I gave up for now
reverted back to Gen5. I'll deal with Gen7 or even Gen8 when my system gets.... more complex and I need the additional entity headroom, security, and range (which I need none of the 3 as of yet)Beware of Z-Wave 700 series controllers
- Thread starter bp2008
- Start date
reverted back to Gen5. I'll deal with Gen7 or even Gen8 when my system gets.... more complex and I need the additional entity headroom, security, and range (which I need none of the 3 as of yet)
Mike A.
Known around here
- May 6, 2017
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My Zooz 700 series stick has been fine after upgrading the firmware. Which is kind of a pain using the complicated toolkit that you need to do it. But once done it's been OK. Sticks shipping now should already have the updated version installed as they come.
I've had more problems with them breaking the Z-wave/Zigbee integrations in some of the last few HA updates.
I've had more problems with them breaking the Z-wave/Zigbee integrations in some of the last few HA updates.
BORIStheBLADE
Getting comfortable
I was going to buy one of these 800 series adapters but after hearing about the 700 issues I'm sitting on my hands. Zooz 800 Series Z-Wave Long Range USB Stick ZST39 LR
They really need to figure out a way to upgrade firmware easier. I've been holding back buying more devices because of this..
They really need to figure out a way to upgrade firmware easier. I've been holding back buying more devices because of this..
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Not sure how long it has been out, but the latest firmware for the z-stick7 (7.19.2) is working well for my HA setup. My HA pi4 has been running hassos w/ a nortek husbzb-1 stick for a very long time. Since I decommissioned all of my zigbee devices over the years, and have a zwave node that always struggles to communicate (tool shed farther away), I decided to try an upgrade to see if I could hit the shed better (and be more up to date with the small handful of 700 series devices on my setup). Mine also shipped with 7.11 firmware, but the upgrade instructions on aeotec's site worked easy for me:
aeotec.freshdesk.com
It was as simple as unplugging my old stick, uninstalling zwavejsui and the zwavejs integration, plugging in my new stick, then reinstalling and configuring both. After getting the stick to talk to HA, I used the zwavejsui to flash the downloaded firmware. Then I excluded my ~30 zwave devices from the old stick, reincluded/renamed entities using the new stick, and all has been working great for weeks (I know, lots of work, but I didn't want to try migration as my old stick had some minor issues I didn't want to carry along into the future). My shed now gets a way more solid signal as well. So I expect that battery to actually last this time. Fingers still crossed, but usually if something crops up on these things you see it within a week or so.
Anyhow, didn't really want to necro a thread, but if y'all are still hanging on to 700 sticks (at least Aeotec, not sure about zooz) you might want to give them another shot after doing the easy firmware upgrade described in the above link. HA docs in fact advise that 7.19.2 appears to have solved most if not all comm issues the 700 sticks were having before. So this is more than an anecdote.
I also saw those zooz 800 series items... wasn't sure though exactly what was involved with those vs 700. Looking at silabs info on zwave long range, it does appear to be just antenna balance/filter tricks from what I can tell. So it may well be compatible and should offer better range with 500/700 devices. Having experience with other rf items in my hobbies (FPV drones), it seems the 800 capabilities won't be fully realized without also having 800 series nodes with a more powerful/clean transmission circuit. Until 800 nodes become more available, I'd probably hold off. Having an 800 stick now would be like having a drone with the best control link, but with a 25mW vtx and no directional on the vrx (the weak video downlink will make the fancy powerful control link pointless).
Update Z-Stick 7 with Z-WaveJS UI (V7.18.8 ->V7.21.5)
In order to update the Z-Stick 7 or Z-Pi 7, this actually uses the standard library for Z-Wave. The ZWaveJS team has included the update function to ZWaveJS UI (previously known as ZWaveJS2MQTT) Requirements: Any PC Any Series 700 Z-Wave ...
aeotec.freshdesk.com
It was as simple as unplugging my old stick, uninstalling zwavejsui and the zwavejs integration, plugging in my new stick, then reinstalling and configuring both. After getting the stick to talk to HA, I used the zwavejsui to flash the downloaded firmware. Then I excluded my ~30 zwave devices from the old stick, reincluded/renamed entities using the new stick, and all has been working great for weeks (I know, lots of work, but I didn't want to try migration as my old stick had some minor issues I didn't want to carry along into the future). My shed now gets a way more solid signal as well. So I expect that battery to actually last this time. Fingers still crossed, but usually if something crops up on these things you see it within a week or so.
Anyhow, didn't really want to necro a thread, but if y'all are still hanging on to 700 sticks (at least Aeotec, not sure about zooz) you might want to give them another shot after doing the easy firmware upgrade described in the above link. HA docs in fact advise that 7.19.2 appears to have solved most if not all comm issues the 700 sticks were having before. So this is more than an anecdote.
I also saw those zooz 800 series items... wasn't sure though exactly what was involved with those vs 700. Looking at silabs info on zwave long range, it does appear to be just antenna balance/filter tricks from what I can tell. So it may well be compatible and should offer better range with 500/700 devices. Having experience with other rf items in my hobbies (FPV drones), it seems the 800 capabilities won't be fully realized without also having 800 series nodes with a more powerful/clean transmission circuit. Until 800 nodes become more available, I'd probably hold off. Having an 800 stick now would be like having a drone with the best control link, but with a 25mW vtx and no directional on the vrx (the weak video downlink will make the fancy powerful control link pointless).
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@truglo Thank you.
Your post motivated me to google for zooz 700 series firmware upgrade steps. Here is video:
Your post motivated me to google for zooz 700 series firmware upgrade steps. Here is video:
@truglo Thank you for discussing your findings and your success is encouraging, especially to those of us that hold
our breath every time Home Assistant provides an update to the Z-Wave automation.
I also seemed to always have range issues with the same Nortek controllers as you had.
Related to that, one of the design issues with Home Assistant that I thought was a little short-sighted was that there was
only support for a single Z-Wave controller, which meant that the controller had to be centrally located in roughly the
center of a sphere of Z-Wave devices. That is often not practical with a multi-story home, (In theory, the mesh-networking
design of Z-Wave mitigates the need to have to have the controller centrally located, but I found in real world applications
that several devices in my garage were unreliable and unresponsive, despite having several mains-attached devices
between them and the controller.) It also meant that if you used a small computer like a Raspberry PI, that too would
have be centrally located.
Many of us run Home Assistant in a VM on a server - a headless server in a utility room or basement
location and that really makes the spatial location of the Z-Wave controller a challenge. I decided to
use USB extenders and mount my two USB controllers high on the walls on separate floors:
Maybe time for upgraded controllers!
(In both cases I managed to install the mounting plate upside down relative to the writing on the controller
)
It all works well enough, but the biggest mistake I made is that I bought USB extenders where the POWER adapter is attached
to the RECEIVER, not the TRANSMITTER - essentially the opposite of POE! Here's the receiver on the other side of the wall above
a bathroom cabinet:
our breath every time Home Assistant provides an update to the Z-Wave automation.
I also seemed to always have range issues with the same Nortek controllers as you had.
Related to that, one of the design issues with Home Assistant that I thought was a little short-sighted was that there was
only support for a single Z-Wave controller, which meant that the controller had to be centrally located in roughly the
center of a sphere of Z-Wave devices. That is often not practical with a multi-story home, (In theory, the mesh-networking
design of Z-Wave mitigates the need to have to have the controller centrally located, but I found in real world applications
that several devices in my garage were unreliable and unresponsive, despite having several mains-attached devices
between them and the controller.) It also meant that if you used a small computer like a Raspberry PI, that too would
have be centrally located.
Many of us run Home Assistant in a VM on a server - a headless server in a utility room or basement
location and that really makes the spatial location of the Z-Wave controller a challenge. I decided to
use USB extenders and mount my two USB controllers high on the walls on separate floors:
Maybe time for upgraded controllers!
(In both cases I managed to install the mounting plate upside down relative to the writing on the controller
)It all works well enough, but the biggest mistake I made is that I bought USB extenders where the POWER adapter is attached
to the RECEIVER, not the TRANSMITTER - essentially the opposite of POE! Here's the receiver on the other side of the wall above
a bathroom cabinet: