My new HE hub will be delivered, shortly. I am migrating my HA system from a Vera Lite running Version 6 software. I am using some PLEG routines.
I have decided to take this migration slowly, and will run both the Vera hub and the HE hub until everything is moved to the HE hub. The part of this migration that I am most dreading, and I do mean dreading, is removing the devices from the Vera hub so that I can include them in the HE hub. Almost all of my Z-wave devices are hidden in walls, etc.
Does anyone with Vera experience have any suggestions, ideas, or warnings, about my migration?
I've had pretty bad luck doing slow migrations, for two main reasons:
Every device you remove from the original mesh weakens it, and eventually you may have so few left on it that it doesn't function right at all any more
You should always build a new mesh network from the hub outward. Unfortunately to do that in a slow transition means that you also have to deconstruct the original mesh hub outwards, which greatly destabilizes that mesh - furthering the likelihood that the original mesh will collapse/not work right.
Because of that I would usually just end up with two shitty / poorly functioning meshes at some point in the transition. Thus I think it is better to do it en masse.
100% with @JasonJoel‘s suggestion. When I transitioned to Hubitat, I moved all 80-odd zwave devices on a single day. For the powered devices, I paired them beginning with those closest to the Hubitat.
I excluded my devices using a Remotec hand held controller.
Yup. Until I throw you physically out - which I would. lol
But yes, if you did the pairing sequence on a zwave device, and had a handheld controller put in exclusion mode, you could unpair any zwave device on any zwave network.
I have never moved a Z-wave device so please forgive me...
Even if I can easily exclude devices using a portable controller, they still need to be included in the new HE controller. Do most Z-waves devices immediately go from Exclude to Include mode?
That is, would I exclude a device using a portable controller, and then immediately have the HE hub try to find and Include them?
It is device dependent, but some do. On others you have to re-initiate the pairing sequence through whatever means it uses (have to look at the specific device's manual).
When I'm migrating en masse I don't even bother excluding from the old hub. I just factory reset the device, then pair it to the new hub.
If I wanted to use both hubs for an extended period, though, then I would exclude - factory reset - include. I like to do a factory reset, just because. It isn't usually explicitly necessary.
Actually, my reasoning for taking it slow and keeping both HA hubs running was the time I assume it will take to Exclude and Include all of my devices on the new HE hub. If I had all of one model of device, it would be easier. But since I have many models of devices, and some of the devices are buried being other devices, this will not be fun.
Not a bad strategy. Sometimes it works (although rarely in my experience), it depends on a lot of factors though (area your mesh needs to cover, how many devices, etc).
You could try it your way 1st. If it gets to the point that the vera network dies or becomes unreliable, THEN shut it down.
I can't emphasize enough, though, that on the new mesh you should make every effort to build it close to hub 1st, then moving away from the hub. It can work without doing that, but you will likely have to do a lot more mesh repairs than you may want to do.
Just to jump in here really quick I too agree with JasonJoel, I moved from Smartthings to HE and I tried to take it slow and it really didn’t go well for me.
I have 3 HE hubs to divide the load around I had most of my devices on a C-4 I purchased a C-5 and C-7 I moved must devices to the C-7 this time I did The move in a day all at once and everything went really smooth unlike my move from Smartthings so I’m in the move it all at once camp.
One thing you could do if you had a mix of Z-Wave and Zigbee is migrate one set of devices over first. I am doing this with my C-7 migration. Of course I am also thinking about putting the Zigbee stuff on a C-5 but will make that decision once all ZW have been moved over.
