It seems Zooz has changed their tune about 700 series OH3 support. I asked Zooz about 700 and OH3 support and if there was a firmware needed and they replied:
Unfortunately, OpenHAB doesn’t support 700-series specifications as of now, so we wouldn’t be able to create or recommend any workaround for this and you’d need to use a 500-series Z-Wave stick for proper function with openHAB.
Nothing has changed for openHAB or Zooz. If you dig back in this conversation there was discussion about supporting the 700 series, and it’s not trivial.
You could try the unsupported version that @robmac mentioned, but there are no guarantees. So the recommendation for now is to stick with 500 Series controllers.
700 Series Devices work due to backward compatibility. 700 Series controllers do NOT work.
You could use zwavejs2mqtt for 700 series controllers but that adds complexity.
If you refer to section 5 the firmware is still a bridge controller.
The Serial API standard has still not been publicly released buy the zwave alliance.
I recently switched from the first UZB to the Aeotec Gen5+ Stick.
It works like charm with oH3 and i´m finally able to fully configure my Aeotic Multisensor 6 devices.
Unfortunately my new flat has damn thick walls and it was already a hassle to get Wifi working in every room.
Homematic (+IP) and Hue devices are working as some of them have a build-in repeater/route functionality.
I tried to place my Fibaro motion sensor right above the apartment door but the z-wave signal can´t reach this spot.
Aeotec seems to be the only one with z-wave range extender products.
Am i able to use the Range Extender 7 because it´s a series 700 device?
Or is a repeater seen as a controller?
Thanks!
I would expect others in Germany too.
@chris will need to answer this. I THINK it may work since it is likely seen as just a device to the binding. I DO know 700 series controllers do not work with OH.
I couldn´t find any other manufacture for range extenders or repeaters.
I´ll try the Aeotec LED multi-color bulb first and see if that´s enough for the motion sensor.
But that´s only one part of the flat…
Let´s see what Chris has to say.
As I understand it, all mains powered zwave devices are repeaters and no battery powered zwave devices are. So a it would probably be better to buy and appliance or lamp smart plug or something like that one a repeater. It’ll do the same thing for your network, cost the same amount, and you’ll at least be able to control something with it.
Back when I got a repeater I was told they are all but pointless. It did improve my network, but any mains powered service would have too.
The problem is, i already have homematic for plugs/window sensors/rollershutters and hue for lighting 
I´ll swap the hue in the hallway for the Aeotec and see if that helps.
The Fibaro sensor works at the position of the lamp so should the bulb and repeat it to the sensor 2m further away.
Yes, this will work fine.
I guess you don’t mean this quite as it’s written - a repeater will certainly help in the mesh, but a repeater has no functionality, so you’re better buying a wall plug or something, and personally I would agree with this. It’s possible a repeater might be a bit cheaper than buying an extender, so maybe in some cases this might sway people, but otherwise my personal choice is that I would buy a wall plug instead as it’s nearly the same, and then I can use it for something 
That’s right. What I meant to say is that it’s better to get that something and the ability to control a lamp or the like for about the same cost as a repeater which just provides the relay but nothing else. I didn’t mean that a repeater doesn’t provide any benefit at all.
When looking at the Aeotec equipment available at popp.to the range extender 6 has the same price as the LED bulb 6 multi-color. The range extender 7 is just 3$ more expensive.
It was just my first idea to use a range extender because all other parts are already covered by homematic and hue
To come back to the original purpose of this thread.
Has someone played around with the alignment of the Z-Wave stick for better coverage?
The stick is currently directly attached to the RPi4 and i think a hub with upwards USB ports might be a little bit better.
I have never needed to do so but, I have heard people who were having problems with the range of there controller either moving the location of the controller or putting the controller on an extension cord to get it further away from the host and this actually helping improve the range of the controller
An RPi doesn’t really care what orientation it is placed in. You can experiment by propping it up and if it seems to make a difference pick a case (or jury-rig something). It just so happens that my computer’s USB where I have the controller/coordinator plugged in is angled at about 60% from the horizontal. But it’s been this way for so long I couldn’t tell you if changing to this machine and therefore the angle makes a difference.
Anecdotally way back when I first got started I was using a different controller plugged in horizontally. The controller was on the top floor and all the devices were on the lower floor of the house. Only one device listed the controller as a neighbor, and it was not the device that was directly underneath the controller. I ended up buying a repeater (should have bought something that would do more than just act as a repeater) to put on the same floor as the controller and the net of neighbors improved and the overall performance of the network improved. So at least for some controllers in some circumstances the orientation might make a difference.
Nope, not gonna work 
The RPi is laying on a wardrobe in the second hallway with only 10cm to the ceiling.
A vertically USB extension is pretty cheap so i give it a try.
Thank you Andrew and Rich!
Yes and I have found a short high quality USB cable and orientation does help as does being careful of how any small wires on the devices are placed.
I have a couple of the 700 repeaters you asked about and they work well.
Before adding more repeaters it might be worth looking at placement. Placement can have a big impact if you have thick walls and structures like water tanks so moving the PI around might improve things without the need for extra repeaters. It is worth a experimenting to achieve fewer multi hop routes even if you do need the odd extra repeater as they have a big impact on how well the system performs. A direct exchange takes in the region of 20ms and a poor multi hop may take a few hundred ms. Commands are one at a time so if you have a very regularly used multi hop it can show up as intermittent sluggish control of other devices.
You would need to make any changes slowly to let the network settle and all battery devices to get the new routes so it does take time to find the best place to have the controller.
I don’t have conclusive before/after data, but I feel I have more devices on a direct hop to the controller with the Zstick in a powered hub off a Rpi3 (vertically). My thought in doing this was to have a dedicated power supply to avoid any small variations in radio power due to how hard the Pi was working. It looks like this (zstick in black and the Zniffer is white).
Just checking back in to see if OpenHab has tried to modernize their support for Z-wave 700 series controllers yet for things like the ZST10. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GNZ56BK
Does anyone know how Home Assistant and HomeSeer are accomplishing their compatibility?
the best z-wave stick is no z-wave stick 
that’s why I dumped all my z-wave devices and have chosen other technologies