Migrating Z-Wave environment to OpenHAB 2.1 from Domoticz 3.5877

Setup, Configuration and Use Installation
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Hello, everyone. Hopefully this is the correct forum for this question; if not, my apologies.

After using Domoticz to run our Z-Wave environment for a few months, it’s become apparent that it’s not quite the right platform for what we’re looking to do with home automation in the long term. Note that this is not to bash Domoticz in any way: there’s nothing really wrong with it in my opinion, but for our circumstances it’s just not the right fit. In any event, we’ve settled on moving everything over to OpenHAB 2.1.

The hardware platform is a RasPi 3 running OpenHABian (from image) with an Aeotec Gen5 Z-Stick acting as the Z-Wave controller. There are approximately 50 Z-Wave devices in use, and their compatibility with OpenHAB has been confirmed.

So far, installation and initial configuration of OpenHABian has gone smoothly. We’re at the point where we’re ready to migrate the Z-Wave hardware over to OpenHAB, and this is where my questions are coming in.

The big question: will this involve excluding every device from the existing mesh, resetting the controller, then reincluding every device manually under OpenHAB? If this can be avoided, it would really be preferable due to the fact that certain devices (notably in-wall light switches and power outlets) aren’t really portable. In a worst-case scenario the RasPi running the controller can be connected back to the switch with a really long Ethernet cable and brought to each non-portable device as the RasPi has a PoE hat on it… But I’d still like to avoid a total rebuild if at all possible.

The smaller question: there are a number of Blockly scripts performing various functions in the existing Domoticz setup. I’ve noticed that Habmin also has Blockly as a scripting option; can the existing scripts be imported as-is (I’m guessing probably not), or is there a conversion tool that can aid with this? If they have to be recreated by hand it’s not a huge problem, but given that it’s probably going to take a good chunk of the weekend to complete the migration it would be preferable to keep the amount of work involved as small as possible.

Finally, if there are any other recommendations for making the migration go more smoothly I’d definitely be interested in hearing them.

Thanks in advance - we’re really looking forward to the possibilities that OpenHAB will make available to us.

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No - this isn’t needed… The binding will pick up the devices that are included already and will interrogate them - no need to include them back into the network.

Good guess :wink:

This just turns the blocks into an OH script so it won’t be compatible.

1 Like
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Thanks for the clarification - I thought that it shouldn’t be necessary to have to do anything with the controller other than move it over to the new hardware, but having confirmation definitely helps as I didn’t want to take down the existing system without knowing what I was getting into. And recreating the Blockly scripts is a non-issue - a few screenshots and it should be possible to rebuild them fairly easily.

All that needs to happen now is that Amazon drops off the RasPi that all of this is going to be run from, which will hopefully be sometime later today :wink:

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Sorry for borrowing this thread but I’m thinking of doing the same migration.

Just a question, if I would setup a OpenHAB installation on my old RPi2 and then move the Z-stick from my active Domoticz setup. Would I be able to try OpenHAB live with the stick and then return it to Domoticz if I please?
I figure that should be possible but want to be sure before I give it a go :slight_smile:

Thanks.