Migrate To Z-wave version 452
Inside your Vera2, or your Vera1's dongle, is a Z-Wave chip. Z-Wave has its own firmware, separate from Vera's firmware. There are now 2 different versions of the Z-Wave firmware which Vera supports: 2.78, which has been available for a long time and is what all Vera's up until March 2011 have shipped with, and 3.20, which is newer Z-Wave.
The new Z-Wave gives Vera the ability to optimize the Z-Wave network and increases reliability, particularly in large and complex network with lots of Z-Wave devices. But, the new Z-Wave no longer supports what are called inclusion controllers (ie SUC/SIS). This feature, which existed in the old Z-Wave version, allowed you to add a secondary, handheld controller to the Z-Wave network, and then include additional Z-Wave nodes using that handheld controller. With the new Z-Wave, this no longer works and you will always need to use Vera itself to add new nodes. Nearly all our customers did that already anyway, and very few users ever used the inclusion controller feature in the old Z-Wave. Therefore we recommend new customers always use the new branch of Z-Wave. Starting in March, 2011 new Vera's will have the new Z-Wave selected by default.
The Z-wave chip inside Vera 2's is upgradeable, meaning Vera can automatically load either the new or old Z-Wave firmware into the chip. You can change which version Vera uses by selecting the Z-Wave icon in your toolbox, selecting the options tab, and checking the "Use 4.5 branch of Z-Wave" box to use the new Z-Wave, or unchecking it to use the old Z-Wave, and then saving your changes. After you have saved your change, wait about 2 minutes, and check back on the same tab. At the top where it says version, if the version is "3.20" you are using the new Z-Wave, if it says "2.78" you are using the old Z-Wave.
VERY IMPORTANT: After Vera has finished changing the Z-Wave firmware, you should choose the "Reset Z-Wave network" button which is on the Advanced tab of the Z-Wave settings. This will clear out your entire Z-Wave network, removing all your devices, and starting clean. The reason for this is that the way the new Z-Wave firmware stores the Z-Wave network data is slightly different. If you move from the old to the new version without doing a reset it is likely you will not be able to add or remove any nodes. This "Reset Z-Wave network" resets the network data in either the new or old format from scratch, so the Z-Wave chip will be ready to go. See the section below if you want to migrate from the old to new Z-Wave without resetting your network.
HOW TO MIGRATE FROM THE OLD Z-WAVE (2.78) TO THE NEW Z-WAVE (3.20)
Officially this is not possible. Officially you have to reset your Z-Wave network and rebuild your network from scratch. While this is not an issue for a new user or a really small network, some Vera users have large Z-Wave networks already setup with lots of scenes and will not want to redo everything. Therefore we have developed the following method which should work most of the time, and it includes making a backup so you can go back if it doesn't.
1. Upgrade to the newest firmware. It must be version 1.1.1221 or later (March, 2011).
2. After upgrading, click the Z-Wave icon, choose the Advanced tab, and click "Backup Dongle". Confirm that within a minute or so you get a Backup: Backup done message in the info panel in the upper right corner of the dashboard, along with a green gear icon.
3. Choose the advanced icon from the toolbox and click the Backup tab. Choose the option "Create Backup". This will give you the option of saving a file called "backup.mios2...something". Save this file on your computer somewhere and hold onto it.
4. Then go into the Z-Wave option in the toolbox, click the Options tab and choose "Use Z-Wave version 3.20 instead of 2.78". You should also check the box "Use MiOS routing instead of Z-Wave (requires 4.5)" and "Limit neighbors to Z-Wave discovery (requries MiOS routing)". Close the popup and click Save. Wait about 5 minutes for Vera to finish flashing the firmware, then click the Z-Wave toolbox and choose the Options tab and confirm at the top it says "Version: 3.20".
5. At this point, you likely will not be able to add or remove nodes. You can try if you want. It won't hurt anything. Click on the "Advanced tab" and choose "Hack to convert 2.78 to 3.20". Wait a couple minutes and try to add or remove nodes. If you can, then you should be okay to proceed without wiping our your network. If you cannot, or if you see other network errors, you will only have 2 options: 1) choose the "Reset Z-Wave network" button which will wipe out your network so you can rebuild it from scratch, or 2) Go back to the old 2.78 Z-Wave and restore the backup you made.
6. If you want to go back to the old Z-Wave you must: Uplug Vera's power and reconnect it. When Vera starts up, uncheck the "Use Z-Wave version 3.20 instead of 2.78" box, close the popup and save. Wait a couple minutes and confirm that the Z-Wave version is now 2.78. Then choose the Advanced option from the toolbox, the backup tab, check the option "Restore Dongle", click "Choose File", select the backup file you created, and click "Restore". Wait about 10 minutes and everything will be back to what it was in the beginning.
