OK, I heard back from the people that sold me my Aeotec V3 hub. They tell me it was made in the last 60 days. So I’m hoping I don’t have the firmware certificate date nightmare. I was ready to do this, and I followed the procedures and came across the following.
“Performing the Replace hub feature will factory reset your old hub and restore that hub to factory defaults.”
Maybe I got it wrong, but I thought I heard here on this forum that if my attempt to upgrade to the Aeotec V3 hub is unsuccessful. I could continue to use my old SmartThings V2.
I just don’t like to throw away my old shoes until I’m happy with the new shoes.
It could be a case of uncertainty or confusion over what any of us means by words like upgrade or install.
If you start with a working V2 hub in SmartThings and attempt to add a V3 hub, all you are doing at that point is adding an additional hub that is independent of the V2 hub. Whether it is successful or not your V2 will not be affected. So it is a safe operation.
Once you have the V3 successfully installed and working correctly you may choose to ‘replace’ the V2 with the V3. The result of that is that all your hub connected devices will have been moved over to the V3 which will have taken over as the controller of your Zigbee and Z-Wave networks. Your V2 then has to be completely reset so it is working with completely separate Zigbee and Z-Wave networks. So it is still a perfectly usable hub, but it has been wiped clean.
So the ‘hub replace’ will indeed be squeaky bum time.
Migrate from SmartThings WiFi, V2, or V3 (Replace Hub)
Here’s what I am trying to do. I want to. ADD the V3 hub. Then somehow copy all of my “stuff” from the V2 hub to the V3 hub. At that point, I would hope / expect them to operate identically.
Then, I would physically unplug the old V2 hub and spend some time to see if the V3 hub is working. If I get happy with the new V3 hub, then I would go through the removal process for the V2 hub. If I don’t unplug the V2 hub, then there’s no way for me to be sure that the new V3 hub is doing the work.
Gradually migrate devices from your V2 to your V3, removing each device from SmartThings and reinstalling it as a new device on the V3, then editing automations etc to use the new device identity.
Use ‘hub replace’ to effectively clone your V2 to your V3 leaving all the devices unchanged. This will wipe your V2 so you have to trust the process.
It sounds like you quite understandably like the idea of an option 3 which is like option 2 but the V2 doesn’t need to get wiped until you are ready. There isn’t one.
Worth pointing out… directly connected devices such as zigbee or z-wave can only be connected to one hub. So there is no way to have two hubs managing those devices.
You’re funny! 100% correct. Why did they make all this Sooooo hard ! Why does Apple make it completely painless to buy a new Mac? Because they want you to buy new Macs!
As I mentioned somewhere, the seller of my Aeotec V3 tells me it was made about 2 months ago. That would imply that my firmware is “good enough” to go. Can I assume that my old SmartThings V2 would NOT be erased if the firmware in my new Aeotec V3 is to old ?
If the hub was produced 2 months ago, it would have firmware that allows for Hub Replace. But the Hub Replace is a feature you would have to initiate. Your V2 will remain as is until you select Hub Replace.
I am now running the Aeotec V3. My old SmartThings V2 is unplugged.
THANK YOU Orangebucket and jkp !!!
I have not tested everything, I have 59 devices.
About 45 of my devices are the older Aeotec “Smart Switch” DSC24-ZWUS. These predate Z-Wave Plus. I like these because of their mechanical configuration. They work out well for plugging things in, and you can also see the indicator light at the same time.
Here’s what is not exactly the same as before. I don’t really use “rooms” I look at them more as Folders or categories of things. I have one room called “Flood Sensors and Valve”. In that room, I had 3 water sensors and a industrial quality ‘Leak Gopher’ Z-Wave (ONLY) controlled main water valve. Leak Gopher leak management system
For some reason, those 4 items did not go back in the Flood Sensors and Valve “room” they all show up and work when I look at “All devices”. Unless someone tells me not to, I was just going to move those items back into the Flood Sensors and Valve “room”.
I can’t think why they weren’t placed in the right room and certainly can’t see any reason not to put them where you want them. Then again I’ve not used them.
I always thought ‘room’ was a poor choice of name and there is a certain irony that if you have a Samsung you get a Personal Devices ‘room’. If you have SmartTags you get the On the go ‘room’ which is both curiously idiomatic and also shows a rather superficial understanding of the product which doesn’t necessarily even go anywhere.