Hi everyone,
I picked up a Vera Lite off eBay about 6 months ago and have added a handful (about 10 now) of z wave devices since then. Essentially, I’ve just been getting around the learning curve now, so that when I move into my new home in a month, the transition will be faster.
I think that I was wise to do that, I know so much more now than I did back then. However, I’m stumped on one question - what do I do when I get into the new home to update the z wave routes? It seems that this is precisely what the z wave “repair” option is for, but everything I’ve read about this option is that it does way more harm than good.
If that’s the way I need to go, can anyone tell me what the best way is to go about doing it so that I minimize the blast radius? Is there something else I should look at doing?
If you are moving house then everything had to be installed again anyway so don’t even try. If you ensure that all devices are excluded before you remove them you can just install and include everything fresh. Nothing left waiting to trip you up.
Ouch, that’s the answer I wasn’t hoping to hear. Thanks for confirming 
Running a heal may or may not work, but honestly your best bet is to just start fresh. All the devices will be in different places and 10 devices really is not much.
Yeah, it just pains me when software advertises a feature that can help me save time, and it flat out doesn’t work.
Yeah, it just pains me when software advertises a feature that can help me save time, and it flat out doesn’t work.[/quote]
Where does the software advertise the moving special?
A heal or network repair is made to fix communication issues with a device. Its not going to be so great at musical chairs with several z-wave devices. Basically you will not even have 1 device in the same location as before.
Vera is blind and moving everything around in a new location… Yeah its gonna be fun to watch, but not be the one walking around with the blindfold on.
Well, they mentioned devices, plural, here: http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Heal_Network
Also, from the GetVera.com homepage
With Vera, you own your system. If you decide to move, it can easily move with you. We?re great for renters, homeowners, and perfect for second homes and vacation properties too.
I guess it depends on interpretation.
I mean, I get it, it’s Z Wave moreso than Vera, but I couldn’t find a single piece of documentation that answered the question of “what to do when you move”.
It will probley work just fine as long as the house isn’t to big and devices aren’t far from reach. But for me I would like a fresh start at the new house. You have had time to play with it. Probley install and remove plugins. A fresh wipe would be good.
Also 10 devices probley takes my 15min to add if that. It’s going to take alot longer to hardwire them in. If they are battery devices then you may have more of a problem with wake up and such.
Thanks for the insight, it helped a lot. I’ll wipe and restart.
Yeah, it just pains me when software advertises a feature that can help me save time, and it flat out doesn’t work.[/quote]This is rubbish and I don’t like when people without a clue make these blanket assertions. You haven’t even tried it yet, but rather base your misguided opinion on a few forum posts.
One should not conflate problem reports on a site specifically for resolving problems as an across the board situation. The majority of people with working systems don’t come to these boards to report that their nightly heal is working great. (Allow me to be the first. My nightly heals work great!)
Vera’s automatic heal process runs nightly and works for the vast majority of installations. It can fail to repair issues in certain circumstances and in those problematic environments, its scheduled nightly run can upset previously working routes.
Moving a network to a new location will, in most cases, mostly work by installing the devices and letting the network run and heal automatically over a couple of nights. One can speed up the process by manually running the Repair network option.
However, @integlikewhoa is correct about battery operated devices. Since they are sleeping they may take a very long time(days) to heal or they may fail to heal at all. The relocation of battery operated devices is definitely going to have less issues by excluding them and including them again.
The important detail is that most people are not familiar enough with how Z-Wave and Vera works to identify and resolve most issues on thier own. They make incorrect assumptions and get frustrated, then making claims that “it just doesnlt work”. This can be avoided with a fresh start.
If you want ot move your network then:
- Install in new locations.
- Run repair network 2 or 3 times.
- If problems abound, exclude and include most/all devices.
- If its only battery operated devices that don’t work immediately, exclude and include them.
You know what, maybe I wasn’t clear enough on my cluelessness in my OP, thanks for the attack to really point that out. Since you’ve shared what you don’t like, I’ll share what I don’t like. Experts in a community chastising those looking to gain knowledge. I’m a veteran of the OSS community, and it happens all the time. I’m not sure what made you resort to calling me clueless, but hopefully next time you can share your expertise without resorting to the condescending tone.
The problem here is lack of documentation. When all I have to go on is the forums, and there’s 20 posts of heal not working/breaking everything for every 1 post that says it works, what exactly am I supposed to come away thinking?
You mention I haven’t tried it yet. Why should I risk blowing up my entire installation without first consulting the forums? Isn’t that what they’re here for?
Your post describing the heal operation and its limitations is the far above and beyond anything else I was able to find on the wiki or in these forums. Thanks for the step-by-step, it’s exactly what I was looking for. I also thank you for taking the time to share the information - you didn’t have to do it, and I appreciate it. You saved me time and frustration.
I will state it does work… Simple. Honest. No need for rebuttals either.
I moved two years ago for a smaller to a larger house and took the simpler (not really quicker to restore full operational) option, or so it seemed at the time but I only have few battery devices.
Immediately after the reinstall was completed, ran the repair which took a few hours and had dead zones at the end.
Second repair was overnight which still had one area at the furtherest point that needed an injection on another device to fully resolve the second hop being reliable… Too far a stretch to be relatable and this was with an external matched antenna.
The battery devices I forced a reconfigure and woke them manually but this could have been left to repair over night too. Just they were used as triggers for night activity and changes in the position really did leave it to exclude/include as a preferred option given the choice again.
As per the above post, as some or most do not need to know or understand z-wave and Vera direct interaction🎻it leads to misunderstanding, frustrations and incorrect assumption when things do not first time… They should of course, that it not true. They need to resolve a number of specific variable and neighbours to determine what, where and how routing is best achieved and hence the multiple repairs maybe required to fully resolve the established mesh layout.
The option is the owners to take:
option 1. uplift and repair knowing there is a latent to fully repair.
Option 2. As above but exclude/include battery powered devices for quicker resolution. The overnight heals are still extremely import to know that the routes are fully resolved.
Option 3. Start a fresh.
They say in war “man greatest enemy is impatience and boredom”. If your fighting with your Vera, have some patience or otherwise expect problems.