How to use Fibaro HC2 as your zWave primary controller

[kjaerligkatt]

I had major issues getting the Fibaro HC to act as my primary zWave controller, with CQC as the secondary using an Aeotec USB stick. The issue is that I could get CQC to replicate successfully, or join the zWave network. 

I stumbled on a way to make it work, which *appeared* to require me to connect to the USB stick with Zensys Tool, not do anything and then just reconnect the USB stick in CQC.  Having had to rebuild my sandboxed test CQC install, I have now found the formula for successful initial replication. After initial replication, update replication works reliably.  To make the initial connection, follow the steps below:

• Follow the instructions to include CQC into the Fibaro HC2 master - put the HC2 into device inclusion mode, and select include/exclude in the CQC zWave Client Interface. You will get a replication failed error and the driver will *not* be in the zWave network
  
• Pause the zWave driver, and then Unpause. When this is completed, you will see that the driver is now reporting as In Network, but *no* zWave devices will be listed.┬á
  
• Repeat the zWave include step above - now replication will be successful, and all the devices in your zWave network will appear.┬á
  

Easy when you know how, but this problem almost had me giving up on CQC ?

[Dean Roddey]

You should be careful. This may have included CQC as a non-secure device. If so, then we won't be able to talk to any secure Z-Wave modules. I don't know if the Fibaro displays secure/non-secure status on included units. If so, see if it shows the driver as secure. It may be that the secure phase of the inclusion failed, but that still leaves CQC in the network.

This is a fundamental stupidity of Z-Wave, that this can happen. There's no way for a module to say, I MUST be included securely or don't include me at all. So if the module makes it through the non-secure inclusion, it's in the network at that point. The Z-Stick is marked as a member of the network. But it won't have gotten any security info.

You can test this be forcing the CQC driver out of the network and doing it again. You should see the CQC inclusion dialog saying first it's joining the network, then it should say it's doing a secure join of the network.

* But, another stupidity of Z-Wave means that, if you remove the driver and re-insert it, it will be on a new Z-Wave id unless the master allows you to control which id is used. That means that any work previously done to do associations are now broken. The driver will try to do it again, but that doesn't get rid of the previously set associations. The driver has no way of knowing if it should do that, since another module might now be at that id and it could be messing things up. But, generally it means that you now have a bogus association set in all the modules, which will not respond when modules send out notifications because it's not there.

Because Z-Wave modules have no unique, permanent id, it's really a sort of disaster wrt to these types of association issues.

[kjaerligkatt]

The HC2 shows a secure connection (padlock icon on the CQC device)

[Dean Roddey]

OK, then you should be good.