Hmm, this is relatively recent and very interesting. I should be running the latest firmware so I'll have to look for the 3rd party option.
Thanks!
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I hope Silicon Labs is funding an engineer or two for you to fix their beta testing on end user issues.
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I apologize for bringing up a sore spot in Zwave technology.. It would have been helpful to have my older devices connected to the Leviton Zwave installer hub connect to the HE hub as the primary controller because the firmware matched better and once the Leviton installer programs the buttons and switches I no longer need it hooked to the network. The associations between the button controllers and light switches handle themselves. So it's back to finding a helpful HE community owner/programmer to work with me to program drivers and apps for my devices. Luckily everyone seems friendly. And thanks for the z-wave history lesson in this thread.
I don't think there's any reason for you to apologize. HE's position is clear, but nevertheless it's a documented function that doesn't work, and people are bound to ask about it from time to time. I suppose it's possible that a future firmware update to the zwave radio from SiLabs might fix things, or it might get fixed as a result of some other fix, but for now I've just shut off the zwave radio in HE,
Since the alarm panel is not the problem here, I'm kicking around the idea of using a z-stick as a secondary controller (it works just fine) and creating some bridge from it to HE, similar to how HubConnect works, Or just ditching HE altogether, but I really like everything else about HE so I probably won't do that,
Until I find the time to do that, I have to rely on Smartthings to handle zwave. Ugh.
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In case anyone else with the same needs finds their way here to this thread, the interface into the QolSys IQ2+ panel does work, to a point. You have to be running firmware 2.4.0 or later in order to have the "3rd party connections" settings. Although the interface appears to be undocumented to the general public, since other systems are using it (Control 4 for example), it isn't likely to go away.
However, the interface that's been discovered so far only emits status information for the alarm sensors (opened, closed, etc.) and the alarm state (disarmed, armed stay, etc.). It does not emit any status or data for the zwave system.
If all you want to do is control HE devices based on alarm sensors and/or keep HE's mode in sync with the alarm panel's mode, then this should work fine for you. But you'll need to use Node-Red, or something else that can open a socket to the alarm panel and wait for data. I don't think you can do this natively in HE, although I don't know enough about HE's apps to be certain.
There are other interfaces into the alarm panel, but nobody has figured them out yet.
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Maybe this would work for you. I've no experience with Home Assistant Z-Wave (old or this new one). But it could be used with a supported 500 series Z-Wave stick, so maybe that would get you what you need, either over there entirely, or moving it back into HE with this integration (my preference because I like Rule Machine and the other apps, drivers, and overall experience I get here).
I've looked at that HA integration and thought about doing what you suggest. I have a 500 series stick that I'm currently using with the SiLabs software. I've connected it to the alarm panel as a secondary as another verification that the alarm panel is not at fault here.
I could either write my own application to use the stick and handle the connection between it and HE, or try using HA and the integration you referred to. Either way there's going to be a bit of a learning curve, but it might be a bit overkill to set up HA just for this purpose.
I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole for the longest time and was hoping for HomeKit Controller directly on HE (originally that's all I thought was needed). Then @ymerj suggested an HA to HE integration which I wasn't opposed to, but would have preferred not to involve HA.
But now that I've actually set it up and used it, I realize that not having to solely use the HomeKit Controller integration to only get HomeKit compatible (or devices tricked into being HomeKit compatible) offers great merit. Not only for tricky Z-Wave situations like this one, where the new 700 series coordinator begins to leave behind legacy technology for better options like Z-Wave Long Range, but also for alternate Zigbee controllers. It opens up the possibilities to use devices that are problematic with the SiLabs Zigbee (not that there's anything wrong with it. You cannot expect everything to be compatible with everything. Just factually doesn't work like that).
Short story long, it's actually quite simple to get working since they have a ready to use image. You can either burn it to an SD card for use with a RPi, or what I've done is just used the image for Virtual Box. So very simple to test with Virtual Box too, and if it works, then move it to a RPI if you want. Not much needed to be learned. Installing the Zigbee stick was very simple, but to be fair I've no idea what would be involved in adding a Z-Wave stick. HE Z-Wave is excellent for my needs, so I've no reason to ever bother trying. Might be just as simple as it was to add the Zigbee though.
After that, the only thing I ever need to look at it for is to add a device I want to bring back into HE, and rename it so I can identify them better than the default names alone. The devices then appear on HE and I rename them there too. Only thing I needed to learn was how to restart the HA service from time to time when a device doesn't appear or something I've configured for testing purposes needs a restart. Not at all hard.
Either of these methods work the same.
Via Configuration
Via Developer Tools
There's no need to learn YAML and you don't need to use their Automation (thank goodness 
). Assuming you didn't run into any hiccups with the Z-Wave stick, you could have this running and bringing devices back into HE by the end of the day, tops.
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Thanks for the pointers, I'll give it try when I can find a few hours to tinker. My day job is writing code, so I'm not all that excited about learning the z-wave API and dealing with a z-stick directly.
Ironically, the whole reason I'm here is because I wanted to get away from Smartthings to improve reliability and dependence on cloud services out of my control. While I love the ability to run webcore and other things locally on HE, so far I've just increased my home automation complexity by adding another hub, rather than replacing the hub I wanted to ditch.
Now it looks like I'm going to increase the complexity of my system even further with HA and yet another piece of hardware or two to the mix plus more software I've got to keep up to date. So much for simplicity...
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zwave2mqtt to node-red or hubitat via MQTT.
Thanks was not aware of zwave2mqtt. However, the word "secondary" does not appear a single time in the zwave2mqtt docs, or in any issues or pull requests.
I'm not sure HA's zwave implementation supports it either though, for that matter.
Oh, good point. I didn't research that part - sorry!
I'm hoping this isn't a dead topic, as I'm in the same boat with my Home Automation. I have a Honeywell Tuxedo Touch as my primary Z-Wave controller with a Samsung ST hub as the secondary hub/Alexa bridge. As we know, Samsung isn't keen on being a secondary anymore, and my Alexa is slowly losing the ability to control my Z-Wave devices. My needs are simple, the Tuxedo has to be primary, the secondary hub needs to be easy to update and work with Alexa. That's it. No complicated scenes or triggers, just take the Z-Wave devices from the primary device and make them available to Alexa. Can the HE do this now, or are we still in limbo? Thanks!
There is always hope, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. 
Several months ago, there was a z-wave firmware update and that got my hopes up again. I tried paring HE as a secondary to my QolSys IQ2+ panel and to my surprise it worked. Mostly. Good enough that I was able to use the HE Alexa skill to control the z-wave devices paired with the alarm panel. Some wierd non-existent devices also showed up in HE but I just ignore them.
Filled with a new sense of hope, I went to our rental property and tried it there. Same exact alarm panel with same firmware. Didn't work despite multiple attempts. Go figure.
Historically, the HE developers have not been interested in this topic. Or perhaps not interested isn't the right word, they just don't see it as something important enough to rise anywhere near the top of their list of things to do. I was told they intended to look into it eventually, but that time has yet to come.
I keep hoping that the z-wave secondary issues might get fixed as a side effect of fixing something else.
Oddly enough, my just ST started working as well. Stirred on by my research into secondary hubs, I pulled up the ST app ready to do battle. When I selected the devices that had stopped working the app started to pull down new drivers. Then, the devices started working again, in both ST and Alexa! No re-pairing or device scans required. Not sure what's going on, but for now I'll take what I can get.
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My SmartThings hubs have worked perfectly as secondary z-wave controllers to my QolSys panels since day one. When I switched to Hubitat, it was a huge disappointment that it didn't work. But going back to ST was too painful.
The final nail in the coffin for me with ST is that they ruined their Alexa skill and you could no longer control which devices were exposed. They refused to fix that despite months of promises, and I had enough. This is the main reason I wanted so badly for HE to work as a secondary.
I stopped following the ST groups long ago. Has anything been fixed with the Alexa skill? If so, I might actually think about reconnecting my ST hub again and using that as my z-wave secondary.
Honestly, I don't frequent the ST forums at all, due to their repetitive questions. Also, they pretty much killed the secondary function a while ago. I do know that Samsung continues to maintain the code (for now) and Aeon Labs was handling the hardware. To me, that sounds like a recipe for disaster. Honestly, if Amazon made a Z-wave/ Alexa hub, they would kill off 98% of the competition. Their smart switches work right out of the box with minimal effort. My problem is I really want to keep my alarm panel connected to the house automation and swapping out light switches is a hassle. Plug-ins are easy, but pulling out the hardwired stuff isn't.
No, you still cannot select which devices are exposed to the Alexa skill. However you can just disable them on the Alexa app side so she won't use them or recognize their names for commands.
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Perhaps. But you would never get any support from Amazon. At least with HE, at least you have a shot at getting something fixed or a new feature implemented. The developers might not agree with what you want, but at least you can have a conversation with them. You would never be able to speak with a developer (or even a normal human) for an Amazon product.
Yep, me too for a number of reasons. Secondary z-wave controllers solve this problem nicely. I don't understand why so little importance is placed on this feature.
Umm.... No. They already made a zigbee supporting hub and didn't even put a mark on that market, let alone kill off any competition.
And just to be cheekier... They technically already have a zwave hub, and have for years - ring.
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