Secondary controller vs. two separate networks

[ivdimitro]

Hello, I am having range issues with part of my network. I have reinforced concrete wall deviding my apartment and there is no ideal place to put the controller to handle all the devices. I thought a power plug will help with range issues but...
After the Gateway restart the furthest devices are still marked as dead and it takes some time to re-apear in the network.
I was thinking for the following options:

• throw more powerplugs – expensive and as I see unreliable solution + latency
• add controllers on both sides of the concrete wall so all devices are covered. The question is should it configured as secondary controller in one network or two separate networks?
  If I configure a secondary controller (not sure if node-zwave-js supports this??) it will be very close to the place where is the plug currently. And the communication with the plug is not ideal either. It always starts Dead and recovers when it sends power report. Anyway I am not sure if the controller<->controller communication will be reliable.
  Two networks is not a big bother as I control everything via MQTT --> HA so on high level, automations, etc. there will be no big difference.

I know I can test the theories but I am hoping your experience can save me time. Thanks.

[AlCalzone]

Did you do a network heal after adding the plug and potentially re-arranging the devices, so they can detect their neighbors and update the routes? I'd try that first. I don't know what your layout looks like, but if it is just the one wall, there shouldn't be too many hops necessary.

zwave-js does not support secondary controllers atm (and I'm not sure what needs to be done to support them).

[ivdimitro]

The network eventually comes to steady state and heal helps but I am on the dev branch of zwavejs2mqtt and the gateway restarts are frequent so the network is constantly in flux.
Good to know the secondary controller status. I will just go with two networks if I decide its worth reshuffling all the devices.

[nvOC-Stubo]

I, too, would like to see Z-wave secondary controller support and support for a controller shift. This would allow me to "upgrade" from my existing controller (Nortek HUSBZB-1) to a newer one that supports Z-Wave Plus without having to rebuild/reconfigure my 30+ devices.

[AlCalzone]

For the time being, you can use PC controller to do that:
#2927 (reply in thread)

[nvOC-Stubo]

Thanks for the prompt reply. I am familiar with this document. I was thinking that a controller swap outside of node-zwave-js would result in all existing devices being orphaned and duplicate new ones showing up. Is the logic in node-zwave-js such that the device matching is done only with Node ID?

[AlCalzone]

node-zwave-js identifies nodes by their node ID and those shouldn't change during the controller shift.

[TRusselo]

secondary controller support would allow me to integrate my Security Panel with my existing Zwave network.

The Qolsys IQ4 panel supports being a secondary (or primary) controller.

When attempting to pair

logs:
2023-02-25T23:46:52.396Z CNTRLR The controller is now ready to add nodes
2023-02-25T23:47:01.220Z SERIAL « 0x0107004a18020000a8 (9 bytes)
2023-02-25T23:47:01.221Z SERIAL » [ACK] (0x06)
2023-02-25T23:47:01.222Z DRIVER « [REQ] [AddNodeToNetwork]
status: NodeFound
callback id: 24
2023-02-25T23:47:01.223Z DRIVER handling request AddNodeToNetwork (74)
2023-02-25T23:47:01.223Z DRIVER 1 handler registered!
2023-02-25T23:47:01.223Z DRIVER invoking handler #0
2023-02-25T23:47:01.224Z CNTRLR handling add node request (status = NodeFound)
2023-02-25T23:47:01.401Z SERIAL « 0x011c004a180415150202075e5556229f98748673726c8a8f8e8785595adf (30 bytes)
2023-02-25T23:47:01.402Z SERIAL » [ACK] (0x06)
2023-02-25T23:47:01.402Z DRIVER « [REQ] [AddNodeToNetwork]
status: AddingController
callback id: 24
2023-02-25T23:47:01.403Z DRIVER handling request AddNodeToNetwork (74)
2023-02-25T23:47:01.403Z DRIVER 1 handler registered!
2023-02-25T23:47:01.403Z DRIVER invoking handler #0
2023-02-25T23:47:01.403Z CNTRLR handling add node request (status = AddingController)
2023-02-25T23:47:01.405Z DRIVER the message was handled
2023-02-25T23:47:22.380Z CNTRLR stopping inclusion process...
2023-02-25T23:47:22.384Z SERIAL » 0x0105004ac5196c (7 bytes)
2023-02-25T23:47:22.385Z DRIVER » [REQ] [AddNodeToNetwork]
action: Stop
high power: true
network wide: true
callback id: 25
2023-02-25T23:47:22.388Z SERIAL « [ACK] (0x06)

[TRusselo]

This would show all locks, garage openers and lights on the panel with activation switches!

[AlCalzone]

Please open a separate issue for this, including the logs. Adding the controller should be working though. Z-Wave JS does not support being the secondary controller.