manual z-wave heal still best practice?

[bad144]

Hi, I'm wondering if manually healing the z-wave network is expected to continue to be supported as a method to recalculate the z-wave routing after devices are moved.

I'm asking this because my current z-wave network is using a vera controller, and vera discontinued support of this claiming "the old Heal/Repair process which was no longer required with the latest versions of the Z-Wave firmware", ie prior to sigma version 3.67.  This has been a problem for me as now when a z-wave device is moved I typically have to wait 2 days for nightly auto heals to reconverge the network, at which point I often discover I have issues with range.

 

I have an ISY99 at my other house, so I'd gladly switch from vera to an ISY99izw if this would improve the situation.  I see that the ISY is using a newer version of the sigma firmware than vera, so it seems UDI disagrees about sigma 3.67 firmware removing the need to support a manual heal?

 

As for the second part of the problem, range issues when healing, it seems vera has an advantage here as they now have a generation 5 series controller, but UDI is still on generation 3.  Assuming I have generation 5 z-wave devices, a 5 series controller is marketed to provide better range, and so re-healing the network should pose less of a reliability problem.  Any generation 5 upgrade for the ISY controller planned?

[Teken]

 

Hi, I'm wondering if manually healing the z-wave network is expected to continue to be supported as a method to recalculate the z-wave routing after devices are moved.

I'm asking this because my current z-wave network is using a vera controller, and vera discontinued support of this claiming "the old Heal/Repair process which was no longer required with the latest versions of the Z-Wave firmware", ie prior to sigma version 3.67.  This has been a problem for me as now when a z-wave device is moved I typically have to wait 2 days for nightly auto heals to reconverge the network, at which point I often discover I have issues with range.

 

I have an ISY99 at my other house, so I'd gladly switch from vera to an ISY99izw if this would improve the situation.  I see that the ISY is using a newer version of the sigma firmware than vera, so it seems UDI disagrees about sigma 3.67 firmware removing the need to support a manual heal?

 

As for the second part of the problem, range issues when healing, it seems vera has an advantage here as they now have a generation 5 series controller, but UDI is still on generation 3.  Assuming I have generation 5 z-wave devices, a 5 series controller is marketed to provide better range, and so re-healing the network should pose less of a reliability problem.  Any generation 5 upgrade for the ISY controller planned?

 

 

Regardless of all the hype for Generation 5 Z-Wave support it does not negate physical barrier issues. The system will always need to do the silly healing, include / exclude, and defined routing.

 

For me the benefits of Gen 5 is longer battery life, more secure protocol, and faster updating of devices. Having been in many homes with dedicated Z-Wave devices with no instant status or a delayed 5 second status is insane to me.

 

With regard to whether or not UDI will offer this upgrade I haven't seen any recent comments about this. I have to assume its on the road map but other pressing matters are present now.

 

I honestly can't see them offering Gen 5 support anytime soon since they haven't been able to get multi channel support glued down for what seems like forever. Its apparent to me none of this frame work is easy to develop and integrate but I could be wrong.

 

Since it seems there are so many no name brands offering the same support that came out of no where?!?! 

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi bad144,

 

I have yet to see a situation where healing was not required and especially in larger venues.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[bad144]

Good to hear that you're supporting manual healing.

It struck me as a mistake that the vera people stopped supporting it, though I have found that I can still trigger a heal through a crafted HTTP request, even though their UI no longer supports it.

 

I'm still not sure which direction to take to improve my reliability when I need to re-heal (going with gen5 or ditching vera).

If I ditch vera I think I'd have to leave their controller as a secondary, as I currently need vera to bridge to my control4 system.  control4 has a z-wave driver that uses vera's API, and as far as I know nobody has done control4 driver support for any other z-wave controller.

 

I'm leaning towards trying a vera plus next to get the gen5 support, limping along with their poor heal functionality.