller will handle both devices using the network key and devices that don’t use the key.