Thanks for explaining all of that @raman325, it does help explain some of the ongoing changes to the Z-Wave systems and the questions it may raise.
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This context is super helpful. Thank you!
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I may be confused or misinformed but what exactly is the issue with adding a new/additional entity to a zwave device?
What are the downsides or problems it might cause or is causing to prompt users to complain about it?
To me it seems that if the user has that entity added to the device then it should be easy enough to either disable it or just ignore it.
Or does it change the overall functionality of the device in as way that I’m not foreseeing?
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To be honest, I am not quite sure. I agree with you that the change is relatively benign, but it seems that some people had set up some automation and templates based on the assumption that a given device would only have one light entity, and others didn’t understand the difference between the new light entity and an existing light entity for the same device. It’s understandable why using the light entity type for the Basic CC is confusing, but it’s the best representation we have for how the Basic CC functions.
On the initial rollout, we also discovered that zwave-js was instructing us to create Basic CC lights for more devices than we should have, and that has been resolved in the latest addon update.
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In addition to directly impacting some templates, it’s the general lack of context and understanding that leads to concern (for some of us.) A new thing shows up in something that is essential to our home systems. We don’t know what “Basic CC” is. Is it benign? If so, should I ignore, or disable, or delete it? Or does this indicate I’ve done something wrong and need to switch things over to start using it? For days, the answer to questions was “don’t worry about it”. A post such as the excellent one above is very helpful for us non-experts to place the issue into context.
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I think the response you received stems from the fact that new things have popped up regularly in the integration (or at least they used to, we’ve been slowing down as we’ve hit most of the functionality we were targeting), like the ping button or the node status sensor, and no one batted an eye when those entities were added. But when this light entity appeared (which is documented in the release notes, which also links back to the PR, which also links back to the certification task, which is on a certification project board - sorry to sound pedantic but I am trying to point out that this was all done out in the open and is easily traceable), a bunch of people have their hands up in the air.
The only thing we did was take something that you couldn’t interact with (a disabled by default Basic CC sensor) and make it something you could interact with (an enabled by default Basic CC light), being sure to document it in the breaking changes section of the release notes. At no point have any of the concerns that have been raised about this new entity indicated that something that used to be there isn’t (aside from the original sensor), so why would this particular entity be so concerning when every other addition we’ve made hasn’t been?
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I understand the changes and thanks for explaining.
One minor inconvenience this causes on my end, is that I use node red for a lot of automations. When I’m in a current state node or event state node, I usually start typing my device name- ie sunroom lights, and then it used to come right up and I would just select the 1st option. Now, multiple entities come up, including light.sunroom_fan_basic which is first now (i have a fan in that room too) and I have to now scroll and use the mouse to pick the correct one, and make sure it’s right or my fan will turn on instead of the light in the automation.
Now this isn’t a huge deal for me, but there are a lot more entities in those drop downs cluttering things up. Is there an easy way to bulk disable these if a user doesn’t want or need them, besides going through each device?
I mean if this is the path to certification, that is probably more important in the big picture to attract more users, and if so I’ll live with it, but just pointing out how this has made automations a little more complicated to set up for me then before.
The Entities page in Settings has provided this functionality for who knows how long. E.g.:
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Thanks, I will attempt to do more research before asking any additional questions
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Is there a way to do this in bulk? It’s really tedious having to click through the re-interview UI for each device.
Not in HA. You can do it with Z-Wave JS UI.
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@raman325 are there plans for Z-Wave Controller OTW flashing support via Home Assistant’s UI?
Maybe support could be added to Nabu Casa’s existing “Universal Silicon Labs Flasher” tool?
Would be awedome if would update Z-Wave controller firmware via “Silicon Labs Flasher Add-on”:
OTW programming of Z-Wave Controller is today available in Z-Wave JS UI but not i HA:
PS: Ability to easily update the Z-Wave Controller firmware regularly is obviously important, see:
Why do you say it’s not supported? Go visit the device info page for your controller, there’s an update button there with OTW firmware update support.
Hello,
Is there a way to get back these basic entities?
I need them for my multiple Heatit TF016 / TF021 z-wave thermostats which does not report state by default.
More info here:
sorry I missed this but looks like your issue has been resolved 
Out of curiosity, what’s the status of the Z-wave certification?
/Fumble
the project tracker linked above gives a sense of what’s remaining
Not really. For an external observer like me, it’s impossible to understand if the certification process is expected to complete this year, next year or next decade…
An educated guess would be helpful.
/Fumble
Sure, and if we were at work, we’d be reviewing burn down charts, timelines, etc. But we aren’t at work, and all we have is a list that we are working through while others are identifying things we are missing. I’d like to think our list is complete but wouldn’t be surprised if things were missing because we haven’t discovered them yet.
From what I understood when we first started looking at this, certification is also a bit of a moving target. Hopefully being part of ZWA mitigates that but who knows