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Migrating from Fibaro Home Center 2 to Homey

novaflashnovaflash Member
in Questions & Help

I am trying to mentally prepare for the arrival of the Homey, and what procedure I should follow to migrate my existing Z-wave equipment, of which I have a lot, to Homey. I know it is possible with Z-wave to have multiple controllers. I am hoping that I can join the Homey to the Z-wave network as a secondary controller, have it 'learn' all the equipment that is already present in my existing Z-wave network, and then make the Homey the main controller and demote the Home Center 2 to a secondary controller, and then get rid of the HC2 entirely.

The reason I want to do this is because otherwise I am afraid I will have to unassociate every single Z-wave device manually, meaning I have to open up wall sockets and devices to get at the Z-wave micromodules I've installed to press the little buttons on them to confirm removal, and then manually associate them with Homey again, pressing those same buttons again to associate the devices with the new Z-wave network. I'd really love to avoid doing that.

Has anything like this been tested yet or is there any information available on what the procedure would be? I am talking about roughly 80 devices all around the house.

Any hints or tips you could give me would be much appreciated.

Comments

  • ronald74ronald74

    Hi Novaflash,

    I want to upgrade from X10 to Z-wave and the Homey as controller. I have something like 40 X-10 devices i want to replace for Z-wave because of the problems/defects i have with the X-10 devices. I have to replace one of the devices once in the 6 months and to much interference problems.

    Could you tell me if Z-wave is reliable hardware wise and operation wise?

    Thanks.

  • novaflashnovaflash Member

    Hi Ronald,

    I can't tell you very much about reliability in that regard as yet because the oldest Z-wave devices I have are barely a year old. So far I have not had a Z-wave device fail on me, though. Well, aside from a broken button on a keyfob but that's hardly z-wave's fault. I just don't know my own strength, apparently.

  • tommyjaytommyjay Member

    Hey guys,
    I don't want to sound like a bum, but anyone have plans with with these 'old' devices? I've been waiting for Homey since April, and since then tried to get more and more stuff that i can use for home automation, but so far i only have half a dozen KaKu-style plugs, I have my eye on some in-wall KaKu light switches, but still don't have too much money to invest.... I read this forum almost every day, and ever so often I read someone saying they plan to improve their house (like as @ronald74 is saying, migrate from X10 to Zwave)... So, simply said, are you going to throw the old devices away, or maybe regift/resell them? O:-)

  • ErikVanDongenErikVanDongen Member

    Check the domoticaforum.eu for its sale board. There are some good links now with fibaro sales in Italy. Also lots of forum members selling there old stuff for good prices.

  • novaflashnovaflash Member

    Hello Tommy,

    If Homey is an improvoment on the current situation then yes I'll sell the Fibaro HC2. Maybe someone else will have more enjoyment from it than I've had so far. A small part of the troubles I've had is down to the devices I've chosen, but most of it is just the software in the HC2 that has issues.

    In any case, I would still love to know what a migration path could look like with the Homey.

  • novaflashnovaflash Member

    I am updating my own thread here because I found the answer elsewhere in the forum. Since I didn't find the answer while looking in the forum using the search functions, I have decided to update this thread so people can more easily find the answer if they are using the search function.

    See this page, and look for Taco's response.
    https://forum.athom.com/discussion/44/fibaro-support/p2

    As I understand it this means that controller shift (joining the Homey as a new controller to an existing Z-wave network and then learning all the devices and then ditching the old controller) is possible with Homey.

  • DamianArmitageDamianArmitage Member
    Well I've been trying for a week with Homey, and even though I've been advised it's not 'Retail-ready', I've decided I'm going to invest in a new Home Centre 2 (My old one bricked over a year ago).  Even though HC2 had warts and all, and when I got it, it was too not ready, it is a million miles more ready than Homey is yet.

    I think Homey has another 6-12 months of development time before it is anywhere near ready for prime time.  I've waited far too long already in the hope that it would solve my controller issues.  I am reluctantly going to back to Fibaro for now.  If I do get hours of spare time (needed) then I will try to feedback on Homey progress along the way.
  • TowandaTowanda Member
    Have anybody tried to include the Homey as a secondary controller to fibaro HC2 to learn all devices and then removing it to only use the Homey? if so, do you have any hints on how to do it?
  • casedacaseda Member
    edited November 2017
    @towanda Homey does not support controller shift yet, so it is not possible until it has been implemented.

    Until then you will have to do it manually 1 by 1.
  • TowandaTowanda Member
    Thank you for the fast reply caseda!
    Do you know if there is a way to, from Homey, exclude zwave devices that are included in HC2?
    The reason I am asking is that my HC2 works like crap and including or excluding a device (or any other change usually takes 3 days until I have completed the task without it Crashing, Thus it would take me about 3 months to exclude all my devices using the HC2.
  • MrDutchfighterMrDutchfighter Member
    Most Fibaro devices have a factory reset function. After that you can include them in Homey. The best way to find the reset is via YouTube videos, way quicker then trying to read all the manuals :)
  • casedacaseda Member
    edited November 2017
    @towanda But you can also reset (exclude) device with homey, yes.

    From the settings in homey -> z-wave -> [Remove Device] and then activating inclusion on the device.
    You can reset any device, even when included in another controller this way.
  • TowandaTowanda Member
    Great  :) Thank you very much!
  • k1sk1s Member
    edited March 2018
    novaflash said:

    ....See this page, and look for Taco's response.

    https://forum.athom.com/discussion/44/fibaro-support/p2

    As I understand it this means that controller shift (joining the Homey as a new controller to an existing Z-wave network and then learning all the devices and then ditching the old controller) is possible with Homey.

    I'd really appreciate it if somebody who has done this could share their experience and describe the practical steps.

    I have great frustration with my HC2 and would like to be able to migrate to Homey which looks much easier to fathom.

    I'm wondering of those of you with HC2s  (@mvdkallen @CelticWebs @DamianArmitage ;@novaflash @DuaneJackson @Aurelia @Peter @mustangmaniac66 @) ;have had success / difficulties with devices from particular manufacturers and can say if things migrated smoothly?

    I have
    - 16 Fibaro Dimmers 2 
    - 18 Fibaro Double Switch 2,
    - 4 Fibaro RGBW
    - 7 Heat-It thermostats,
    - 11 Popp Radiator thermostats
    - 10 Popp Smoke detectors
    - 3 Popp CO detectors
    - 7 Aeotec Recessed Door Sensors
    - 11 Aeotec 6 multisensors
    - 36 Sensative Strips 
    - 6 IP cameras (Phylink)
    - 1 Yale Keyless lock
    - 6 z-wave Fakro blinds
    - 2 z-wave Fakro windows
    - 3 Philips Hue light strips

    Are there some things which work completely differently, e.g. heating? alarms? Lights off if nobody in the room?

    I'd appreciate any details you can give to give me confidence that my Z-wave investment isn't wasted!
  • bvdbosbvdbos Member
    edited March 2018
    k1s said:
    novaflash said:

    ....See this page, and look for Taco's response.

    https://forum.athom.com/discussion/44/fibaro-support/p2

    As I understand it this means that controller shift (joining the Homey as a new controller to an existing Z-wave network and then learning all the devices and then ditching the old controller) is possible with Homey.

    I'd really appreciate it if somebody who has done this could share their experience and describe the practical steps.

    I have great frustration with my HC2 and would like to be able to migrate to Homey which looks much easier to fathom.

    Like @caseda said above: the controller-shift is not working. The posts in which Taco references things are outdated as after that time there was a complete rewrite of the zwave-core functionality in Homey.
  • k1sk1s Member
    caseda said:
    Until then you will have to do it manually 1 by 1.
    bvdbos said:
    Like @caseda said above: the controller-shift is not working. The posts in which Taco references things are outdated as after that time there was a complete rewrite of the zwave-core functionality in Homey.
    What does do it one by one mean, though?
    - manually (open all the devices and push the hardware buttons, etc.) add the devices to Homey, as if there was no existing mesh/Fibaro controller?

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