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?
Any news on where we can find the firmware 7.21.4 or later for Z-stick 7 ?
Hi there,
I’m on 7.20.2 currently. Can it get any better than that?
My battery powered devices from Zooz seem to struggle so much these days… I have a ton of transmission errors.
Any other dongle in 700 series more reliable that Aeotec? It has been a sh** show for a while now 
Thanks,
G.
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.
I had a Z-Stick 5+ before… I don’t fancy going back to be honest.
I will keep an eye on the health of my network for now and check if at some point Silicon Labs releases a “stable” firmware for that thing.
I just upgraded to 7.21.4. It seems OK so far.
Let’s see if it stays like this 
Where can i find it ?
Found it here :
Do you have anymore info on the 7.21.4 upgrade! Is it stable?
I think that we are now on 7.21.5 Update Z-Pi 7 with ZWaveJS UI (V7.18.2 -> V7.21.5) : Aeotec Help Desk
And, according to SiliconLabs release notes, the jamming issue still isn’t resolved fixed for the gen-7.
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.
I restart the JSUI AddOn every night as a drastic workaround to keep the network running. While we wait for a firmware fix, does anyone have a more non-drastic workaround than restarting the JSUI?
I was so fed up with the failing network (and complaints from the family) that I thrashed the Gen7 and replaced it with a Gen5+.
Since then, everything running smoothly.
The Home Assistant Zwave Controllers page has changed to:
700 series:
- prefer SDK versions 7.17.2 to 7.18.x or 7.21.6 and newer
I went ahead and upgraded to 7.21.6 (link) about a week ago, and everything has been rock solid. This is the first time in a long time I’ve seen any change on their recommended version of firmware for the 700 series.
Pretty sure the 800 series recommendation has also changed, although I don’t watch that as closely.
Can’t wait for HASS’ Zwave stick in the near future.
In the “Fixed Issues” section for this update
ID # Description
1361392 Fixed RAIL handling where multiple TX and RX radio events could be part of the same callback, confusing
the state machine. It would leave the stack in a state where it was not able to receive packets.
Could this have been the culprit??
I finally took the plunge and upgraded my z stick from the default 7.17.2 firmware to the latest 7.21.6 using the nodejs method and initially worked great… but day 2 saw the same issue of failing commands 
I assume you have your USB controller stick on a USB extension cable to get it away from your motherboard/computer? It makes all the difference.
yes I have a 20cm USB extension
Out of curiosity, have you ever tried a longer extension cable? 20cm doesn’t seem like much. Mine is a 120cm to get it well away from the noisy motherboard, and just outside the rack my equipment is in, and I’ve actually thought about going longer, up to 300cm to get it outside the small room the rack is in (under stairs in basement) with some metal building materials nearby.
No i have not tried anything longer