Migrating to HS4 from another active home automation network

[ClayMaster]

I am currently using another home automation system (let's call it SystemX), so I want to bring up my z-wave devices in the HS4 system hopefully preserving the NodeID from SystemX. By preserving the NodeID, I should be able to return it to SystemX if there are any issues. Note, the HS4 system is using it's own HomeSeer Z-wave interface that is different from the z-wave controller being used on SystemX.

I am about 80% finished setting up up my HS4 system and ready to start migrating z-wave modules. I would like to use the same z-wave modules from SystemX in the HS4 system. So, when I am ready to move the first z-wave device from SystemX I will disable it first in SystemX, but I don't want to exclude it from SystemX incase I find issues on the HS4 system and want to move it back.

So, if the 1st device is disabled on SystemX so that the SystemX Controller will no longer be attempting communications to the z-wave module, I should be able to include it on the HS4 system. I am assuming that if I include the 1st z-wave module without excluding from the old SystemX that it will retain the same NodeID (currently only one z-wave module was installed on HS4, so there should be no risk of NodeID conflict).

Is this logic correct? Most of the z-wave modules are used for lighting control.

[TC1]

The way Z-wave works is that the controller (the hardware controller and transceiver) owns the relationship with the Z-wave endpoint, like a light dimmer.
The Z-wave node ID numbers are created and stored in the Z-wave controller. The way HS4 and other software home automation platforms work is that they read the information from the controller and then create their own software devices to represent those nodes in the program/user interface.

So... if you were to take a Z-wave USB stick and plug it into another PC, or even the same PC, and run a different software application that could read that stick, you'd see all the nodes even though you just installed that software. I know because I've done this many times. You can switch back and forth between programs because the USB controller owns the relationship between itself and the nodes that were registered with it.

It sounds like you want to do something different, rather than moving the controller between different software applications, you want to move the end devices between two controllers. I don't know what SystemX is, so I will only speak to what HS4 can do...

You could get away with this if HS4 was the original system. You'd shutdown the HS4 system and then do a factory reset on the end device. You could then do a network inclusion on the new controller and software application.

If you decided you wanted to bring the device back to the original controller and HS4 software application, you'd shutdown the new system, factory reset the end device.
You'd then power up HS4 and the old controller attached to it. In the hS4 interface there is a function called "Replace Bad Node", it assumes you want to replace an existing device that went bad with the exact same make/model. You'd trigger that process and put the end device into inclusion mode, the HS4 software will recognize the device and assign it the old node ID it had before. All of your routines and automations that used that device would remain intact and working since the node ID did not change.

Whether SystemX can do this is beyond my knowledge.

[ClayMaster]

I think I understand more. In my old system I have many z-wave devices that were added and I was using a Zooz 700 USB Interface. I also had a second system that used a custom z-wave dongle interface where all the z-wave information was copied from the first to the second system. In that mode I was using the same modules on two home automation systems with two different z-wave interfaces and everything was fine... I had to be careful that only one system was powered on at any one time and I could switch back and forth while I was getting things migrated... and I had to be careful that any device exclusions and inclusions had to replicated on the other system to keep the NodeIDs aligned to the z-wave interfaces.

In my current work with HS4, the z-wave modules were not first installed on the HS4.

So, while I am in this migration state of getting everything moved to HS4, I was thinking if there was any way to use the z-wave modules during the migration and move back if needed, but I may just have to commit to reinstalling all devices on the HS4. The one thing I could do/try is to include the devices on the HS4 in the same sequence as what I did on the other system, doing my best to keep the NodeID the same on HS4 as it was on the old system... as it might open the possibility to "Replace Bad Node" on the old system and move it back if it becomes necessary.

Thanks for the inputs. It has helped me clear some thoughts as to how to proceed... or just commit.

[TC1]

I'm not sure why you're hung up on keeping the Node IDs the same between two different home automation platforms... it gets you nothing.

Once again, the Z-wave Node ID numbers are assigned and created by the individual hardware controllers. The nodes themselves aren't aware of the numbers assigned to them.

Now... if you were willing to take that Zooz 700 USB stick and move it from your old system to a new HS4 installation, you would not have to do any exclusions or inclusions. HS4 will read the node information in the USB controller and build its own device database and create matching software representations. If you don't like the way HS4 is working out, you could then plug the USB stick back into your old system and everything would be back to just the way it was.