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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, danbutter said:

So I'm a bit worried about this as I still have quite a few devices that are not "Plus"/500 series.

I have two thermostats, outlets, plug in modules, multiple door locks that would likely cost me $1000 or more to replace all of to get a newer zwave plus equivalent.

So do I upgrade to the 5.2.x firmware now or not?  Will this leave me in a spot where I can't make something route correctly without the "heal" or no?

You're better off staying where you are if you have the 300 board. All devices must be plus to fully take advantage of plus.

If you have the current 500 series card then upgrading is up to you.  As stated before, the newest firmwares is specific to the new card so you would not take advantage of anything if you stay put on 5.0.16 as the 300 series board wouldn't take advantage of anything in the new firmware even if you could upgrade

Edited by lilyoyo1
Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, Craigb said:

System would still need to support zigbee and pass that certification as well. That could be firmware 7.0. lol

Edited by lilyoyo1
Posted
1 minute ago, Craigb said:

Oh please NOOOOOO.... that stick aka Nortek stick is horrible and oh BTW you can't backup the z-wave portion so.. umm... SOL if the stick fails... it's also NOT a 700 series stick so you'd want to be upgrading in a year or so and without being able to backup and restore... ooops too bad!

Would Zigbee end devices be nice with ISY... sure!  But... that's a whole different ball game and a new can of worms and up until just recently with Zigbee 3.0 there really wasn't a REAL standard to cling to and call something supported so it was always a hit or miss and MUCH leaning on community developed drivers for most devices.

Posted
300 board had a blue light in the back. 500 doesn't. 

Not what meant. Can you look on ISY console and see zwave devices including which generation/series they are from. I know that the board is 300.
Posted
13 minutes ago, asbril said:

for $ 19 what to expect ?

Different stick.   The $19 stick is the Official reference stick from Silicon Labs and it is a Z-Wave 700 series USB stick.  It is cheap (costing) but it is the reference standard by which others must validate against.  Oh and yeah I have 2 of those and they work great.

 

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Posted
40 minutes ago, hart2hart said:


Not what meant. Can you look on ISY console and see zwave devices including which generation/series they are from. I know that the board is 300.

I misunderstood you. Not that I've seen. However there may be something in the newer firmware. I haven't upgraded yet my backup isy yet so I don't know. 

The timeframe you purchased your devices is a good indicator (though far from absolute). If after 2017 it's possible that it's plus. Anything before most likely not. Plus is also generally written on the device itself

If you know your devices there's a website that could tell you.

https://products.z-wavealliance.org/regions/2/categories/5/products

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, hart2hart said:


Not what meant. Can you look on ISY console and see zwave devices including which generation/series they are from. I know that the board is 300.

Yes you can. Right click on device;  'Zwave';  'Show Information in Event Viewer'.;  'Node Details' .

In the Event Viewer ('Tools';  'Diagnostics') scroll up and you see either Zwave Basic or Zwave Plus. In some cases there is neither, but I am pretty sure that those are not Zwave Plus.

Edited by asbril
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Posted

I got excited when I skimmed this and saw reference to alarms but then realized that’s a z-wave fix (actually from 5.1). Still hoping that bug in programs with Elk sensor triggers loading at startup gets addressed.


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Posted

         Earlier tonight I posted something in 'create a 3 way' where I wrote about a program not working with IF  X is switched ON;  THEN set Y ON. I noted that it does work when using IF Status X is ON instead of Switch (Control).

I just realized that one of my programs was no longer working and it does indeed have IF Control X and not Status. This worked fine before and now I wonder whether something was changed in 5.2 which makes it that Control (Switch) no longer works.

I apologize if I get it wrong, but could there be a bug here ?

Posted (edited)

So I upgraded and my Aeotec Siren 6 went a little wonky. I tried to exclude it from the network and that didn't work, so I factory reset it and then removed a failed node. Now I can not add it to my z-wave network. It just sits there "waiting for z-wave devices to add". Any ideas?

On a side note, where did the "Heal" option go for z-wave?

Edited by csteenwyk
Posted (edited)
29 minutes ago, csteenwyk said:

On a side note, where did the "Heal" option go for z-wave?

See comments above, but it is no longer necessary with 500 series.  You can still do "Update Neighbors" for individual devices, but otherwise 500 series is self healing.  

Edited by blueman2
Posted (edited)

Thanks for the response about heal. I am still having issues.

I have a number of Aeotec Range Extender 6. If I am right next to my ISY I can add/remove devices. If I add a range extender I can communicate back to my locks but I can't add/remove a device near my locks. It's as though the range extenders won't chain anymore. Ideas?

Update: It looks like network wide search for add/remove was turned off, I think that was my issue

Edited by csteenwyk
Posted
8 hours ago, csteenwyk said:

Thanks for the response about heal. I am still having issues.

I have a number of Aeotec Range Extender 6. If I am right next to my ISY I can add/remove devices. If I add a range extender I can communicate back to my locks but I can't add/remove a device near my locks. It's as though the range extenders won't chain anymore. Ideas?

Update: It looks like network wide search for add/remove was turned off, I think that was my issue

I noticed in the Z-Wave tab there's a new option menu to enable/disable Network Wide Inclusion/Excusion.  Make sure you change that to Yes to use NWI.

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Posted
9 hours ago, csteenwyk said:

Thanks for the response about heal. I am still having issues.

I have a number of Aeotec Range Extender 6. If I am right next to my ISY I can add/remove devices. If I add a range extender I can communicate back to my locks but I can't add/remove a device near my locks. It's as though the range extenders won't chain anymore. Ideas?

Update: It looks like network wide search for add/remove was turned off, I think that was my issue

Not sure about the new 5.2.0 release, but in all prior releases I always had to bring my device right next to my ISY in order to do an include/exclude.  Never got that to work otherwise.  Just something I have always lived with.  But that was when I had a Series 300 z-wave board.  Maybe the 500, along with 500 range extenders, will allow it but not sure.  

Posted

I've always had NWI enabled with my 500. I doubt it actually works because I've always had to bring the devices to within a couple feet.  And I do have 2 range extenders which are the first things I pair.  

Posted
5 minutes ago, hart2hart said:

All my devices are zwave plus except this vent.

 

https://products.z-wavealliance.org/products/1044

Used to only allow AC but not heat to blow into AV equipment room.

 

There is no replacement I can locate using any technology.

 

What issues could it cause in zwave mesh?

In regards to NWI- none since you should have other pathways for the messages to get to the isy.

In regards to plus features, you should be ok. The devices routing to that would default to whatever firmware that is but the system itself shouldn't see much of an impact overall

Posted

V5.2.0 installed over v5.1.0. Went like clockwork without a hitch.

I have only Insteon and LAN based bulbs/devices, no Zwave., + polisy with ecobee NS.

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Posted
In regards to NWI- none since you should have other pathways for the messages to get to the isy.
In regards to plus features, you should be ok. The devices routing to that would default to whatever firmware that is but the system itself shouldn't see much of an impact overall

As you can tell, I know nothing to very little about how zwave works. Is it still not a problem given that this vent is the closet zwavevdevice to the ISY?
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, hart2hart said:


As you can tell, I know nothing to very little about how zwave works. Is it still not a problem given that this vent is the closet zwavevdevice to the ISY?

Thats ok. I was in your shoes when zwave first came out. I was lucky enough to meet one of the developers of zwave many years ago at a trade show and pick his brain. Ive also done countless installs over the years which helped me learn more. There are some here who still know much more than I such as @simplextech.

Im assuming its battery powered. If thats the case it doesnt matter since nothing gets routed through it. If its hardwired, anything thats using it for routing would not take advantage of plus (just because its closest doesnt mean its part of a device's route). With that said, a strong mesh still beats the extra range you get from plus. If you have a strong mesh, all of it is a moot point. The extra range may help someone who has minimal use for zwave and keep them from needing additional devices.

Some of the device specific features such as NWI, additional battery life, etc. would still benefit however.

Edited by lilyoyo1
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Posted

Ok so thanks to all that answered my question about a mixed zwave network.  I do have the 500 series board in my ISY so I took a chance and upgraded to 5.2.0.

So far it seems like no zwave device knows about any other device.  Do I have to run that Update Neighbors on every zwave device I have since the "Heal" is gone now?

The other thing I have noticed is that my Kwikset locks don't like this version much.  If I manually operate the locks they show up in the AC, but after that ISY doesn't seem to know they are there anymore and there is no battery level displayed like there always has been before now.

Saw this in the event viewer when running a query on one of them:

Wed 08/26/2020 06:15:32 PM : [ZW-TX-FAILED] enc=Fail uid=29.0 cmd=0x80.02 BATTERY

 

Thoughts?

Posted
Thats ok. I was in your shoes when zwave first came out. I was lucky enough to meet one of the developers of zwave many years ago at a trade show and pick his brain. Ive also done countless installs over the years which helped me learn more. There are some here who still know much more than I such as @simplextech.
Im assuming its battery powered. If thats the case it doesnt matter since nothing gets routed through it. If its hardwired, anything thats using it for routing would not take advantage of plus (just because its closest doesnt mean its part of a device's route). With that said, a strong mesh still beats the extra range you get from plus. If you have a strong mesh, all of it is a moot point. The extra range may help someone who has minimal use for zwave and keep them from needing additional devices.
Some of the device specific features such as NWI, additional battery life, etc. would still benefit however.

Thanks it is battery operated so if I understand you that makes it a receiver only so not part of the mesh. Thanks. Whew! Bullet. dodged. Lol

Is there a guide here that shows how to move from 300 to 500 series board? I’ve had a mini note since I first installed zwave board. As I recall I have to transfer control over to it to start process but that’s about all and that may be dated information.
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