Homeseer switch firmware update

Digital Lounge
#1

Basic Question - I have never done a firmware update on a zwave device before - I am using Homeseer HS4. I have several Red Series dimmers an would like to update them. They are presently included in my Homeseer network in security mode. I noticed that their are two files for the switch updates. My question is can someone provide a step by step on how to apply the update using the homeseer software.

Thanks
Bill

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#2

Can’t answer re: Homeseer, but I think most upgrading both files use this:

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#3

Inovelli switches are a bit funky internally- they actually have two CPUs. The 500 series Z-Wave switch didn’t have enough memory to store all the features that Inovelli wanted, so there is the Z-Wave chip and also a separate Holtek CPU that controls the LED bar among other things. Thus, two firmware files, and you have to flash two firmware targets.

Unfortunately HomeSeer (HS3 at least, and I’d bet HS4 also) only supports updating the first firmware target (the z-wave chip). It doesn’t have the capability to update the Holtek chip.

For that you need the separate Z-Wave software you get from the Z-wave consortium. It’s a ‘pro’ software that can do all kinds of things, among them update the second firmware target. For that you’ll need a Z-Wave USB stick.

I’ve found the easiest way is to plug a second USB stick into the PC, then add the PC’s z-wave stick to HomeSeer as a slave device. That way you don’t have to unpair your switch.

#4

Not all switches have the MCUs. Depends dimmer vs. on/off.

#5

With HS4, I added the Silicon Labs software (SL) as a secondary controller with “Send Network Information to Another Controller”, and on the SL software, with “Classic Learn Mode”.
When done, the SL software has all the SL devices, and tested some devices in the network to respond to the different commands from the SL software, but the Series 2 Red Dimmer doesn’t, and so I cannot upgrade it. I don’t know if it has to do with S2 security.
I used the same version of SL software (5.39) to upgrade the switch FW (both banks to FW 1.47 and all went well, but I want to avoid removing the dimmer from HS4.
Also, I could not upgrade the (Bank 0) FW using HS4 alone because the FW upgrade does not start on the dimmer.

#6

I’ve done this successfully a few times but with ‘add a device’ rather than ‘send network info to another controller’ in HomeSeer, then classic learn mode on the controller.

I just updated 3 Red dimmers yesterday. Two worked perfectly, one just refused to take the update and had literally the EXACT same problem as you have- neither HomeSeer nor SL controller can update it, and in SL Controller the ‘get info’ button on update page does nothing. I think that one may have been added with encryption (S0 encryption- HomeSeer doesn’t support S2 by default currently).

What I did to fix it-

  1. Unpair SL controller from HomeSeer (remove a device in HS, then classic learn on the controller). Controller is now in standalone mode.
  2. Shutdown HomeSeer and power off whatever device it’s running on. This is essential.
  3. Factory reset the dimmer (do this while homeseer is shut down and powered off; when factory resetting a device sends a ‘I’m being factory reset, goodbye cruel world’ message to the hub which can remove the device from HomeSeer or the Z-Wave network (which normally is good but in this instance you DON’T want)).
    If you want to keep the dimmer’s settings, you can instead just unpair it using SL- with HomeSeer shut down, hit Unpair in SL then triple tap the config button. Settings should be kept but the dimmer will think it’s unpaired.
  4. Pair the dimmer to the SL controller software using the instructions in the firmware update guide
  5. Update the dimmer. The update will work well, and go fast if you’re right next to the dimmer.
  6. Unpair the dimmer from SL or factory reset it.
  7. Now fire up HomeSeer and re-pair the dimmer to HomeSeer. Use security or don’t, up to you.
  8. At this point you have two copies of your dimmer in HomeSeer- the one you had before that has all your events and stuff linked to it but it won’t talk to the dimmer, and the one you just added that’s in Z-Wave / Node XX room that will talk to the dimmer.
  9. You now just switch them. Open the root of each one up, go to the Z-Wave tab, and swap their Node Numbers and save.
  10. Now your instance of the device that is linked to events works, and you can control the light as you always have. We just need to get rid of the old node. So open the new root instance of the dimmer (the one that’s in floor Z-Wave room Node XX) and go to Z-Wave tab. Hit Test Connectivity and let it fail. Then do Remove Bad Node.
  11. Now you are left exactly as you were before- HomeSeer has ONE copy of your dimmer, and it works, and there are no bad nodes screwing up your Z-Wave network.

Hope that helps!

#7

Thanks, I’ll try it. I dread having to go through all the programming again with all the scenes, etc. Replacing the Z-Wave ID is a great tip. Much appreciated.
I’ll make sure it’s added again without security.

#8

On Homeseer there is no reason to have to exclude or re-include node for firmware upgrading.

High level summary: The Z-wave controller owns the network and the relationships with the nodes. The Homeseer software simply asks the controller to do stuff. Anything can talk to the controller and ask it to do stuff. The home automation platform is just an event coordinator.

I just updated my Red Dimmer, both firmware targets, without having to exclude or include anything.
One caveat: willing to have your home automation offline during the upgrade process (total time less than 10 minutes).

High level steps:

  • Install the Silicon Labs tools (found elsewhere on the forums here).
  • Backup your Z-wave stick (just in case).
  • Shutdown and disable Homeseer from restarting.
  • Reboot your PC, this is needed to make sure the COM port your USB Z-wave stick is free.
  • Startup the SL tools, it will find your Z-wave stick with all the nodes populated.
  • Highlight your Red Dimmer node. Send it a BASIC_SET On and Off commands to make sure the communication is ok.
  • Follow the instructions found elsewhere in the forums for updating the firmware targets.
  • Shutdown the SL tools.
  • Reboot your PC (again, to make sure the COM port for the stick is free).
  • Re-enable Homeseer.
  • Goto the Devices page, then the Z-wave tab of your Red Dimmer. Do a Rescan.
  • You’re done.

It was so incredibly easy and quick. The hardest part is jumping through all the hoops to get the SL tools.

#9

What “second USB controller” process are you referring to? Can you provide a link? Are you referring to Homeseer or hubs in general? If you’re referring to the link above, some don’t have ZWave OTA, so you need a 2nd controller.

#10

My mistake. As I read more, the limitation seems to be the other platforms where they can’t load the SL Tools in order to talk to their Z-wave controller. Since Homeseer is hardware independent it’s easy to use the SL Tools on the same platform where your Z-controller is already running. I’ve edited my message to remove the second USB controller reference.

But simply read through this thread, people seem to be making it much harder than it needs to be.

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#11

This is all good for if you have a USB controller, but will the SL software work with a z-net interface? I have a suspicion that it won’t, but I guess I’ll go find out…