Hi
Due to some nasty power cuts some of my z-wave devices got upset and needed a factory reset. As a result I couldn’t exclude them first, but had to re-include them later. I have tried to use “remove from controller” to get rid of their old node numbers from the controller and then delete thing to get is out of OH. However I find that when I got to add z-wave devices they reappear, and even say they are online even though I know they don’t physically exist anymore. Is there a way of removing them permanently so I can tidy up my OH ? They aren’t causing a problem as such but I do like a tidy system
Thanks
Tim
You need to remove them from the controller. Otherwise they will reappear . I Use zensys tools to remove mine from my Aeotec controller. I guess all brands have their own tools
Ok. Thank you. I’ll give it a go 
So what does “remove from controller” in OH z-wave binding actually achieve ?
When you include a device, the controller assigns a device id to the device and stores information about the device in its own memory. When the device is NOT excluded from the controller before it is reset to factory defaults, this information remains in the controllers memory. The “remove from controller” will delete this information
On one hand the binding will offer this device again when the ZWave network is scanned (you can “delete” them from the Inbox or set them to be ignored), on the other hand this no longer (under its old device id) existing device may cause routing issues. That is the main reason you always want to eliminate devices that do not exist from the controller, if possible by excluding them.
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Thanks Stefan,
I assume that you mean “remove from controller” will not delete this information otherwise how does the controller offer the device again ? If the information is not held in OH memory or in the controller memory then how does it offer the device ?
The “remove from controller” on the device UI page is problematic (IMO) and won’t work for battery devices at all. To work, you first have to press the “Set Device as failed” and it needs to show up as failed or offline on the device UI page. That will work sometimes (they need to be fully configured) for powered devices, but not battery ones, because for battery ones the binding will only send commands to an awake device, and since a reset device will never send an awake message, that command will never be sent.
The sure-fire process for battery devices (and really any device) is to use the “exclude Devices” on the controller page and wake the device (or press the action button) (before factory resetting).
In the case the battery device is reset before excluding the Silabs/zensus (PC Controller) tools mentioned above will be needed to get the device off the controller. It is also a two-step process (“Check if failed”, then “remove failed”). The difference is that the PC controller doesn’t care if the device is sleeping, so that no response to the “Check if failed” will mark the device as failed.
Z-Wave Zombies.pdf (571.9 KB)
edit: Related to this (there are a few nuanced situations where it might work)
For example, if a battery device has been marked as dead by the binding, the “remove from controller” command may work, but the device usually just needs a new battery at that point.
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Maybe my english is not the best. To be more specific:
Removing the device from the controller will delete the information from the controllers memory. In that case the device will not be offered again by the binding/OH after a ZWave scan.
OH will offer the device in the Inbox again after a scan only if the device is not removed/deleted from the controller.