Migrate ZWave from FHEM to openHab (same PI & Controller)

  • Platform information:
    • Hardware: RaspberryPi 3
    • OS: Openhabian
    • openHAB version: Current

Hey everybody!
I am currently thinking of switching from FHEM to openHab. Since I already have a quite stable FHEM instalation with many Zwave devices, I want to make sure that a transition from one to the other is working as far as I can beforehand.
I read many threads about migrating from one controller to the other, but in my case I want to stick to my RPI and the Razberry (Z-Wave) module. I sometimes read that the config is saved on the controller, but never that clear. Furthermore I am not sure, even if it is the case that the config is saved on the controller, how I add the devices to Openhab without the exclusion and inclusion process. So how do i actually get those devices to appear here without this process?
Since many of the devices are build into the wall, it would be a major pain for me and an argument against a transition.
I hope I explained my problem detailed enough - if not, im happy to answer everything in the following.

Many thanks and a nice evening! :slight_smile:
Patrick

There’s very minimal information about the nodes saved on the controller.

There should be no reason to exclude/include your nodes.

Here’s a rough series of steps to get going.

  • Install the Z-Wave binding using Paper UI or HABmin (it is recommended use HABmin to manage your zwave things)
  • plug the zwave stick into the host running openHAB (don’t use the 2.3.0 release, rather use the latest Milestone or snapshot release, since the device database is more up to date and the zwave binding is faster and more reliable)
  • openHAB should detect the stick and automatically add the zwave serial controller to the inbox
  • once you accept the serial controller from the inbox, it will become a thing and initialize
  • once the stick is initialized, you can start the discovery process where the zwave binding will discover all the nodes that the stick knows about and add those to the inbox
  • the zwave binding will then interrogate the nodes for their associations, configuration, etc. Battery devices will take longer to initialize unless you manually wake them up.
  • by accepting the nodes from the inbox, they also will become zwave things
  • if you have devices that are not in the device database here, we can get them added pretty quickly (usually a few days).

Here’s a reference to the zwave binding documentation.

Here’s a reference to the device database documentation.
https://www.cd-jackson.com/index.php/zwave/zwave-device-database/zwave-device-database-guide

I may have left out a step or two. Post back here with any questions. There are plenty of people here to help.

This sounds indeed to be working, many thanks for this help!
So the Controller has some kind of an ID broadcasted and every device will try to connect as soon as the controller comes back online - even under a new software, right?
Those devices are then added to openHab while “discovering”

I think I will give it a try and install openHab today or tomorrow.
I will keep this thread updated how it worked.
Thanks again!

Not quite… the controller holds some low level info for the devices… similar in some ways to a Wifi access point or router. The controller has a serial API that can be used to communicate with it. The OH Z-Wave binding, OpenZwave, or any other Z-Wave Gateway software will use the serial API to interrogate the devices for more specific information, but the node information is stored in and ‘controlled’ by the controller. If you take a hammer to the controller, the network is gone, but there is also software that can backup and restore a network to a controller, even on new hardware.

Okay I got it now, thanks :slight_smile:

I installed openHabian on my RPI and by default 2.3 was installed, the zwave devices appeared and it seemed to work. Since not all devices were working I switched to the milestone 2.4.
Since then, all zwave devices stay at Status: UNINITIALIZED - HANDLER_MISSING_PENDING.

Restarts did not yield any improvements. Can you tell me, where i went wrong or what I should do about it?

Thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

There are substantial changes between the 2.3 and 2.4 zwave binding, which requires that you delete and rediscover the things.

See here.

After some reinstalls and resets… it is now working fine!
Thanks again! :slight_smile: