I recently embarked on migrating my Z-Wave setup from an old Vera system to Home Assistant, running in a Docker container on Windows. The process has been a mix of excitement and frustration, but I’m glad to share my journey and hopefully help others avoid some pitfalls.
Initially, I had Vera integration working, but it was sluggish. Realizing the need for a more reliable setup, I decided to switch to a Z-Wave USB stick. The Vera integration was slow, and I wanted something more efficient. My research led me to the Z-Wave JS UI Docker container, which seemed like the right choice.
However, setting this up wasn’t without its challenges. The main hurdle was figuring out the correct device path for my Zooz 800 stick, recognized by Windows as COM3. Every attempt to run the Docker compose file resulted in an error: ‘Error response from daemon: error gathering device information while adding custom device “/dev/serial/by-id/USB-Enhanced-SERIAL CH9102”: no such file or directory’.
I tried various iterations of the device path, but nothing worked. I even explored Silicon Labs Simplicity Studio to see if I could extract the correct serial ID path, but that didn’t resolve the issue either.
After some time-consuming troubleshooting, I discovered that the issue was related to how Docker handles serial devices on Windows. The solution involved ensuring that Docker had the correct permissions and that the device path was accurately specified. I also had to make sure that the Z-Wave JS UI container was properly configured to communicate with the stick.
The experience taught me the importance of meticulous configuration and the value of community support. I hope sharing my journey can help others facing similar challenges. If you’re setting up Z-Wave in Docker, double-check your device paths and Docker configurations, and don’t hesitate to reach out for help if you’re stuck!
Happy automating! 