Z wave OTA update issues

Devices & Integrations
1

First off, before I dive into this I want to be clear that I consider this to be fairly advanced functionality that the average user will probably never use, and I’m not really expecting any effort to be put in to fix the issues I’ve come across (unless they’re my own issues by doing something wrong).

I have a number of Zooz ZEN26 and ZEN27 switches that I’m working through updating the firmware on. I also have a Zooz z wave stick and the Silicon Labs PC Controller software. I’ve obtained the firmware updates from Zooz’s support. I have the z wave stick successfully paired as a secondary controller and it’s state is listed as “ZWAVE_S2_ACCESS_CONTROL”.

I’ve come across 2 main issues while attempting to update firmware:

  1. Firmware updates fail to transmit (first packet of the update file never sends) when the switch is paired with SmartThings with the state of “ZWAVE_S2_FAILED”. This is probably to be expected, given it’s already a failed state, however the switches in this state function perfectly fine otherwise. I haven’t had enough motivation to re pair these switches to fix the S2 state in order to do the firmware update.
  2. Firmware updates apply successfully when the switch is paired with SmartThings with the state of “ZWAVE_S2_UNAUTHENTICATED”, however, after the update the switch will drop off the network and requires a factory reset to pair it again.

If anyone can point out something obvious that I’m doing wrong (other than being too lazy to bite the bullet and re pair the switches and re set up the associated Automations) I’d appreciate it. Otherwise, perhaps these details will shed a bit of light on the subject for others that attempt this.

2

@iridris

Did not know you could pair the Zooz zwave stick to smartthings

What I had done to update firmware of Zooz switches was unpair them from SmartThings.

Paired them to zwave stick, update firmware.

Then exclude them and then pair back to SmartThings. Then recreate automations.

3

I have seen reports elsewhere that some firmware updates on zooz devices will result in them falling off the network and needing to be reset, so that is not totally unexpected.

1 Like
4

The last time I updated some Zooz switches, I had the issue of them disappearing from the network.

So I stopped updating them while part of the SmartThings mesh and did as @professordave described.

When I raised this to Zooz support they stated that they had heard of problems updating while part of SmartThings and suggested not doing it that way.

Unfortunate as it’s a lot more work due to the need to recreate all automations, Alexa routines, etc.

1 Like
5

The first issue doesn’t matter because most Zooz devices require a factory reset after updating so you’re better off removing them from ST and joining them directly with Z-Wave PC Controller to do the update.

I was using a z-stick as a secondary controller at one point because there are some devices you can update without them dropping off, but secondary controllers are also repeaters so my mesh got messed up every time I turned off the computer.

1 Like
6

That’s some good info, thanks! I wasn’t aware that the firmware update needed a factory reset after applying.

I guess if I want these updated I’ll just have to bite the bullet and reset them.