Z-wave controller with Alexa

Hi folks,

I have contributed to an Indiegogo campaign for these z-wave controlled roller blind units: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/movez-motorize-blinds-and-shades-gadget#/
(it was an idea I had myself independently but too late!)

I now need to get my OpenHAB setup ready to work with z-wave (the blind units are supposed to ship in July, so maybe September might be realistic…). At present I am running OH1.8 on a Windows server.

I also have an Amazon Dot and am controlling various on/off devices with voice-activation (Alexa) using a hue bridge emulator. I would really like to retain and expand this feature.

My question is: what kind of z-wave controller should I get? Should I get a Z-Stick Gen5 by AEON, which looks cheap (ish) and cheerful but presumably does not work directly with Alexa? Maybe this is not a problem given that there is now an OpenHAB 2 Alexa integration (although I would prefer to run my own server, rather than outsourcing OpenHAB to the cloud…)?

Or should I get a z-wave controller that works with Alexa natively, e.g. the Samsung SmartThings hub? I’d like to get something that (a) requires no subscription, (b) is reasonably cheap and © gives the widest range of compatibility with z-wave devices.

Z-wave is completely new to me so I would really appreciate your advice!

I have nothing to do with zwave. But so should your Alexa Setup as well.

Using the Skill, it doesn’t really matter which kind of binding you use/need to control something by voice. All the Skill is able to “see” are your items (switches/simmers etc. in openHab), so it doesn’t matter where they come from (zigbee, zwave, whatever).

You should think of an independent solution (IMHO thats the most advantage of openhab). So you get all your devices from different sources to openHab and then openHab provides them (regardless of their original protocol) to alexa.

although I would prefer to run my own server, rather than outsourcing OpenHAB to the cloud

First, you have still openHab running offline on your server. OpenHab just provides an online service where you can reach your own server over the internet.
Second, when you don’t like clouds you shouldn’t have bought Alexa as she is running in the cloud as well. If you want avoid myopenhab for whatever reasons, there is a way to compile the skill yourself, publish it to your echo and use your home server and some Amazon AWS only. It don’t see any advantage here and it is complicated, even for advanced users.

Or should I get a z-wave controller that works with Alexa natively, e.g. the Samsung SmartThings hub?

This would lead to double programming of all things, a lot of work and confusion. I would avoid this!

As I am not an expert with zwave maybe somebody else can help you with the right stick.

Rick, many thanks for this clarification. I agree that if I want to integrate OpenHAB with Alexa, IFTTT and similar then there is no reason not to sign up for another cloud service. I also agree that buying a hub that talks directly to Alexa would be an unnecessary complication.

Finally, I agree that the beauty of OpenHAB is indeed its openness and ability to integrate and control diverse hardware from a single point. So I will see how I get on with the Alexa integration and myopenhab.

Thanks!