Simple procedure to install ZWaveJS2MQTT with ZWaveJS

[KevinCathcart]

@ColoradoAutomator

First, I have a Leviton VRCZ4 4-button controller in my kitchen that was associated with the instant hot water boiler in the kitchen sink and some lights in adjacent rooms and the driveway. It saved me having to wip out and unlock my phone or tablet, sometimes when my hands were wet or dirty. I lost the capability in a Z-Wave update, perhaps one where I inadvertently dumped the whole configuration and had to pair all 33 devices afresh. Such a controller with button associations is a great way to create multiway switches without running new wires.

Right, configuring associations is certainly a perfectly valid reason for needing to use Z-Wave JS UI, since the feature does not seem to be present in the Home Assistant UI. And yeah, creating a new z-wave network while re-pairing all devices will wipe out association settings.

@ColoradoAutomator

Second, the Z-Wave devices have a lot of configuration parameters that are pretty neat but need some sort of control panel to practically configure. For instance, my Leviton switches and dimmers have bright green LEDs on them that are great for finding them in a dark hall or living room but are annoying in a bedroom when I’m trying to sleep. The classic Z-Wave integration let me set the LED brigthness and the condition when it was on. It also let me set the dimming rate for on and off transitions.

The Z-Wave configuration parameters are available in the Home Assistant UI. If I go to “Settings”, “Devices and Services”, find the Z-Wave integration, and click on “8 devices”, then click on one of the devices, like “Bedroom Fan”, then in the Device info panel click “Configure”, it brings me to a screen with all the device’s Z-Wave configuration parameters. I won’t deny that the Z-Wave JS UI’s version might be more convenient to use.

@ColoradoAutomator

Third, with an update last summer, HA stopped communicating with one of my Leviton dimmers because its firmware is old. After searching the forums I found a firmware update download but the official Z-Wave JS integration/add-on just wouldn’t complete the update. Perhaps the Z-Wave JS UI will.

Possibly. I have never done firmware updates through the Home Assistant UI, only through Z-Wave JS UI, but this is mostly because none of my devices have gotten new firmware since firmware updating was added in the Home Assistant UI. There was a brief time when home assistant was showing a beta update for one of my devices by mistake, and attempting to install via Home Assistant did not work, and I never tried it with Z-Wave JS UI. I have no idea why it failed. I intended to try to test it again, while watching logs from Z-Wave JS UI, but that update is now flagged as beta, and I’ve yet to determine how to enable beta updates.

@ColoradoAutomator

I tried the 6-step procdure to migrate to the Z-Wave JS UI in the link you provided. I got stuck at the same point as when I tried migrating to ZWaveJS2MQTT last spring. Disabling the Z-Wave integration and copying the security keys was simple. However in Step 3, installing and starting the Z-Wave JS UI add-on never gave me the opportunity to enter any configuration parameters. Its configuration tab has “Options” and “Network” headings with “Show unused …” sliders underneath but these don’t show anything more when selected. I don’t see anywhere to enter security keys. By “location of your Z-Wave device” do you mean the path to my Z-Wave controller USB dongle? Mine is at /dev/ttyACM0. There was no place to enter that.

You don’t enter settings in the addon’s settings tab for Z-Wave JS UI, but instead start the addon, click “Open Web UI”, and in the UI, go to its settings screen (might need to click the hamburger menu). You enter the security keys, and path to the z-wave device within that screen, specifically the “Z-Wave” section of that screen, making sure to save the configuration.

@ColoradoAutomator

The Z-Wave JS UI log indicates that it hasn’t found a Z-Wave driver:
2022-10-15 16:23:24.732 WARN STORE: scenes.json not found
2022-10-15 16:23:24.759 INFO APP: Listening on port 44920 host 0.0.0.0 protocol HTTP
[16:23:24] INFO: Starting NGinx…
2022-10-15 16:23:24.842 INFO MQTT: MQTT is disabled
2022-10-15 16:23:24.845 WARN BACKUP: Store backup is disabled
2022-10-15 16:23:24.845 WARN BACKUP: Nvm backup is disabled
2022-10-15 16:23:24.847 WARN Z-WAVE: Z-Wave driver not inited, no port configured

It is saying that it cannot start up the driver, since a serial port has not yet been specified in its setting screen.

@ColoradoAutomator

In Step 4, adding the Z-Wave Integration again did ask me for a URLto the Z-Wave server but using the URL you directed me to, ws://a0d7b954-zwavejs2mqtt:3000, gave the error “Failed to connect”. Is this URL different for each installation and I don’t know how to find its value for my installation?
Using the value from my current installation of ws://core-zwave-js:3000 does connect, but this is probably the wrong Z-Wave server, right? There’s no data displayed in the Z-Wave JS UI Control Panel so it must be connected to the wrong server.

Right. core-zwave-js is the official Z-Wave addon. I’m not surprised it failed when you put in ws://a0d7b954-zwavejs2mqtt:3000, given that you did not yet successfully configure the Z-Wave JS UI. I don’t think the websocket server starts up until the Z-Wave stick is configured.

@ColoradoAutomator

At this point it appeared too dangerous to proceed to Step 5 and remove the offical Z-Wave JS add-on. After a few attempts to back up and try again, I now have two instances of the official Z-Wave integration and can no longer talk some of my devices or all entities of some others so I’m in a fine mess that will take some work to recover from. So now you can see why I am requesting that the Z-Wave JS UI be made part of the standard, simple Z-Wave installation. Obviously, I’m missing something big so I would be grateful for your additional help.

Yeah the big thing you were missing was where to put in the settings on Z-Wave JS UI.

I’ve literally no idea how you have more than one copy of the Z-Wave Integration. That is not supposed to be possible. Trying to install the Z-Wave integration a second time is supposed to be treated as reconfiguring it. You must have hit some form of bug.