Upgrade to Z-Net. Unable to restore backup.

[Villamann]

Hei, did you ever find a solution to this? I`m trying to do the same and are experiencing exactly what you described last year,

Just got a note from support confirming this is a bug which is beeing looked into. I solved this by using the "Send network information to another controller" feature, which worked as a charm.

[crab987]

I worked on this last year but never posted.

ZWave.me is the manufacturer of the UZB Z-Wave controller used in the Z-Net EU/AU versions. They provide a command-line backup/restore utility "ZMESerialUpdater". This reads the contents of the controller's internal NVRAM to a binary image file and vice-versa.

Usage is cryptic, so I wrote a couple of scripts to make it easier:

... Rest of the quote deleted for brevity ...

Thank you for sharing this. I had a spare rpi and recently got Z-Wave.me RaZberry board since it was so cheap on Amazon (US$18). Using bits and pieces from posts around the web I updated it to the latest firmware (came with 5.4). Did all required configuration changes in Raspbian and HS3 connected to it without issues. I was able to add few test devices to its network but scared to try direct restore from HS3 UI, but according to your posts that would not work anyways.

Missing link was your perl script that transforms HS backup format to RaZberry binary format suitable for NVRAM restore. As soon as I get time to get back to it I will try restoring Z-Way network to RaZberry and report if it still works with latest firmware.

[crab987]

Following up...
Z-Wave network restore to RaZberry was successful following your instructions, with two caveats:

1. backup.ZWave file created by HS3 was in UTF-8 encoding with BOM/signature and line endings were in Windows (CR+LF) format. ZWave-to-zme.pl was choking on it with error message

   [FONT=courier new]'' invalid at line 1[/FONT]

   Re-saving file in UTF-8 without BOM/signature solved that issue. I also replaced line endings with Unix format (LF), just in case.
2. Command

   [FONT=courier new]./ZMEwriteNVM.sh backup.ZWave.bin /dev/ttyAMA0[/FONT]

   would return access denied, so I had to run it as

   [FONT=courier new]sudo ./ZMEwriteNVM.sh backup.ZWave.bin /dev/ttyAMA0[/FONT]

   .

After rpi reboot HS3 was able to connect to controller and all my nodes from Z-Net were present in RaZberry.

Z-Wave.Me: ======================================================================
Z-Wave.Me: ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Initializing Z-Wave interface Z-Wave.Me (Ethernet Interface) at 192.168.xx.xx, port 4000
Z-Wave.Me: ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Z-Wave.Me: The Z-Wave Command Execution Thread was Started or Restarted.
Z-Wave.Me: Z-Wave Ethernet at IP 192.168.xx.xx, connected to interface ok.
Z-Wave.Me: The Z-Wave API Execution Thread was Started or Restarted.
Z-Wave.Me: Getting node information from controller...
Z-Wave.Me: Controller Manufacturer: Telsey, ID=0x2, Type=0x4
Z-Wave.Me: Controller firmware version: 5.36
Z-Wave.Me: Z-Wave services for the SECURITY COMMAND CLASS were successfully started.
Z-Wave.Me: Z-Wave Serial API version: 6
Z-Wave.Me: Z-Wave interface node ID: 1, Home ID: D0XXXXXX
Z-Wave.Me: Found 37 Z-Wave nodes in interface node ID 1 (Z-Wave.Me)
The interface's security support has been set.
Z-Wave.Me Controller chip type is ZW050x.
Z-Wave.Me Controller is static lib.
Z-Wave.Me There is a SUC/SIS in the network.
Z-Wave.Me is the SIS for the network.
Z-Wave.Me: ......................................................................
Z-Wave.Me: .............................. FINISHED ..............................
Z-Wave.Me: ......................................................................

Now, question about Home ID. Should it be same on both interfaces or should new interface has its own Home ID? At the moment, since this is test only, I've changed Home ID in the backup file from Z-Net's to original RaZberry's (when I connected it first to HS3 just to see if they can talk to each other). Something tells me that, if this was true restore to RaZberry, I'd have to keep Z-Net's Home ID, otherwise devices would not be able to talk to RaZberry.

[zwolfpack]

1. Thank you, I'll update the script to handle non-printable characters.

2. Sounds like the userid you are running as isn't a member of the 'dialout' group. The 'pi' user is a member by default. Running sudo is fine, or you can add the group membership via

sudo usermod --groups dialout $(id -un)

3. You need to keep the same HomeID. All the devices are programmed and are only going to be listening for that HomeID.

[crab987]

1. Please don't wait another year to post updated script here
2. I was running as user pi. Strange. I'll have to check user group membership.
3. That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming it.

After all this exercise it seems like Raspberry Pi + RaZberry daughter board is fine alternative to HomeSeer's Z-Net, and at times it can be substantially cheaper.

[crab987]

1. Please don't wait another year to post updated script here
2. I was running as user pi. Strange. I'll have to check user group membership.
3. That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming it.

After this exercise it seems like Raspberry Pi + RaZberry daughter board is viable alternative.

[zwolfpack]

Please don't wait another year to post updated script here

Done!

After this exercise it seems like Raspberry Pi + RaZberry daughter board is viable alternative.

Good to hear!

[cesarvog]

After also using Zwolfpack's set of scripts to solve a similar issue, I'm more than happy with the results. I was able to restore a Homeseer taken backup, feed it into the conversion script and then upload the resulting file into a zwave.me UZB. I intend to try the same procedure into a RAZberry which I also purchased recently. Probably my next project while still confined due to the coronavirus pandemic.
zwolfpack Thanks for all your work developing the set of scripts!

[zwolfpack]

I was able to restore a Homeseer taken backup, feed it into the conversion script and then upload the resulting file into a zwave.me UZB.

Thanks for the feedback! Good to know it works for the UZB in addition to the Razberry.

[cesarvog]

Thanks for the feedback! Good to know it works for the UZB in addition to the Razberry.

In addition, the same method also worked with the Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5. I tried it today just for the sake of curiosity and was very pleased to see it go through successfully.

Thought you would like to know.

[zwolfpack]

Thanks, good to know.

So the memory maps of the controllers tested so far (Ezzee, Razberry, UZB, Aeotec, HUSBZB-1) are identical, at least for the most important parts (nodeid and node table).

This calls into question HST's assertion that the memory layout varies between vendors. That's their justification as to why restore isn't supported for all controllers.

[ZoRaC]

So, I have an UZB1 (EU) with FW 5.06, which I’ve had for 3 years. Bought a spare UZB1 last year (FW 5.19). Since a backup ain’t worth much without knowing if a restore works, I want to swap the UZB1's (after a restore to the new one).

Is this the correct method?
1. Stop Z-Wave plugin
2. Run the script to backup NVM
3. Create a HomeSeer Z-Wave-backup
4. Run the merging script
5. Disconnect the old UZB1 and connect the new one
6. Run restore to NVM script
7. Start Z-Wave plugin
8. DONE!

Correct?

I'm considering upgrading the old stick to newest firmware after this, any reason I shouldn’t do that? Then I could do a swap back again and also upgrade my spare UZB1, if no one has any good reason for not doing so...?

[zwolfpack]

That should work; however for this case, all you should need is

1. Stop Z-Wave plugin
2. With old UZB installed, run ZMEreadNVM.sh script to backup NVM
3. Switch in new UZB
4. Run ZMEwriteNVM.sh script, using file created in (2) to restore NVM.

[ZoRaC]

Sounds great!
In what cases is the “merge” needed?

[zwolfpack]

In what cases is the “merge” needed?

If you didn't have access to the old controller (it failed for example), but did have the HomeSeer produced backup.