holy cow that was fast. two new c7s arrived today
now, it does sound like migrating devices to these will just plain be a lot of work, but there does seem to be a decent guide on this forum:
since it sounds like zwave bandwidth is the issue and not processing power, it seems like i might as well have each hub responsible for a zone of zwave devices
People here have over a 100 devices on z-wave and things are fine. Some rules of thumb
Pair all devices with no security except for locks and garage door stuff
If you have a zooz 4-in-1 sensor, either leave it on the c5 or get a z-wave stick, pair it as a secondary controller then use that to pair to the c7 without security (otherwise it will bring down your mesh) If you have the 700 series chip, simply click skip when prompted for security. USe @jtp10181 's driver. Do the same for the zen25 double plug and turn off all power reporting for it so it doesn't spam your mesh.
One thing you need to be careful of, is if you have a failed Z-Wave pairing, STOP! Check your settings>>z-wave details page. If a ghost was created (you will see nothing in the routing column), it needs to be removed first. If you don't remove it you will start having problems with your mesh including pairing new devices. After removing the ghost, factory reset the device and attempt to pair again. Rinse and repeat. This is one of the biggest keys to having a healthy mesh.
Before adding any devices, update the platform on the c7, THEN update the z-wave firmware. You can find this button at the top of your z-wave details page. Once updated the button will disappear
My house is only 2100 sq feet and I have it on two hubs, soon(ish) to ad a third for cloud integrations.
When I had a C4, I had to reboot at least every two weeks. Since it migrated to the C7's , the only time I reboot is when I pick up and update, or on the rare occasion that I have to reboot my router (that maybe twice a year).
Hub Mesh or Hub Connect are your goto's for that. I've used both, and find hub mesh a bit easier to use. Hub Connect also works very well and @csteele was great about helping me to get it all set up.
Migration has been much easier than I expected.
I'm using Hub mesh
On the Main hub, I've created a virtual switch and Virtual dimmer
I use settings/Swap App Device to reassign a device, ie Bedroom Lights, to the Virtual Dimmer
Then, I remove Bedroom Lights from the main hub. So far this has ALWAYS ended up being a force remove.
Then, from the new hub I do an exclusion and zwave add.
Add Bedroom Lights
Enable Hub Mesh
Main hub, add Bedroom Lights to the Linked Devices
Main hub, settings/Swap App Device to swap Virtual Dimmer with Bedroom Lights: Slave Hub
Not bad.
Clean the ghosts up. Make sure you update the Z-wave firmware. If you have to exclude and include try doing it without security. If you need new switches or devices buy Zigbee ones instead of Z-wave.
firmware is updated on both hubs. not getting any NEW ghosts on the old hub, which is good news
I think the problem may be that since i’m building out from the 2nd hub, I now have devices that are still connected to the 1st/master that are so far away that they can’t be excluded from it b/c they are out of range.
ultimately, i think i’m going to transfer all my devices over to the 2 new hubs, leave my apps on the 1st/master and then will reset the zwave radio on the 1st/master. Over the years I’ve added and removed SOOOO many devices from that hub that its zwave database is probably swiss cheese.
That is a good idea. Reserve one hub just for Z-wave.
P.S. I am sure you did it but make sure you do the firmware update in the Z-wave section. That is different from the main firmware.
So far, i've only moved about 10 devices to the slave hub and am already seeing marked improvement in reliability. Far fewer failed actions and much less lag when executing commands from the dashboard. Really seems like your recommendations for additional hub(s) were 100% spot on.
Download the Hubitat app
