I have paired my Hubitat to my IQ2 as a secondary controller and I am having a few issues. The Z-Wave documentation says that after 2.2.5 the hub cannot be utilized as a secondary controller for the purpose of migrating devices from a primary controller to HE. Does this mean that is cannot be used as a secondary controller period or that the the devices can not to migrate to the HE from the primary and the HE transitioned to become the primary?
Let me start by saying I know that it would be easier to have the HE as the primary but an IQ2 cannot be a secondary and I still want to be able to control things through my alarm and alarm.com app. If anyone has suggestions how to connect everything to the HE but still be able to control it from the IQ2 and alarm.com, I am all ears.
The issues I am having are some additional "Ghost" devices that were transferred over. The numbers for all my lights that I have gotten to work match the ones on my IQ2. (009 corresponds to the laundry room light on both the HE and the IQ2) The "ghost" devices do not have a corresponding device on the IQ2. (There is no 003, 004, 005 on the IQ2 but it shows up on HE) Is there a way to get rid of these?
I also have a Qolsys PD-100 plugin (008) that I cannot get to function. It has the capability to dim and turn on/off but there is not a type that corresponds to that device. Any suggestions or is there a capability to build my own type? Edit: Got this to function correctly as I have the wrong device type.
The last device issue is my Kwikset 888 Z-Wave door lock (006). Again, there is no type that corresponds to the Kwikset 888. Any suggestions on what type I may be able to use or is there an ability to build a type that would work?
My final issue is that when I am on the app under Lights/Switches all my lights/categories show up 3 separate times. (Last pic) How can I fix this?
In order to pass SiLab's ZWave Certification for the 700 series chip, Hubitat had to pass certain tests of which a tiny few are Secondary Controller related. Hubitat passed the tests. That's it.
Does passing the test(s) give it all the features to do what anyone might dream up.. no, probably not.
We all certainly know that "Shift" (the zwave command to transfer primary) is not exposed. Other devices and certainly the PC Controller tool from SiLabs does expose the command. Does it work?
So far I have gotten 3 Zooz light switches, 2 Eaton light switches and my Honeywell thermostat to integrate. I am still working on the outlet plug and the door lock.
I will also be adding another light switch soon so I will see if it automatically shows up on HE or not. I think I am going to attempt to add the wall plug through the HE and see what happens.
Secondary, by spec, never gets an update from the primary.
Let's imagine you're going to add a new device. If you perform the Include using the Primary, the secondary does not get informed. There's a command that the secondary CAN invoke to get a completely new dump of the primary's DB, but it has to be sent BY the secondary.
Let's imagine you're going to add a new device. If you perform the Include using the Secondary, the secondary queries the Primary to get the next available Node address and completes the Include, telling the primary. Thus both have the new device in their respective DB. However, during a join, the device is given ONE node to inform regarding unsolicited messages. (Status we'd generically call them.) The node number is the controller that did the Join. The Secondary in this example. Thus the Primary NEVER hears that status changed on the device. The Secondary does, but nothing in the spec requires that the secondary parrot the status.
In 2017 and 2018 I had 4 ZWave controllers interconnected (1 Primary, 3 secondaries), so I have a great deal of experience at what I describe. By carefully choosing/matching a new device to the Controller I wanted to use, I was able to build a functional Home Automation system. I even added my new shiny Hubitat C-3 to the array for less than a week. Now I have 4 Hubitat Hubs interconnected using HubConnect. (Others in this situation use Hub Mesh.)
Today I have 3 independent ZWave meshes and it works better, all because the ZWave secondary concept sucks.
HubConnect and the Built-in alternative, Hub Mesh, have no direct relationship to ZWave. Instead, they use LAN connections to 'mirror' events between Hubs. ZWave, Zigbee, WiFi, anything that is a device to Hubitat generates Event Messages. Therefore in answer to your ZWave question, no, these tools offer no direct help. It's the concept of abstracting what a device does into Events and then using a LAN connection to share them, that caused me to mention it. No longer do I attempt to share via ZWave Secondaries because technology has moved and there's a better way.
I don't really know what an IQ2 is other than what Google revealed and I can't say, as a result, if the concept will help you. My goal in my response was to detail how restrictive the path you're pursuing is.
Hubitat is able to connect to other hubs. HubConnect included the components to bring SmartThings in. (Smartthings is shutting Groovy and thus HubConnect isn't viable for that anymore, when it happens.) A solution was created recently that does fill the gap, but that's off topic. Many people use Home Assistant to augment their Hubitat and it to has a similar mechanism to exchange Events. In other words, programmers have found a way to interconnect dissimilar Hubs. Perhaps there's a Node-Red solution. Google tells me that people are trying this path, but I didn't read enough to a form a conclusion.
I think you'll be much happier in the long run by just moving your gear over to Hubitat and using the local integration for pulling alarm sensor data into Hubitat. Hubitat has way more capabilities from an automation front than alarmdotcom.
As an update for anyone trying to get some functionality in the future, I was able to all my lights, the wall plug and the thermostat to pair and function correctly. The key was to match the device numbers to the IQ2 and then make sure it was set up as the correct device type.
On a few of the questions brought up so far:
Status updates: So far, all of my lights status updates get sent to the IQ2 and Alarm.com without issue despite what device was used to change the status. The HE does not reliably receive status updates when the status is changed however a simple “status” command seems to accurately update the status.
Adding devices after making the HE a secondary: Anything added to the IQ2, after the HE was added as secondary, does not get added to the HE. This can be fixed by adding the device to HE. The device number will match and similarly to the initial process you will just need to change it to the correct device type. Devices added to the HE will not (and from what I can see never) be added to the IQ2, however a device number will be assigned to not interfere (at least in my limited tests) with device numbers assigned by the IQ2.
The only issue I am still having is getting the Kwikset 888 lock to function, getting rid of the "ghost" devices brought over from the IQ2 and the duplicate rooms in the app display.
I am going to attempt to also do this so see the functionality it provides. The goal is to have a functioning smart home system regardless of having service to my alarm panel while still having the much easier interface provided by the IQ2.
I was able to successfully connect the IQ2 as a secondary and get all the Z-wave devices to connect and function with the exception of the Kwikset doorlock. As @FriedCheese2006 was saying, I was able to get much more functionality out of using the local integration to the IQ2 and transferring all the Z-wave devices to the hub.
