Unless it’s just because I’ve been in IT for 25 years so things like firmware updates are something we do day in day out, especially in recent years with the volume of significant security and performance issues with products. But even at a personal level I update my camera, security system, heck I just firmware updated my Jeep a few months ago… hearing things like a firmware wiping something to factory default is caveman talk to me.
I got into all this HA because the industry claims it has come so far, but the reality I am finding is that this is a pig born in 1976 that has had lipstick put on it.
I should add that if the FW update is interrupted then the device will brick itself.
I did a manufacturer test last year, it was soooo slow uploading the hex file that the update failed and bricked the device.
Needless to say I have politely ignored any further request to test FW upgrades.
[quote=“zedrally, post:23, topic:195065”]I should add that if the FW update is interrupted then the device will brick itself.
I did a manufacturer test last year, it was soooo slow uploading the hex file that the update failed and bricked the device.
Needless to say I have politely ignored any further request to test FW upgrades.[/quote]
Again, this is dark ages stuff in the IT world. Yes, 20 years ago if anything what-so-ever happened during the firmware update then it’s a goner. Nothing you can do, it’s brain dead. Since then, a device will prepare the replacement firmware and THEN switch between the old and new. Plus various other safeguards.
The same old warnings always apply, but it’s not really an issue. Not saying its 100% safe, but that you’ve actually had problems tells me once again we are talking dark ages crap here.
Little wonder Apple steps forward and says “you HA guys are good at HA, but you know sh#t about IT… so we’ll take over that aspect of it with HomeKit”.
I completely appreciate what you are saying. However big talking a plumber makes one sound stupid, big talking an engineer makes one sound stupid, I’m just saying that all this talk here about firmware stuff is ridiculous in the IT world. A Cisco guy alone can easily install 50 firmware updates in the space of a day and not once, not even for a moment, would there be a consideration that it could end up bricked. Some new bug or compatibility with the new firmware, sure, but the firmware update itself going wrong… only if it’s a 20 year old device.
So again I’m horrified - this is like when people used to think using your radio while driving will flatten the car battery. Except in this case a Z-Wave radio really would flatten the car battery…
I’ve been thinking about this, given my Vera stuffed itself immediately and repeatedly when I unboxed it, and I’m in total agreement here. If Vera can’t even manage their own firmwares properly then it is very good the whole Z-Wave OTA thing is a lie.
It’s just frustrating the OTA feature even exists, because it means the firmware update process for Z-Wave devices has been made totally unnecessarily inconvenient, disruptive, and painful. You know, all the things you should never do to a customer.
This is such a funny story…
I recently bought a home center 2 from fibaro at amazon, just to OTA update my always-flickering fibaro 2 dimmer and to send it back.
Fibaro last year shipped thermostats with a broken firmware. I cannot understand why companies do not release the firmware hex files to the open…
Yes.
I am one of those with a fibaro thermostat.
Updates only possible in fibaro controller.
Fibaro said “works in all…”
BUT vera has not integrated it yet (promised for a long time).
For now the thermostat is useless.
Still waiting for firmware from fibaro and vera to integrate.
The ability to do OTA firmware upgrades was a primary reason I chose ALL z-Wave Plus devices when automating my new home. The fact that Vera doesn’t provide a customer interface to do it is more than annoying. I do firmware upgrades on my computer equipment all the time, I can choose WHICH firmware is best for MY particular situation (especially important when a firmware update fixes one thing, while breaking another - the the thing being broken is more important to you than the thing being fixed, DON’T do the firmware upgrade!).
Works well as it allows you to join the z-stick as a secondary controller to your vera so you can do updates without removing the device from the Vera. You can add firmware from other manufactures to do updates as well… if you can get a copy of the firmware from the manufacture. Not sure if Fibaro would be willing to give out the firmware to do it yourself or not.
I will say that the user interface for the z-flash software is a little cryptic, and finicky. There are some helpful faqs on the homeseer support forums to use it.
But it does allow you to do firmware updates in place given the firmware update itself doesn’t change the node ID of the device (for example most of the homeseer firmwares don’t do this, but when they added direct association support to their switch it reset the node id so you had to delete and re add the device… but the firmware update did have a warning in the readme that that would happen.
