Who knows what is best to use with HA Yellow, the Z-Stick or the Z-PI, and why?
I will ALWAYS pick a USB stick over a GPIO header device when dealing with a PI if possible.
Pi are hotbeds of radio interference, many of us recommend putting your Zwave and Zigbee (and probably Thread when it comes) radios on short USB extensions or USB2 hubs to get them away from the sources of USB3 radio interference (Wifi in the Pi also is noisy for Zigbee).
I mean I know the folks working on the Yellow probably thought about that and did things to interveneā¦ but with all the problems Iāve had with ANY coordinator stick plugged DIRECTLY into a PI and how itās easily solved with a short extension - Iām getting these things outside the case - that means no GPIO. USB form factor every time.
Also, itās more versatile. You can plug into a Windows PC, a machine hosting a hypervisor, a NUC. Youāre not limited to devices with GPIO headers.
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In my Yellow Iāve been using a Z-Pi 7 for a couple of weeks now and it has been reliable. Iāve picked this one because it fits nice in the case.
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That is what i was thinking, āit fits niceā but, i will be missing the portable option to work with it on a PC.
Also for backups etc.
I do like the Z-Pi, but im afaid it will loos connection or transmission. My Yellow wil be in a closet, it has bad reach inside it already.
Where did you get your Z-Pi 7? Iāve been trying to find one to no avail and Aeotec are saying they arenāt going to make anymore.
Have you tried that is it possible to upgrade firmware of Z-Pi with Yellow?
Havenāt checked yet. Right now it works great, so didnāt got the incentive to update.
Ok, I was just wondering is it safer to have usb stick which you can always update on Win pc. Hopefully somebody could try the firmware update on Yellow and share the results 
Iāve set up my Yellow recently, and I have a Z-Pi 7 that Iām trying to get working, without any luck.
I thought it had successfully set up, but I am unable to pair any devices. Did you have any issues setting it up? Was there any steps you had to take?
This is the device info that shows up:
I am using a Compute module with wifi/Bluetooth; I have found something that suggests that the Bluetooth needs to be turned off for the Z-Pi 7 to work, but I havenāt figured out how to do this, if itās possible.
I edited config.txt to disable Bluetooth on my HA Yellow PoE. In my case, I simply removed my NVME drive and installed it in a USB enclosure. This allows the drive to be easily mounted on my MS Windows PC, where it was very easy to edit config.txt.
HAOS does not provide a simple method to edit config.txt.
If you loaded HAOS on the CM4ās eMMC storage, it might be simplest to boot the system via its USB-C port (after moving the jumpers on the board appropriately), using ārpibootā on another Windows or Linux system. There is a way to then mount the eMMC drive on Windows/Linux and should allow you to edit config.txt.
Hope this helps!
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Thanks. I came across something that mentioned this, thanks for confirming itās not accessible via HA. Yes, I am running the OS off of the RPI eMMC.
Iāll see if I can try that this weekend, Iām waiting for a USB-C cable to mount the Yellow.
I appreciate your assistance.
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I was able to add a Zooz 800 series Z-wave radio fairly easily once I disabled HAOS from using the CM4ās Bluetooth radio. I was able to pair an old GE Z-Wave switch very easily using Z-WaveJS. It worked fine for some simple testing. However, I use Lutron Caseta these days. 
Here is a the Zooz module I used.
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Neat. Cheap compared to the Aeotec, does it plug directly into the mini GPIO like the Z-Pi 7? I wonder how they compare.
I also use Lutron too, Iāve finally gotten around to installing some of the new Diva dimmers I got a while ago (for some, I was waiting for the new accessory switch for 3-way installations which just came out recently).
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Take a look at the second picture in the following post to see the Zooz Z-Wave module installed on my Yellow. It fits easily under the Yellowās case.
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Not really sure why your Z-Pi canāt pair, according to you screenshot itās setup correctly. Iām also using a CM4 that got Bluetooth and WiFi. Havenāt turned it off, but also not using it. Have you connect it with an ethernet cable and do youāve got a PoE version?
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Thanks for the response. I do have the PoE version, although im powering it through an adapter instead of PoE at this time. Iām going to put this aside for now, most of my Zigbee and all Z-wave devices are connected to a Hubitat which is working. My goal will be to move everything to the Yellow when I can, I only have a few Z-Wave devices so itās not as big a priority. I may order the Zooz adapter that Ogiewan mentioned, itās fairly cheap.
Could you point to an installation guide or instructions for the physical install and set up process for this outcome please?
Thereās no guide that Iām aware of, but if I remember correctly itās pretty straight forward. Connecting the Z-Pi 7 on the GPIO pins can only be done one way in the enclosure. When adding the Z-Wave JS integration (on Home Assistant OS) it helps you to install the add-on. After that it should recognise your Z-Pi 7 as Z-Wave controller in the configuration dialog.
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To get the best range, use the RaZberry 7 Pro board. It fits perfectly in Yellow and comes with an external antenna.
It works with ZWaveJS as well as with the Z-Wave.Me integration. You can choose one or the other.
The antenna is a Linx Technologies one:
