One of the things I discovered the hard way was that Z-Net devices require regular preventative maintenance or else they will catastrophically fail, leaving your system out of service.
SD Cards have a limited life, and this is shorter than you probably think. Our experience is that the SD Card in a Z-Net device will fail in the 3~4 year timeframe. We have six Z-Net devices and two of them failed before we realized it is because of a systemic design failure.
Normally, embedded systems running on a Raspberry Pi need to take steps to minimize unnecessary writing and swapping to the SD card, in order to prevent premature failure. However, it appears that these steps have not been taken in the design of the Z-Net. (Google "raspberry pi minimize writing to sd card to prevent wear" for more information on this.) Consequently, the SD card is constantly being written to and it will wear out. Since the particular brand/model that HomeSeer uses (Transcend Silver) is not an especially robust SD it will fail sooner than if an endurance SD had been used...but those cost about $3 additional.
Make an image of your working SD card before it fails. It will take about an hour to do. (Google "how to make an image of an SD card") Then, keep the image for when the day arrives.
If you are the sort that doesn't want the system to go down at an inconvenient time (such as in a snowstorm when you are on a vacation far away and you need your home to remain heated) you should consider a routine maintenance program. At a suitable interval (I would suggest about 3 years or less) simply replace the SD card.
Whether you wait for the Z-net to actually fail or you are doing a preemptive swap, it is very easy:
Be prepared, plan ahead, image your Z-Net device before you have to buy a new one. (The Z-Net SD image is not available for download, by the way.)
SD Cards have a limited life, and this is shorter than you probably think. Our experience is that the SD Card in a Z-Net device will fail in the 3~4 year timeframe. We have six Z-Net devices and two of them failed before we realized it is because of a systemic design failure.
Normally, embedded systems running on a Raspberry Pi need to take steps to minimize unnecessary writing and swapping to the SD card, in order to prevent premature failure. However, it appears that these steps have not been taken in the design of the Z-Net. (Google "raspberry pi minimize writing to sd card to prevent wear" for more information on this.) Consequently, the SD card is constantly being written to and it will wear out. Since the particular brand/model that HomeSeer uses (Transcend Silver) is not an especially robust SD it will fail sooner than if an endurance SD had been used...but those cost about $3 additional.
Make an image of your working SD card before it fails. It will take about an hour to do. (Google "how to make an image of an SD card") Then, keep the image for when the day arrives.
If you are the sort that doesn't want the system to go down at an inconvenient time (such as in a snowstorm when you are on a vacation far away and you need your home to remain heated) you should consider a routine maintenance program. At a suitable interval (I would suggest about 3 years or less) simply replace the SD card.
Whether you wait for the Z-net to actually fail or you are doing a preemptive swap, it is very easy:
- Using the image you made when the card was still working, copy the image to the new SD card.
- If your Z-Net is still working, go into HomeSeer and to Device Configuration and for the interface, choose the option to back it up.
- Power down the Z-Net and open the case. Swap the SD card.
- Power the Z-Net back up and everything should be working again perfectly. Unless you are using static IP addressing on the Z-Net device itself it will just work. (And, if you are using Static IP addressing, if you make your image after setting the Static IP then it will also be as simple as swapping the SD.
- It appears that the Z-Wave configuration information is all stored in the Z-Wave daughter-board, which is super convenient. So swapping the SD card just works.
Be prepared, plan ahead, image your Z-Net device before you have to buy a new one. (The Z-Net SD image is not available for download, by the way.)
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