Replace HUSBZB-1 with Zooz S2 Stick 700

Configuration Z-Wave
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I am running Home assistant on and Unraid VM. I ordered a SkyConnect for my ZHA devices as I planned to upgrade from my Nortek HUSBZB-1 to the SkyConnect on the Zigbee side. On receiving the SkyConnect I determined that I would be required to remove the HUSBZB-1 from my system as part of the Zigbee change. This is because the migration copies the HUSBZB-1 IEEE address to the new SkyConnect device and both cannot exist and function on the same HA instance or even in the same physical location attached to a different host.

This presents a problem since I also utilize the HUSBZB-1 Z-Wave capability to control about 15-20 Z-wave devices. So I would like to migrate my Z-Wave devices to the new Zooz stick prior to doing the Zigbee Migration to the SkyConnect. This would require that the New Zooz Stick and the z-Wave portion of the HUSBZB-1 will both need to be in place while the before and while the Zigbee migration is underway.

Has anyone done this before, or is there a documented procedure on how to proceed? I am OK Manually repairing the relatively small number of Z-Wave devices I have is there is not an easier way to do this portion of the overall effort. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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Z-Wave JS (via Z-Wave JS UI software) has controller NVM backup and restore, which means you can migrate between 500 and 700 controllers. However this requires a new enough Z-Wave SDK on the controller, v6.61+, and most HUSBZB-1 controllers are too old, so check yours. You would need to upgrade the firmware with a pretty extensive procedure if so. In that case, it might be easier to just migrate manually.

1 Like
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@freshcoast -

I’m in an identical situation as OP, with the exact same hardware. When you say migrate manually, are you saying we would essentially be starting over from scratch with our Z-Wave network (e.g. excluding and removing all devices from the old husbzb-1 controller and re-including them in the new 700 controller)?

4

Yes, you start over.

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I am currently mapping out how I will proceed with the Migration. At a very high level I will am thinking I will follow these steps.

Full HA Backup
Backup all the Zwave settings available in Zwave JS UI
Exclude all Zwave Devices (I only have about 15)
Factory Reset the Zwave portion of the HUSBZB-1
Install the new Zooz S2 700 Stick
Ensure Zwave Settings point to the new stick (USB Port)
Repair all the Devices to the New Zooz S2 700 Stick

Then:

I will move onto the ZHA Zigbee transition with the SkyConnect

  • I have about 50 ZHA devices
  • I also have about 45 Zigbee to MQTT connected devices. Mainly Aqara

If you have done this already:

  • I would be curious how you did it and how it turned out?
  • Have I missed any points/steps?
  • How did you do the ZigBee conversion to you SkyConnect???

Thanks in advance!

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Couple of items to keep in mind:

I don’t know if zwavejs will generate different unique ids when the device is reincluded under a different home Id. If it does then you’ll want to make sure then old entities are removed from HA first, otherwise you’ll end up with new entity ids with an _1 at the end. Also, if you have renamed any entity ids, this remapping will need to be redone and having a list may be helpful.

What is your environment? Docker. HASSOS?

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I am running in an Unraid Docker.

So will excluding all my devices from the Zwave Network delete the devices and all their entities? I assumed they would all go when excluded. Are you saying I should confirm all the entities are indeed gone? I had not thought of that but I am still fairly new with Home Assistant…

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So, I have migrated from a HUSBZB-1 to the Skyconnect and a new Zooz 700 stick and all appears to be working. Was a VERY painful activity but I did get it done. I now want to take my old Nortek HUSBZB-1 and change the IEEE addres so I can use it on a test system. I tried this with the universal-silabls-flasher and I get an error basicall saying “Error: Failed to probe running application type”. Any ideas if it is possible to actually change the IEEE on the Nortek Stick?

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@Shesakillatwo , how long did it take you? I am in the exact same boat, with the same hardware, and same proposed migration path. But I have 70 z-wave devices. :slightly_frowning_face:

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Sorry, was traveling and just saw this now. Took me a day or two to make the changes but I found over time that some of my Automations or Scenes needed to be fixed because of some name changes. In the end things are working great. I have still not figured out how to update the IEEE address on my Nortek. Would love to get an answer on this… Good luck if you are undertaking this process. If you have done this already I would be curious what your experience was like.