This is honestly a terrible way to do it. That software isn’t really meant for end-users, and the whole process has a bunch of weird hoops. The process in the link above (this) might seem more geeky and intimidating if you’re not used to the Linux command line, but… it’s really a lot more straightforward and something similar is almost certainly better and easier even on Windows.
Also, um, either way this is not an OTA update. It’s just a regular in-the-field manual firmware update.
I’m not sure what your saying here but the zooz way is easy and straightforward and supported. Took all of 5 minutes to update the stick after powering off the pi, removing it and pluggng it into the pc to upgrade. The whole process took less than 10 minutes.
Also for anyone else considering the upgrade, it solved my issues completely so far. I also rediscovered each device and had 100% success now. Very pleased so far.
I agree; It was easy for me use also, and I’m slightly tech challenged.
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I wonder if I can OTA the fixed firmware using zwavejs2mqtt since it has that feature…
Thanks for sharing, so did you lose all your Z-Wave associations? I really don’t want to have to exclude/include over 30 devices back to my stick?!
Happy to report I lost nothing. When HA started back up everything was in place and worked as expected. I did back up the NV RAM before taking this on just in case but it wasn’t needed.
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Whew…That makes me feel a little better, so what do you mean when you said you “rediscovered each device”?
Re-Interview - to make sure each device had the correct capabilities. It solved a lot of the unknown states showing for my devices in the UI
Had a lot of grey question marks on my devices before that
Now all show correctly
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Thanks, I got it figured out, turns out I needed to download some updates based on the device before the install manager would appear. Not the most user friendly software, but I got it updated in the end. Thanks for all your help!
Link to add Z-Wave PC Controller to Simplicity Studio:
That feature is for devices, not controllers.
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I’m saying I can’t possibly square that statement with…
… which is merely one part of the whole rube-goldbergian process in involving signing up for a developer account for software not designed for end users, installing that software, agreeing to whatever series of terms and conditions, figuring out how install and launch the right subordinate tool within the multitude the “Simplicity” software offers, etc. — all compared to the alternative, which is:
- Send a special (short!) canned sequence of characters to the USB serial device
- Pick the “upload firmware” menu option when prompted
- Upload the firmware using the tried-and-true xmodem protocol
- Pick the “run firmware” menu option
… and done.
… All of which could actually be pretty easily put into a simple script making it almost or completely automatic (see for example suggestion -- provide minicom script for 700 series Controller Firmware Updates doc · Issue #14 · kpine/zwave-js-server-docker · GitHub).
I know minicom is a bit esoteric to people who didn’t grow up in the BBS days, but it’s actually overkill — just used because it’s handy and available in most Linux distros. But it’s not really necessary. Probably a few dozen lines of Python could do it too.
The Simplicity Studio software is even more overkill.
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I’ll never argue against easy. But the current method isn’t bad and no worse than many other things in HA or even linux. Seeing as many people seem to be able to accomplish it without much difficulty seems to supprt this. Zooz will even swap your stick if you don’t feel like you can handle it, not sure about Aeotec. Again I’ll always take an easier way and support in HA would be great. iMO SI is really the guilty party here and should release an end user update tool that’s simple to use
If theres one thing we should all know about HA, is that it is never as easy as we’d like. Personally, if i expected polished I’d run to apple (puny i know). Of course I’d also have fewer choices, some vendor lock and be beholden to their roadmap.
Well, it’s pretty bad on Linux. The Simplicity Studio software is only supported on specific versions of Ubuntu, and once you’ve jumped that hoop, you’ll find that the specific sub-program that does the update is Windows-only. (And all of that complication turns out to be just overhead. I agree — SI could definitely make an easier tool.
But really, they’re (clearly) not in the business of making end-user tools. Their software that Zooz directs you to is meant for engineers. I’m surprised Zooz doesn’t provide something themselves. But, failing that… maybe I should go ahead and make that python script.
It said earlier in this thread that support will replace your stick with an upgraded one. What more could you expect? They are not software developers/
I guess that’s kind of surprising — I get that for hobbyist hardware makers selling things they’ve built for fun and to share, but for a commercial product that inherently depends on software and firmware?