I am looking to setup HA over again and not 100% sure I can restore my setup from backup but primarily more interested in some Z-Wave specific stuff as I want to limit how much downtime the house has when I switch over. To do so was going to get a second Z-Wave stuck and some questions came up:
Can you have 2 Z-Wave sticks in the same house and can they both be configured to manage the same devices without any issues? So if I clone Z-Wave Stick 1 to Z-Wave Stick 2 and have to HA’s running will that work?
I currently have an Aeotec best Gen 5 stick. Wanted to get a Gen 7 for the new one however are there any Z-Wave sticks out there that are not dated and can support multiple platforms like Z-Wave, Ziggbee, bluetooth, etc?
I contact Aeotec and they claimed if I got one of their 7th gen Z-Wave stick you can’t restore the Gen 5 content to it. Thought I read around it was possible. Any thoughts? Should I just stick with another 5th gen?
You can use two, but they are separate networks managing separate devices.
A Gen5 stick upgraded to 1.2 (1.02) firmware is equivalent to a Gen5+ and supports nearly all features as a 700-series. There are currently no modern combo sticks supporting multiple protocols. Better to stick with separate sticks so you can choose the best of each.
A Gen5 stick upgraded to 1.2 (1.02) can be backed up with Z-Wave JS UI and restored to any 700-series stick. I’m surprised Aeotec doesn’t know this, or maybe they just don’t want to be on the hook for support. Certain older Gen5s cannot be upgraded to 1.2 though, so you wouldn’t be able to convert those.
Thanks for the answers very helpful. With item 1 to clarify.
Sounds like you are saying that I can have two Z-Wave sticks in the same house but they can’t manage the same devices correct? So if I backup one stick to the other one and have both on-line bad things are going to happen?
I can get some of my HA rebuild done behind the scenes, but my biggest concern when I make the switch is how long it will take to get the Z-Wave integration working again as I also use it with Alexa. Was hoping both sticks could manage a single Z-Wave device like a switch at the same time.
I don’t know what will happen if you clone a controller and use them at the same time. For sure it won’t be good. A backup and restore only takes a few minutes to complete.
If you want a leisurely transition of networks (one stick to the other), then just use the new stick as a new controller, exclude from the old and include with the new, one at a time at your convenience.
If your concern is using two installations of HA at the same time, then those can both be configured to talk to the same Z-Wave JS instance.
Not exactly what you asked, but you might want to wait and get a combination stick that has Matter. I looks like most Matter will also support Zigbee (effectively a replacement) and there should be a Matter/Zigbee/Zwave coming to the market soon.