in 7.21.2 they did not solved the issue even if they told us they were going to, saying they were working on this as a top priority:
in the 7.21.3 release notes, they are now saying the issue is a “low occurence issue”. Is it a polite way to say that they dont give a F anymore or are they trying to win some time ?..
I’m now looking to downgrade to a 500 series stick since this looks to be the only solution if you don’t want to wait for SiLabs to fix their firmware. I dont have hope anymore, the 700 series is there since 2019 and yet it never worked correctly (dead nodes issue and now this controller jammed issued). I miss the days I was using my old VeraLite controller (Z-Wave 300) but unfortunately upgraded to the Aeotec gen 700 stick to be able to use somes Inovelli switches with Home Assistant and Zwave JS.
Does anyone asked Aeotec for the 7.21.3 firmware file? If yes can you share it here please?
With the upcoming Home Assistant z-wave stick as per the state of the open home, I am worried about how it will play out. As z-wave chips are only produced by Silicon Labs and one other manufacturer and with Nabu having a partnership with Silicon Labs, I assume they will be providing the silicon. This is starting to become a farse of bad communication, broken promisses and negligence towards one of their most active user bases and corresponding communities.
I would love a take from someone at Nabu on this regarding current and upcoming firmware/hardware blocking issues where the open source community can’t help out themselves. Both because of the upcoming stick from Nabu’s side, but also because of their possition as partners with access to priority lines and other means of communication channels besides the one we try to use, but SL rarely show up in. @frenck, @balloob, Uwe or Dominic perhaps?
I saved two month of log files from zwavejs-ui and analyzed those with a number of scripts. (I have 66 devices, 40 direct powered and 26 on batteries, number of motion sensors that generate quite some messages)
I noticed two different problems with the Aeotec gen-7 stick (7.20.2 firmware):
Jamming: on average 4-5 times a day, stick jams for about 4-5 seconds, thereafter working fine (until the next short jam)
Locking up: during the two months logging, stick locked up twice, only remedy is a soft reset of the stick.
I noticed from the SLab website and the note above from the SLab engineer that the jamming issue might be solved in 7.21.2, but that the occasional lock-up still is on the list of known problems (even in 7.21.3, see release notes on SLab site).
If I have some time in the coming days, I will update firmware to 7.21.2) and see if jamming issue is indeed fixed.
SiLabs should definitely just open source the firmware at this point. It’s beyond ridiculous…5 years of issues on the 700 series!! Obviously they’re not willing to throw enough dev resources at the issue, so leverage the community. More eyes on it, the better.
Hopefully with the push from the HASS foundation members, things will change.
@wimjanse would appreciate you dropping any results here if you upgrade.
So I updated the Gen-7 stick with 21.2 firmware 3 days ago (from 20.2)
Two days is not much of statistical data, but I already see that the jamming issue is NOT solved, I had 3 jams yesterday and 2 already today.
If someone from Aeotec and/or SiliconLab is following this forum discussion: Could you put some more effort in solving this jamming and locking issue. If this helps you, I have now two months of full ZwaveJS-UI logs that I can make available for analysis (based on 66 ZWave devices, mix of battery and direct powered).
For now, I keep on logging for a few days, then go on holiday, but thereafter I plan to change the Gen-7 for a Gen-5 stick and see whether I get a better performance. I started with HA ZWave 3 months ago (coming from a Fibaro HC2 system), and I’m quite disappointed with the Aeotec Gen-7.
Question: I have no experience with Z-wave 700 based sticks from other vendors, do those have similar issues (I image so, but am not sure). Any update on this would be appreciated
.
I came across this thread looking for firmware updates for the zstick since its been awhile since ive checked in. I’m curious about the issues im seeing here as Im hesitant to upgrade… Im on 7.17.2 and have no issues. A couple dropped RX commands here and there but no dead nodes or anything… it sounds like im better off staying where im at
7.21.3 file can be found at the bottom of the page here:
On the HASS recommended zwave controllers page, they have the following:
700 series:
prefer SDK versions 7.17.2 to 7.18.x
SDK versions 7.19.x are okay
avoid SDK versions before 7.17.2
avoid SDK versions 7.20 to 7.21.3
Note
The SDK version does not have to match the firmware version. If you are unsure which SDK versions a firmware is based on, contact the manufacturer of your device.
Important
You should upgrade the firmware on all 700 and 800 series controllers to a recommended version.
But 7.21.3 is the latest firmware, and assume the SDK matches? So what exactly are we supposed to do here? FYI, I’m still on 7.20.2 firmware/sdk with few issues other than misbehaving Minoston devices.
I notice that Silabs has released firmware version 7.21.4 but it looks like it’s not available from Aeotech yet. Does anyone know whether you can flash the controller with the generic Silabs firmware and which version of the gbl file to use?
As far as I know, there is only one manufacturer for the 700 series chip, being SiliconLabs.Those chips are packaged by various vendors (like Aeotec), but the problem is with the basic hardware/firmware from SiliconLabs for the 700 chip (even mentioned on their website).
With some people a 700 zwave stick is working fine, but with more complex/larger systems, there are lockups and failing/missing devices (see various conversations on this forum).
I have a system with 66 ZWave devices and suffered with lockups and non responsive devices.
The solution for me was to replace my Aeotec Gen7 with an Aeotec Gen5+. I did the replacement in april and have not had any problems with the ZWave devices at all, very happy with this solution.
Transfer from 700 to 500 is quite easy. With zwavejs-ui, the nvm configuration from the 700 can be downloaded, and then uploaded to the 500.
Too bad I have done quite a few firmware updates for some of Z-Wave devices, this kind of operations seems to stress the network and the controller does indeed quite often…
The only hope I’m holding onto is that the HASS folks joined the ZWave alliance board back in September, and maybe they can help fix this dumpster fire. It’s obvious that SL isn’t going to ever solve this issue.
Is it a polite way to say that they dont give a F anymore or are they trying to win some time ?..
