Anyone have a C5 they aren't using?

[jasonbalsor]

I would love to get my hands on a C5 to migrate my C4 to before it dies. It needs reboots quite often to retain its snappiness(weekly but maybe that's not too often). I am hearing others are having better luck with C5 and it allows for an easy transfer vs C4 - C7 migration.

I am in Nova Scotia, Canada.

EDIT: I don't need the external stick/radio.

[dman2306]

The migration to a c5 will be exactly the same as a c7. Any reason why you don’t want a c7?

[martyn]

He wants to use his external radio stick(s) on the C5 to save re-pairing.

IMO Hubitat should look at making this possible on the C7, at least for the ZigBee portion. That would give many C4 / C3 users an upgrade path to take advantage of the C7 hardware.

[jasonbalsor]

Yes what @martyn said.

[toby]

Looking for a C5 as well for the same reason

[SmartHomePrimer]

Would you pay C7 price? My Dad has a C5 I bought him. Don’t think he’s ever opened the package.

[marktheknife]

@martyn

IMO Hubitat should look at making this possible on the C7, at least for the ZigBee portion.

They did.

Hubitat vs new Ezlo Hubs

It turns out that it is not possible to backup and restore Zigbee with the Zigbee chip we use. So the service when it comes out will not have this feature. As is the case now, the database contains all of the Zigbee devices, so when restored they are in the restored database also. But they must be manually re-paired. This is not difficult, but it is a manual process. They will reconnect to the database when they pair, so apps are not affected by this process.

But at least re-pairing zigbee devices is generally simpler and doesn’t disrupt apps that were using the device in the same way having to re-pair z-wave devices would.

[martyn]

@marktheknife

They did.

hhmm think you misunderstood .... this is about using the external USB radio(s) from earlier Hubitat C3 / C4 models on the C7. That way you can just move the USB's over and restore a backup.

[marktheknife]

ah. you're asking for an external USB stick to be usable as the C7 hub's zigbee radio?

[martyn]

Yes, you could move the Nortek stick from a C4 to a C5 and it would override the internal radios there (which is why the OP was asking if anybody has a spare C5).

If that would work on the C7 too it would be useful ..... and would likely mean a few more sales of new hubs.

[jasonbalsor]

Probably not but I appreciate the offer

[marktheknife]

I would guess it’s also a technical limitation that prevents a C7 hub from using an external stick via USB OTG cable, like a C5 could.

But that’s just a guess .

[SmartHomePrimer]

So you desperately want a C5, but paying full price for a brand new, never used hub is out of the question.

[pkdaly]

I gave $100USD for a used C5 on eBay about a month ago. Seemed to be the going rate.

[SmartHomePrimer]

@martyn

IMO Hubitat should look at making this possible on the C7, at least for the ZigBee portion. That would give many C4 / C3 users an upgrade path to take advantage of the C7 hardware.

Unless you have literally hundreds of Zigbee devices, this is really such a non issue. You move the database and re-pair each device. Done. All rules are fine and you go on with life. It's a one time deal.

Zigbee radio performance is the same between the stick and the internal. No Zigbee device joined to my earlier C3 and C4 with the Nortek stick is any better or worse on the C7. Complete lateral move where Zigbee is concerned. And as far as Z-Wave, for me, it's better than the old Z-Wave 500 radio. Even my old Aeon v1 HEMs (300 series) are better. Used to drop occasionally from the Nortek, but they don't ever drop now with the C7.

[jasonbalsor]

Never said I was desperate and I'm sorry if I offended you. As I said thank you in my previous post. I'm sure eventually I will spring for a c7 and do the migration just wanted to see if there was a bargain out there to prevent a little work. Just me being lazy(and cheap)

Cheers

[SmartHomePrimer]

Not offended. Don't care either way. Thought my Dad would be interested. He isn't. It's just sitting at his place in Oregon. I have four C-7s and they're great. All my Z-Wave stuff (which isn't much) works great on C-7. My Zigbee stuff works identical to what it did before. No interest in a C-5 for myself either.

[jasonbalsor]

Yea the zigbee stuff I'm not worried about I am heavy in the zigbee side but I have a house full of inovelli zwave plus switches and dimmers that I don't look forward to migrating to c7

[martyn]

@SmartHomePrimer

this is really such a non issue.

I think it's really up to each individual to decide how much of an issue is. It might not be for you or others, but it is for me.

I've got two C4's each with about 70 ZigBee devices on. Neither run any logic, all of that is in Node-Red so the only App on each is Maker API. There's very little load on either hub, based on the runtime statistics they're idle, something like 0.2% in 25 days.

Both suffer from memory exhaustion after a period of time and need rebooting, usually 3 - 4 weeks or so. After about a week on each, the JVM memory space has deteriorated so much that I can't even save a driver in the editor as I get Metaspace errors (admittedly it's a large driver).

Moving from the C4 to a C5 or C7 would be an easy fix for me, due to those running 32-bit JVM and less prone to memory issues (if at all).

My ZigBee networks are great, perform fantastic, all devices configured and working well. I'd rather not have to build them from scratch (which is essentially what factory resetting and repairing does) because:

1. Many devices are in hard to reach places, such as behind wall switches, in the loft, etc
2. Many battery devices (such as Sonoff & Nyce) have really short pairing windows. When reset and paired, all configuration needs to be carried out again. If there's a lot of configuration, some devices go back to sleep too soon and miss the configuration, which means it needs to be repeated. Again and again. These took a lot of time and effort to get configured and setup how I want them.
3. Depending on the driver, during pairing "configure" is usually called, which mostly sets defaults only. To set actual preferences you usually have to "save preferences" on each device. Again, more time to sort out, especially on devices like Sonoff battery sensors where they don't periodically wake up themselves and need to be manually woken up. Can take many attempts to get the timing right.

So ultimately I choose not to manually migrate to a C7, that's my choice because to me, it's an issue doing so as it's too much hassle. So for now I will just live with it.

But, if the C7 could use the external Nortek for ZigBee then I would order two C7 immediately and move across as it would be a super simple migration, just like it would have been on a C5.

[SmartHomePrimer]

@jasonbalsor

full of inovelli zwave plus switches and dimmers

??

Their switches and dimmers work great on C-7 is my understanding from others. Are they old? I have two LZW36 fan/light controllers and I've had no problems with them joining or responding to commands from the hub.