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This is all occurring on a virgin install of the official OS downloaded from the zwave site, upgraded to the latest version. I have not yet done an apt-get update/upgrade cycle because, well, that would introduce yet another variable into an already confusing and complicated situation.

After getting the RaZberry configured (see Improve Out of the Box Experience #1) I tried to add devices to the controller.

When I surf to the pi, on port 8083, the web page somehow shows devices from my previous configuration (i.e., from before I burned the official OS onto the SD card). That's really bizarre...but it's consistent with something I've noticed about the supplied web software: it apparently caches a lot of stuff on the client, and it can get out of sync with what the server thinks the configuration is.

So I tried clearing the cache (this is under Google Chrome). Unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem, even when I deleted everything from the past week that I could (e.g., I didn't delete license info).

So I tried resetting the configuration through the expert UI. That successfully "deleted" devices that shouldn't have been known in the first place but now I can't include any devices. When I put the controller into re-include mode and press buttons on devices they're not recognized.

At this point I'm stumped. Suggestions? Other than rebooting the pi; I'm trying that right now.

A few observations for z-wave:

1) A web interface that "remembers" configurations between complete OS reinstalls seems like an odd approach. I've always thought one of the benefits of server-based software is that every client gets the same view of the underlying system. That's not the case when things are instead cached on each client.

2) Virgin installs of the complete OS Should Just Work. That's not the case here. I would be happy to be a tester for your new releases if that would help.

The devices are remembered on chip itself, so they survive software reinstalls and power-offs. If you really want a clean install, you should also reset the controller.

Devices also remember a network they were included into, so if you want to include device into another network (and resetting controller actually creates a new network with another random Home ID), you need to exclude them first. That makes them forget the old network, and allows to be included into a new one.

Thanx. I'll chalk this one partially to user error.

However, I'm running into another problem: the range on the z-way is very limited. I can't make a reliable connection between the controller and a wall switch not 20 feet away. I was able to exclude the wall switch, so I know a connection is possible. But trying to (re)include it doesn't work.

Why would an exclude work and an include fail?

Exclude might work where include is not due to many reasons. One of the most probable is that excluding is:
1) tell device to forget it's ID
2) test that it is not reachable anymore using old ID

The latter might be due to bad connection and can be still treated as OK.

For inclusion it is:
1) tell device it's new ID
2) check that it is now reachable with this ID
3) test for it's neighbours
4) set up some parameters

If communication fail happens here, it will be a clear failed inclusion.

In fact, 20 feets is already good for some houses (in particular with concrete walls), since interference can make radio communication way worse compared to open space.

Try to install a wall plug in between to benefit from mesh network.