Exclude Z-Wave devices correctly from Homey Pro (early 2023)

Hi there,

I‘m trying to correctly exclude a Z-Wave device from my new Homey Pro. Yes, I tried the search and a found an article who describes the correct way but it seems to refer to the older version of Homey pro. In the new Homey Pro BETA app, I can‘t find an option under Z-Wave which allows me to start the exclusion procedure….neither in the iOS app nor in the web-app.

Can anyone please tell me, how I can remove a Z-Wave device how they are supposed to be removed?

Thanks in advance

Rainer

Longpress tile and hit ‘Remove’?

And doesn’t this work @ Pro 2023?
https://tools.developer.homey.app/tools/zwave

Hi Peter,

Of course this works, but is this the recommended way of removing Z-Wave devices from the Z-Wave stack? I thought I always should start homey‘s z-wave exclusion mode and then follow the devices manual (e. g. click button X 3 times) to remove. Deleting a Z-Wave device was at least for me always a workaround that should only be used in case of issues.

So, can I delete and then reset a Z-Wave device without taking the risk of having multiple relicts of dead devices in homey‘s z-wave stack? At least my former home automation hub homee (code atelier) was and still is facing those issues with device relicts that do no longer exist but can‘t get deleted.

I’ve no special z-wave knowledge.
But why is anyone able to just remove a zwave device from Homey using longpress and remove?
If that wrecks your mesh, that function should be grayed out for z-wave devices then imho.
But that’s just a bit of theoretical.

Before you remove anything:
Maybe @DirkG or @Caseda can answer your questions with their z-wave knowledge!

Would be great if a z-wave-guru could jump in.

In homee you were also able to either delete or exclude z-wave devices. But delete is only recommended if exclusion failed. But let‘s wait if @DirkG or @Caseda (or any other z-wave enthusiast) can provide a valid answer on my concerns.

Homey doesn’t really have a bad way of exclusion, it will always remove the Node ID from the z-wave chip if it still exists.

  • If you remove it from the developer tools (remove any node button), and it is a device in Homey (or just the z-wave chip) it will also remove the device, and the Node ID in the z-wave chip.
  • If you remove it from the developer tools, and it doesn’t have a device in Homey it will only reset the physical device.
  • If you remove it from the device (and not let it timeout) it will remove the device in Homey and the corresponding ID in the z-wave chip.
  • If you remove it from the device (and let it timeout, 30 seconds) it will only remove the device in Homey.
    But you can still remove the Node ID from the z-wave chip by removing the node from the developer tools.

There are so called “Unkown node” devices, but those are only when inclusion fails, and can still be removed afterwards (most of the time).

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Hey Caseda,

Great, thanks for the very detailled answer. Sounds like a very stable and mature Z-wave stack……especially compared to homee‘s stack.

Where can I see if there are „unknown nodes“

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it will literally show as a “unknown node” as name in the developer tools, in the node table

Ok, got it. For me, since I‘m not (yet?) a developer, it won‘t be visible.

you don’t need to be a developer to use the developer tools (the link @Peter_Kawa shared)

Ooops….haven‘t recognized that link. Sorry for that.

This list of devices is awesome: I guess I can see the chain of devices how a particular Z-wave device connects to homey? Wow. I love it!

There are already 3 unknown nodes in my z-wave stack. Should I try to delete those or just ignore them?

you can do either, they don’t hurt performance in any way, but you can try to remove them if you don’t like them (first test (menu at the right side of every device), and if the device isn’t responsive (neither on it’s new node-id) it will be flagged “unreachable”, then you can press the remove option).

As for the route, it is only the last used route, not all the routes it can take.

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