Best Z-Wave Stick for OpenHab

I’m using the Zooz S2 USB stick, and I’ve had absolutely no problems in the two years since I bought it. I only have four devices though (two sensors, a door lock, and a lightswitch), so I’m not pushing it very hard.

As Bruce notes, Zooz is specific to North America.

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It happens to be $10 off this week too for the US.

I’ve tested everything with the EU versions

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Do you know, why i cant use a Z-Wave Header instead ?

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If you mean a Razberry, people here have used them with the binding, I believe

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I don’t know what the binding is, so is this a temporary software problem in OpenHAB like needing an updated software driver in Windows or is it a more complicated problem?

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The binding is what understands the Z-Wave protocol.

Last I heard SiLabs had not publicly release the standards for Z-Wave Plus 2. IT would likely involve a major rewriting of the binding.

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If you look on GIT there is an unsupported version that has been tweaked to work with 700 but it would be hard to include this in the release version for a few reasons none of which are because it is technically difficult to add support.

When 700 was first released the only supported way to integrate with it was via a Z/IP library written in C rather than the serial connection that the current binding uses.

Early versions of this library had significant shortcomings.

The new library does not support anyone’s current USB stick so everyone would need to rebuild their networks.

Rewriting to use the library is a substantial piece of work and supporting both old 500 and new 700 would be very hard.

It is still not clear if this will remain the only way to interface and be approved on 700 and beyond but possibly it will change now the standards have changed to be managed by https://z-wavealliance.org/ .

For the US z-wave has recently moved forward with a higher power setting and the promise of longer range and higher node counts.

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This is still the case unfortunately.

The serial API is meant to be published. At the developers conference last year I asked about this and it was meant to be released last November, but hasn’t yet been made available. Unfortunately the certification process is considerably more difficult if not using ZIP - and as you rightly point out, ZIP has many shortcomings.

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I started with openHAB a an RaZberry2 + Pi3 some 3 years ago (maybe more)…
Since then, I moved openHAB to a VM in a NUC and I’m still using the Razberry card… Only I converted it to USB using a FTDI serial2usb converter…
So… it’s possible :slight_smile:
I also added a wire instead of the PCB antenna and the range was greatly increased.
Overall, I’m extremely happy with my RaZberry :laughing:

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They are not letting it go without a fight. I hope they make the certification less burdensome for the serial interface. I still can’t see anything but you are better plugged into the process.

We can all watch zwave-JS with interest but when someone pointed out how it was reported on HAAS site I did chuckle. Anyone who thinks the grass is greener might find that is not true.

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I just put mine in PC Controller software today and it appears that firmware upgrades are ot supported on this stick as far as I could determine.

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They won’t - this has already been stated that it will be considerably more difficult if not using ZIP as they will impose additional testing that is effectively avoided if using ZIP as it is let’s say pre-certified for some elements.

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I doubt we will see any more updates for 500 serial libraries so I am not sure if any further updates will be coming for any 500 stick.

I run 6.82 which you can probably only get if you are using a UZB3. The firmware might be usable with other sticks as some are basically a UZB3 with a different antenna or case.

TBH I am not sure it is a big advance on 6.81 that zooz has but I can not compare as ZooZ are US only.

The 500 is coming to the end of life some time soon so spending more than 25 £$€ on one is probably not a great investment.

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That is bad news.

Well the current binding is brilliant unless you desperately need S2 security.
.

One thing in general.

Putting your UZB of any flavour on a short extension cable and trying different orientations might improve range a little if you are here because you have issues with range.

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Just to chime in, I too have an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5. It works fine, but not if plugged directly into a Pi4 - I had to plug it in via a cheap hub (I used a Hama Multiquad 1:4 Bus Powered hub). I can’t remember the exact details of why, it something to do with different interpretation of USB standards, I think.

I wouldn’t regard myself as a heavy user, but so far it’s been perfectly fine (and is located in a fairly empty, metal 19" cabinet - a couple of doors and walls away from any actual z-wave devices it talks to). If it wasn’t in a cabinet, I’d probably cover it in tape so I don’t have to look at the funky colour changing lights on it, but it’s hidden away so I don’t really care.

I’m not sure how things are working, or how they’re supposed to work, but when I completely reformatted my pi and re-installed OH, once I re-enabled the binding, it seemed to already be paired to a my devices.

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That stick is seen as USB3 on newer USB3 ports. Aeotec release a new stick without this flaw.

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Knowledge of paired devices is kept on the controller itself. The binding reads those off of the controller to populate the Inbox with Things. But then it needs to interrogate the devices to figure out what they are which is why we need to wake up battery powered devices.

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Is this stick available from Digikey the one you are referring to?
Also available here from Mouser
Man, they are cheap, I might just order one to check out

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