New System, Added Z-Wave USB Dongle - devices unseen or not in DB (but are in DB listing!)

Add-ons Bindings
1

I just downloaded oH for my Raspberry Pi and set it up on my Pi4, went through the configuration, installed several add-ons, including Z Wave, and took it to my barn to set it up. (I’m still using Home Assistant in the house, but hoping to change to two oH systems, one in the house one, in the barn. I’ll switchover in the house once I’m sure I have things going well with the one in the barn.)

I was using ZWaveJS2MQTT on a Pi3 in the barn. I’ve replaced it with the oH Pi4 system and I took the USB Z Wave stick out of the old system and plugged it into the new. I recently did that in the house, moving from one HA system to another and all the devices that had been paired to the stick showed up in the new HA system. I was hoping it’d be the same in oH: When I put the Z-Stick in the USB socket, even if it took time I was hoping all the devices would show up on it. I have 3 Schlage Z-Wave touchscreen deadbolts in the barn (and paired to the Z-stick, an Aeotec Z-Stick 7 Plus) and 14 (rough count) Z Wave light dimmer switches and fan controllers, and a Z Wave power strip. All these were on the ZWaveJS2MQTT system, so they were paired with the Z-Stick.

I put the Z-Stick in and, within the next 30 minutes, when I got back to my house, I saw 4 devices show up in oH, including the Z-stick. The three other devices are given as not in the database. Since I have 3 locks and 3 devices (other than the Z-Stick) show up in the system, my guess would be that it’s the 3 deadbolts. They’re Schlage and when I check, it has an entry in the DB Listing.

Also, the locks needed to be added securely. The ZWaveJS2MQTT software had S0 and S2 keys specified. (And in S2, there were two types of keys.) I have all the keys I used in the ZWaveJS2MQTT system, so if changing to a different key would make a difference, I can do that. (I do not remember the switches/dimmers/fan controllers needing any authentication.)

I am looking for the manuals on the dimmer switches and fan controllers so I can get the model number. I have had all these devices working on the ZWaveJS2MQTT controller and I was controlling all of them through Home Assistant. (So if it helps to go through the config files for the HA install, I can do that - except for the switches/controllers. They were still on the old HA setup and that one is in bad shape, so I’d have to find what files their info is in. But finding them in the files in the MQTT system should be possible.)

Questions:

  • Why are only 3 devices showing up when I have something like 15 more (give or take, not sure of the exact count) paired to the Z-stick?
  • Why are the three devices showing up as unknown instead of including any ID info? (Could it be they’re the locks and I’m not using the right key for them?)

Since this is close to 20 devices, yes, if I have to, I can re-add all of them. But, let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to fix them all by figuring out what to do than to re-add that many devices, especially since, if I remember properly, I have to pull the switch covers to reset them. I’m also not sure what will happen if I try to add them to the Z-stick again if they’re still stored in it’s DB.

2

Are the missing devices battery powered? If yes, be patient. Or check the manuals for how to wake them up manually. Doing that repeatedly will shorten the time needed for the controller to recognize the devices.

Yes, that is likely. The key is not held on the Z-Wave stick but in the software. Go to the controller thing, tick the “Show advanced” box and scroll down. You will se a field “Network Security Key” where you can enter the key.

3

If my guess is right, that the 3 devices are the locks (again, just thinking that because 3 devices show up and there are 3 locks, but I realize it could be 3 switches or 3 fan controllers. It could even be the different sockets on the Z Wave power strip), then the missing devices are AC powered. (Those devices being the power strip just occurred to me.)

The deadbolts are battery powered, but the dimmer switches, power strip, and fan controllers are all on the main 120VAC.

Okay. Considering locks are battery powered, if I have the wrong key and put in the correct one, how long can I figure on it taking for it to connect properly? (I have 4 keys that were in the ZWaveJS2MQTT system: S0 Legacy, S2 Unauthenticated, S2 Authenticated, and S2 Access Control - my guess was to use the S2 Authenticated key, but since I know almost nothing about Z Wave security, I realize it could be any of those keys. The deadbolt manual does not clarify for me which key it needs.)

4

I would expect the AC driven devices to show up “immediately”, the situation you describe seems a bit odd to me.
Is “network heal” active in your installation?

To be honest, I have no experience with Z-Wave locks. But as with all battery driven devices, waking them up should fasten up the waiting period.

I have no answer to that as I don’t use secured inclusion. Maybe you want to label the thread additionally with “Z-Wave” or something similar to draw attention to someone who has more knowledge.

5

That was my thought, as well.

I saw something about that and a heal time. I think it was set to 2AM and I changed it to 4AM, since I’m a night person and often up at 2 AM. But I don’t see how to get back to that. When I go to Settings->Bindings, and get the bindings I have and all other bindings I can get, I can click on Z Wave, but I only get info. I don’t see a way to get to Z Wave settings for the network, only for things or items. (I’m still getting used to mentally separating the difference between thing and item - or, really, which is which.)

I’m not as worried about the locks. There are only 3 in the barn, so that’s not too hard to deal with. But I’d really like to find a way to get a list of all the dimmer/switches and fan controllers. Considering that’s something like 15 or more devices, that’ll be a pain to re-add - especially if the Z Stick still remembers them. I think, though, there is an option to hard reset the Z Stick. But I don’t know for sure what that does. I’m assuming it wipes it and resets it to factory settings.

6

First I can’t help much with locks either, but I do know that OH zwave only uses S0 security

In the UI under things there should be a Controller page. I can’t tell from the discussion above, but the Controller needs to be manually set-up. Here are two pictures of mine (top- Note that the advanced is checked) and bottom with the security (I do not use it, so no reason to keep secret)

controller top
controller top653×543 15 KB

Controller bottom
Controller bottom666×711 26.4 KB

Lastly, I do think the edit: non-secure things should be picked up with a scan, assuming the controller is properly setup.

Bob

7

It’s super low risk I know, but it’s probably still worth blanking out your security key in the screenshot above. It kind of defeats the purpose if you advertise it to the world.

8

Ok Will do. Got to keep some mystery, eh? I would change it anyway if I had purchased a lock.

Also appreciate your work on the forum. Between you and @rossko57 I don’t think OH would be nearly as popular.

Bob

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