Soft reconfigure changes configuration

[knuth 28]

I have experienced this with several third-party devices, but I will use a HeatIt 32A relay as my example. I needed to soft reconfigure this device today, expecting device numbers etc. to remain unchanged. The result, however, was puzzling: The general structure of master + slave devices changed! This device has no template implemented, but I expected the end-points to remain where they were. The reconfiguration was reported as successful by the HC2, but the results were suprising. 

Here is a summary of what I experienced:

 

Tree before re-configuration (685 is the master device number):

685 -----------          

685.0         On/off                 Device ID 686 

685.0.1      Amperes            Device ID 687

685.1         On/off                 688

685.1.1      Amperes            689

685.2          multichannel     690

685.2.1      Temperature 1   691

685.3          multichannel     692

685.3.1       Temperature 2   693

685.4           Flooding            694

 

... and here is the same device after a "successful" soft reconfiguration (scroll to see the whole list):

 

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Notice that 

• The number of slave devices is the same, but the naming is different. I now have two devices called 685.2.1, and two called 685.3.1.
• The first one retained the name I had given it, rather than 685.0. Good!
• The device called 685.4, a flood sensor, has been moved to another location in the tree, but retained its name
• Some device ID numbers changed (not shown on this screenshot). The first four slaves retained the numbers 686 to 689. The flood sensor 685.4 also retained its ID number 694. But the four temperature related devices (id 690 - 693 originally) were given new id numbers (709 - 712). 

This is not what is supposed to happen with a SOFT reconfigure. Both structure and id numbers should remain unchanged. 

 

I have experienced the same thing with HeatIt thermostats. A soft reconfigure changes the structure, naming and some device id's, making a soft reconfigure a risky operation. What else can I do? A hard reconfigure, losing all device ID's? Keep trying a soft reconfig?