After a power outage, I began troubleshooting a fan control switch - ended up in the device list for my Hubitat C-8. Couldn't help but notice the DNI column, and how most of my devices had numerical labels roughly corresponding to the order in which they were added - but some had random alphanumerics. Not realizing what I was doing, I changed all the alphanumerics so I had a nice sequence of DNIs - and now my Hubitat can't communicate with those devices. I have no idea what the previous DNIs were for any of the devices - how to proceed now to get all the devices back in communication with my Hubitat? Thanks! I understand that I shouldn't have altered the DNIs...but it would have been nice if that was something I could do without breaking my network...
I've never heard of anyone doing that before. If you have a Hubprotect subscription with cloud backup, I think you could just restore a backup. I don't know if a local backup can fix this, but it might be worth a shot.
I can confirm that a local restore returns DNI to whatever is in the backup. I just tried it on a C-7, after altering a DNI, I restored from last night's 2am backup and when the reboot completed, the DNI was restored.
For Z-Wave devices, it's not possible to edit without breaking something. It needs to be what it was. That's why it warns you. The DNI for Z-Wave devices is used to match the device on your hub to the device in the radio database. Other protocols may make their own specific use of this field.
But if these were all Z-Wave devices and you don't have a backup or want to go that far back for some reason, this also means you can match the device with the corresponding device in your Z-Wave Details table and set the DNI to that (the hex ID, not decimal). But a backup is probably easier...
I have not either. There is a warning not to do it, and perhaps that's enough to stop most people.
It is however, something I DO suggest during Manual Migration from hub to hub. Hubitat's migration path from the C-5 and C-7 to a C-8 is superior. I couldn't take advantage because my C-5's were functioning like a C-4 and I couldn't migrate. Changing DNI to prevent overlaps when re-Joining ZWave devices is pretty much the only way I'd tackle that.
Pretty sure this is a first. The unfortunate part for me is I kind of get it...it does look nicer to have all the numbers sequentially perfect. Oh, wait...I need to get back on my meds.
@ryan.gero - glad you got a happy ending out of this!
Thanks all, the local backup worked. Guess that’s what I get for trying to streamline labeling at 3 am after the power was just restored following some nasty storms. In the end I really don’t care how the z-wave device network nodes are labeled as long as the mesh works, but I was curious how many smart devices I actually had. The numbering was going 1, 2, skip a few, bunch of hex numbers, back to Arabic numbers, and so on. Being more of a hobbyist that dabbles in the smart home world than an actual programmer, staying organized is often the only way I’m able to make complicated tasks come together…the hexadecimal numbers just weren’t an intuitive way for me to keep tabs of the devices on my network. I’ll be okay…
Settings > Z-wave details shows both the hex and decimal notations of the node IDs
You can also use the label for the friendly name, then the "name" field for other info. I like to put the device model there but you could put anything there you want.
4 hours in...and he's down for the count. don't feel bad I've done much much worse. It's part of the learning curve. There really should be a college course on home automation, cuz it ain't simple. You came to the right place for help.
BTW- welcome to the community, it's a fantastic place.
Most of what I have learned that is useful has been recovering from things I should not have done. Somehow, that permanently imprints and usually helps me troubleshoot the errors of others. (This is why sometimes I ask what seems like REALLY dumb questions to rule things out)
The DNI for Z-Wave devices is used to match the device on your hub to the device in the radio database. Other protocols may make their own specific use of this field.
