I did the C5/C7 upgrade about a year ago. I did it by importing a fresh backup from the C5, which brought over all the rules/apps, devices, app code, device code and so on. I did that method because I didn't want to bring my Z-wave issues to a new hub. That and I guess I am cheap, and a glutton for punishment!
At that time, the Swap Device app wasn't out, so I had to go through all my rules and manually change out the old Z-wave device for the newly paired one, but you won't have to deal with that except for Child/Parent devices which cannot use the Swap Device. Zigbee was not an issue, I just had to go around and put them into pairing mode to fix those, so it was relatively quick and painless after I found the pairing instructions for all these devices.
I think if I were you, and you subscribe to the Protect service, I would try using that. Worst case you lose a bit of time and have to wipe the new hub and do the other method. Best case, it all works. I don't know if I would subscribe simply to do this import, but it is a good side benefit if you already do subscribe.
Maybe someone else who did do the cloud migration via the cloud backup can chime in here @aaiyar?
thanks - very helpful. I subscribed just to give me this option. Figures it was a good bargain anyways for the added peace of mind. I am leaning toward manually moving my devices just to start fresh.
When this starts happening to me, I first check for ghost nodes (it is getting close to Halloween! :-))
If there are no ghost nodes, then most likely you have a device in your mesh that is starting to fail. This has been my experience. Now, the tricky part is finding out which one. What USUALLY works for me (and I stress usually):
Go into the device screen for each z-wave device, and spam the on/off button (I have mine on dashboards, so this is easy for me)
If I have a device that is showing considerable lag and/or unpredictability then my conclusion is that the device is either bad or has bad routing information
I go into the z-wave settings, and do a single node mesh repair on only this device
If the repair fails multiple times, then I conclude the device is bad
If the device is "bad" I just replace it rather than trying the whole factory reset, etc. on it
I do this from a tablet, so I can stand next to the device and hear the audible "click" when I active (while also watching the Z-Wave logs to see how many retries are happening.)
Giving that I upgrade the production hub every 4-5 years, I usually start fresh to make sure I build an even stronger mesh than before. Over the span of 4-5 years, I add devices, and often the backbone repeaters change over time. Rebuilding the mesh from scratch ensures most optimal placement of the main repeaters. Once I finish building the mesh only then I start saving cloud backups in case the unexpected happens and need a replacement.
Just in case, you may want to update them as there were some fixes in the firmware for power reporting issues. I think it was not actually disabling and also flooding the network with reports.
Here's the change log for the dimmer. You can see the notes on the 1.41 version.
I pay a lot of attention to my devices firmware. Especially the devices I have a lot of. I've found issues with both Inovelli and Zooz devices that were fixed with a firmware update and were affecting my mesh network.
My zwave stick arrived today and I finally have the sniffer app working - but the app has really complex options and screens so I haven’t yet figure out how to inspect for ghost nodes.
[EDIT] answered my own question by searching for zniffer on this forum and found an amazing thread with step by step directions here:
And on Inovelli I tried updating one and bricked it so I’m a little gun shy to try the others. Maybe later after my ghost hunt.
And finally, my new C7 hub arrived today and based on the advice here I will definitely build out my mesh manually. That will take time and I plan to do it gradually so finding the ghosts is still important. I don’t think the method of checking laggy devices will help since pretty much all of them are misbehaving from time to time.
I have most of it figured out, but I can't make a zniffer because the sniffer_ZW050x_USBVCP.hex file required to flash the zwave stick is nowhere to be found. Does anyone have this file that they can share?
[EDIT] Never mind - I found one on the Silab site, but still a little nervous about it
I will say in my fooling around with a test install of Home Assistant and a UZB-7 - I've seen very similar issues with device pairing behaviors, delay, mesh weirdness etc.. It's given me a sense of perspective on the problems related to the radio chipset firmware vs hub software. Seems like a lot of issues are in fact due to radio chipset quirkiness.
You have to compare the (decimal) IDs on Z-Wave details page with this list. Once you find one that's on the PCS list and not on the Z-Wave details page then click on "Is Failed". If the device in the list turns "red" you can then do a "Remove Failed" and it should get deleted.
I'm new to this forum (recently started getting serious about HE), but your mention of GE replacing bad devices caught my eye. At the risk of hijacking the thread, how did you go about replacing them? I have, I think, three that all failed the same time a few weeks back, but I haven't gotten around to replacing them yet. As you mentioned, they are steady blue, and click.
@hparsons Welcome to the community! Here is a recent thread that goes over some of the GE/Jasco issues... There are some links and suggestions but what @oldcomputerwiz said is correct. Just call them and explain what is happening... You will need to know if its in the date range before you do... This thread will help with that info...
@kewashi Once you get the C7, you will be able to see what nodes don't have any info in the z-wave detail page. That will identify ghosts very quickly... Like @erktrek said, with the C5, you'll have to compare between the two platforms... Also, don't delete the virtual nodes in PC Controller... They will show in PC Controller but not in the Hubitat z-wave details page... I can't remember if those are only present when you use the C7 or not... They are definitely there with the C7 but I don't remember if they were there with the C5...
Thanks - just did the compare. My table in the pc controller didn't show the virtual nodes so no problem there. Also, every node on the pc controller list was also in my C5 table so I don't have any ghosts. That's good. I think my problem was I had installed 3 aqara sensors that were hogging traffic. I removed them yesterday and things seem better. I'm still going to migrate over to the C7 over time.
Thought I'd share a simple tip that I used. I copied the details table and pasted it into Excel and sorted on the Node column to make the comparison easy and quick
Just one more update about my journey to close things out completely. I got my C7 installed and moved over about 30 of my 78 zwave devices to it. I picked those downstairs close to the new hub, while the old hub is upstairs. I left all the apps that talk to cloud stuff on the original C5 hub, and activated hub mesh to pull states over there. I am loving the newfound speed and robustness of the C7 and my C5 has restored to a tolerable level of performance as well. No further help needed, just a close out note and a word or appreciation to all those who chimed in on this thread to assist. This is such a great community.
