Well, I have an original Vera (with external USB dongle) at my vacation cabin which has finally died and has become virtually unresponsive. I have a fairly small number of older z-wave devices which I would like to try to port over to the HE. The first challenge is getting these z-wave devices excluded. Since the Vera is not usable, can I use the HE to perform the z-wave exclusion before I discover any new devices? Sort of in a catch-22 here. Driving up to the cabin this weekend to try and get the HE running and working with these z-wave devices. I will be replacing the Wayne-Dalton z-wave thermostat with an Ecobee4. Will also probably replace a few of the Intermatic z-wave toggle light switches with Zooz. Just need to know if I can do the exclusion using the HE before having any devices added. Thanks!
Yes you can use the Hubitat or any other z-wave hub to exclude the devices. Just put it in exclude mode an press the button (or whatever you have to do on the device) and you will get an unknown device excluded message.
Perfect. That is what I was hoping. Thank you!
Just keep in mind you may need to have the hubitat hub very close to the devices for the exclusion to work. Ironically that is one of the uses I have for Vera is to exclude the hubitat devices when the hub isn't close enough to them.
Really good point. I have been reading how the HE does not have a long z-wave range by itself. I have another (newer) Vera in a neighboring cabin, but I am loathe to use it to exclude things as everything is working there and I don't want to introduce this exclusion variable that may mess up how well it is functioning now.
So I see you're "driving up to the cabin", I'll imagine it's not close by, so reliability is important. I would suggest you create a nightly reboot rule, which will help prevent slowdowns, lockups, etc.
Also if you're not going to be there overnight to validate the rule is working , I'd say set the rule to fire for 15 mins from now, and observe it does its job properly.
You'll thank me later when you don't have to drive up to the cabin to "unstick" the dang thing.
And the ecobee is a good choice, you have wifi as a backup in case the hub chokes-RARE but you never know.
Replace my IP address with yours, of course-don't want you rebooting my hub:smiley:
Wow, thank you for that rule - really helpful. As a Vera user, I've tried various techniques to re-boot it to keep it running smoothly (or to get it back) - X-10 relay outlet with an X-10 phone responder unit (9 years ago), a digital timer plug set to turn off and then on every 24 hours. The challenge is the power at the cabin is not super reliable especially in the winter and a big snowstorm blows thru. I was going to use a wi-fi plug as a failsafe, but this rule is even better!
You certainly could do both both, setup the reboot rule, and then just in case the reboot rule doesn't work nor does the http://192.168.0.92:8081/(reboot portal when hub locked-sometimes you need to re-login, even tho it looks logged in)-assuming you have an open port to the cabin or vpn or DDNS, something to get you on the cabin vlan, you could toggle the wifi plug on the hub.
Not the best idea to crash out of the hub, but beats having to drive up there.
This is an old thread, but how did you use the Vera to exclude an arbitrary device? I have a device that is acting like it is paired but isn't and trying to reset it. (Considering migrating to Hubitat)
EVERY ZWave controller can Exclude ANY ZWave device. That's just part of the spec for ZWave.
Imagine I sold you one of my spare Z-devices... you'd get it still joined to MY mesh. No good, right, so every Exclude function on any ZWave controller will cause that device to give up the mesh and go back to 'ready to pair'.
My old Staples Connect could be used, for example. (If I could remember which box the power cord is in.) Better yet, an Aeon Z-Stick is an amazing little tool. It has a battery so it's portable, you press the big button and it glows blue and will include.. but that's not the fun part... keep holding the button and it starts blinking amber.. Exclude mode. Just get your ZWave device into it's manufacturer specific Exclude mode (3 clicks up, 9 clicks in 2 seconds, etc.) and the Z-Stick will blink blue, then go back to Amber, ready to Exclude the next one.
It's really great for migration because you can Exclude every device in a room in just a minute or two.
So.. just put your Vera, Staples Connect, Wink, SmartThings or Home Assistant into Exclude mode and do the manufacturer's required 'dance'. Even Hubitat will do it. 
This was super helpful, thanks. I did not know the Vera had that capability. It's implemented via buttons on the controller and I was here expecting a software interface. I managed to exclude and then include my device. Now, it still blows away the entire z wave network when I do, which is among the reasons I'm considering migrating 
Hi,
I read all the post regarding migration from Vera to HE and I'm happy to hear that it seems to be fairly easy. I have been using Vera since 2008 and went through all Vera models. It has been working quite OK for me, Vera has a big community with lots of inventive people and many solutions. I would like to change to Hubitat because of the EOF for Vera products, also because it lacks support for many new devices and it feels a bit old. Atm I am using HA-Bridge as well for some of the Vera devices and Scenes in order for them to appear as Philips Hue devices so I can control them with Alexa. The native Alexa integration for Vera has not been that great. I am also using 2 Harmony hubs in order to control the home theather.
Would you recommend using Hubitat as a slave Z-Wave controller during the migration or am I just asking for trouble? I have a few Z-Wave devices, maybe 30 and a few Zigbee lamps.
Maybe it's just easier to exclude and include again. What would you recommend?
/Mike
