Can 1 z-wave device belong to two different z-wave netowrks at the same time?
Can I run InControl software on two different systems each with it's own Z-Stick controller?
Explanation:
My Z-Wave network is at a cabin a 4 hour drive north of my home near Minneapolis, MN. I am trying to build some recoverability into my network. I want to be able to power cycle my z-wave controller PC (Windows 7-64) if necessary. I have another machine (Windows Server 2008-R2) in another building a 2 or 3 z-wave hops away. I want to install another Z-Stick on the 2008 box and have the ability to kill the power to the Windows 7 box as well as the other way around. Both of these boxes as well as a couple others are serving a network of web cams for security purposes and I have a real desire to keep them all running. (I had a burglary a few years ago and I promised myself I would have photos and license plates if it happened again, which it did, and I did.)
If the devices in between can belong to both Z-sticks then it would be easy enough to kill the power to the windows 7 box from the 2008 box and vice versa. I have been accomplishing much the same thing with scheduled clean shutdowns and old school lamp timers to cycle the power overnight. But if I can accomplish this with z-wave outlets, then I can skip the nightly shutdowns and only cycle the power if one of the systems becomes unresponsive for some reason.
Thanks in advance!
N0VTN
Is this possible?
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- Last Post 18 November 2013
Can 1 z-wave device belong to two different z-wave netowrks at the same time?
Can I run InControl software on two different systems each with it's own Z-Stick controller?
Explanation:
My Z-Wave network is at a cabin a 4 hour drive north of my home near Minneapolis, MN. I am trying to build some recoverability into my network. I want to be able to power cycle my z-wave controller PC (Windows 7-64) if necessary. I have another machine (Windows Server 2008-R2) in another building a 2 or 3 z-wave hops away. I want to install another Z-Stick on the 2008 box and have the ability to kill the power to the Windows 7 box as well as the other way around. Both of these boxes as well as a couple others are serving a network of web cams for security purposes and I have a real desire to keep them all running. (I had a burglary a few years ago and I promised myself I would have photos and license plates if it happened again, which it did, and I did.)
If the devices in between can belong to both Z-sticks then it would be easy enough to kill the power to the windows 7 box from the 2008 box and vice versa. I have been accomplishing much the same thing with scheduled clean shutdowns and old school lamp timers to cycle the power overnight. But if I can accomplish this with z-wave outlets, then I can skip the nightly shutdowns and only cycle the power if one of the systems becomes unresponsive for some reason.
Thanks in advance!
N0VTN
One device cannot belong to two different zwave networks. It would have to be a single network for your scenario to work. You can have two USB controllers in one network - the second one would be setup as a secondary controller. You'd just need to be wary of your range to make sure it can reach far enough to send the appropriate commands to the devices.
I now have a second Z-Stick and am attempting to add it as a secondary controller.
I stopped the InControl Service on my InControl PC/Server and launched Zensys tools.
I am finding the lightning bolt is always greyed out and I cannot get into learn mode.
I am unclear from another post on this topic elsewhere in this forum on whether I should be putting the new controller or the original in learn mode.
Also I cannot get the Zensys tool to recognize the new controller.
Can you help please?
N0VTN
I now have a second Z-Stick and am attempting to add it as a secondary controller.
I stopped the InControl Service on my InControl PC/Server and launched Zensys tools.
I am finding the lightning bolt is always greyed out and I cannot get into learn mode.
I am unclear from another post on this topic elsewhere in this forum on whether I should be putting the new controller or the original in learn mode.
Also I cannot get the Zensys tool to recognize the new controller.
Can you help please?
N0VTN
I'm not sure why zensys tool wouldn't recognize the controller... does InControl recognize it? If you are on a different computer, have you installed drivers and updated the firmware?
If I recall correctly, you should treat the second controller just like any other device. Put your master into include mode, then tap a button on it. For what it's worth, I haven't actually tried this yet -- I'll try to do so later today when I'm back in front of my computer again.
Should I be connecting the second Z-stick to a different computer such as my laptop before trying this?
I was trying to connect them both to the master to get the second one recognized.
Yes both z-sticks are on current firmware as of yesterday.
Thanks for the Fast Response!
N0VTN
Should I be connecting the second Z-stick to a different computer such as my laptop before trying this?
I was trying to connect them both to the master to get the second one recognized.
Yes both z-sticks are on current firmware as of yesterday.
Thanks for the Fast Response!
N0VTN
You might could try to run two copies of the zen tools on the same computer, though I'm not sure if it'll behave properly that way. Your safest bet would be to use two separate computers that can be in close proximity with each other.
Here is the condensed version of what I had to do to get it going.
Install drivers for the new Z-Stick on my laptop.
Connect the new Z-Stick to my laptop.
Position the z-Stick on my laptop as close as possible to the Z-Stick on my InControl PC.
Close the InControl software on my InControl PC.
From the services tool on my PC, stop the "InControl Zwave Service".
Launch the Zensys tools on my InControl PC, and select the controller.
Launch the Zensys tools on my laptop and select the controller.
From the Incontrol PC activate the "add" button.
From the laptop activate the "learn" (lightning bolt) button.
Lots of activity on the laptop sereen showed that the new controller received all the devices from the original controller.
Close the Zensys tools on both machines and reboot the Incontrol PC.
Shutdown the laptop.
Remove the New Z-Stick from the laptop.
Connect the New Z-Stick to my 2008 R2 server.
Launch InControl on both the PC and the server.
All my devices are now visible on the Server in addition to the original PC.
The devices on the new server had generic names, and needed to be renamed, and have the device types set correctly.
All of them are working on both machines.
The only Gotcha I see is that I now have duplicate devices when I open my iPhone app. I may adjust the device names so I can tell them apart.
I caused myself a lot of unnecessary work as I accidentally reset the original Z-Stick and whiped out all my devices. So I had to run around and re-add all my devices. This was actually a good thing because I had an Aeon Labs multi sensor that was taking up two devices. Now that it is reinstalled it is only taking one.
Inspite of my own errors the above proceedure is what it actually takes to add a second Z-Stick.
Thanks for your help!
N0VTN
