Hi,
I’m looking at what way I can modify Z-Wave Sensors and settings.
From what I see, there are a couple of instances that can be modified.
Node Management (Z-Wave Panel)
Network Management (Z-Wave Panel)
“Entity Data Management” (Templates)
This should be enough for most stuff, but I’m having issues with some Z-wave items and started to look at: - zwcfg_XXX.xml.
Is there a good description on how to use this file and how it’s updated?
Would updating OpenZwave be something that could resolve issues? Or is this done with the Home Assistant update?
Openzwave is installed and updated with Home-assistant. Most changes to Zwave device settings should be possible from the Zwave menu panel. The zwcfg_XXX.xml file is transient and will be rebuilt on reboot. Renaming can be made from the Developer tools <> menu. If you have specific Zwave issues, you should post those to see if someone can assist you.
OK, thanks. I’m trying to see how I should think when I try to resolve errors and find causes.
So basically the zwcfg_xxxx.xml is not to be edited I presume, since it’s rebuilt (and overwritten). My assumption would then be somewhat:
a. OpenZwave (OZW) is being used by HA
b. HA gets device information from OZW and registers the devices & entities (in some of the hidden registry files)
c. The device supported command structures are transferred to zwcfg_xxxx.xml from OZW, so that the zwave panel is filled correctly.
In other words, every change to the device should be done via the zwave Node Management and HA will on boot rebuild the zwcfg_xxxx.xml
Now if I would claim to find an error how a device is setup, it probably has to do with how it was detected/templated by OZW and not HA?
Similar I would assume if wrong commands are sent to a device. this would probably be caused by the device firmware or OZW being incorrect?
There are lots of things you may consider errors but aren’t necessarily errors. As I said, you should post direct questions about things you don’t understand so someone can help identify them.
Upon first adding devices to HA, some/many Zwave devices don’t have their complete information/name/capabilities listed. It may take a reboot and more communication from stick to device and device to stick before that information is filled in. Battery powered devices are asleep unless triggered before they talk to the stick. Those devices require a special trigger (specific to each device – check the manual) to wake up long enough to make setting changes.
It may take a while for new devices to be added to the Zwave device database. There are classes of Zwave devices that have limited or no support as yet. The Home Assistant volunteers have modified OpenZwave to include barrier class devices but that is limited.
Again, you are better asking lots of questions when something differs from what you are expecting.
I get your point. Be specific on what is not working, and I’ve done so also (different threads). But for now, I’d like to get to know how HA is using OZW. I really appreciate forum help for debugging, but I also would like to improve my own debugging capabilities.
As you mentioned, the zwcfg_xxx.xml is transient and rebuilt on boot. In the documentations here, there are recommendations to edit this file. Will this be overwritten during reboot?
There are options.xml that can be edited according to here. Is this something that HA will overwrite eventually also?
Openzwave is just an open source library that supports communication between the zwave hardware host device and the node devices. HA uses the OZW api to talk to that library. You can use some tools from the openzwave website for help. http://www.openzwave.net/
There may be times when an edit to zwcfg_xxx.xml could be required but that would be a rare case. So much has changed under the covers with HA that what was necessary a few weeks ago may no longer be required or even supported.
As far as I know, options.xml isn’t used anymore.
To really see the communication between the stick and devices you can watch the OZW_Log.txt file in your config directory. From the command line, you can run tail -f OZW_Log.txt
As you trigger a light etc you will see the nodeid and the communication back and forth. There is lots of information and to single things out try tail -f OZW_Log.txt |grep Node102
where Node102 is the device you are interested in.