I’m wondering if anyone has experience with the Z-Station. I’m setting up a system in a family members home, and they have purchased things from multiple vendors that utilize different protocols. The Z-Station appeals to me as it would use fewer USB ports, supports all the major protocols, has external antennas, and can be moved away from the equipment rack and mounted somewhere with less EMI.
I’m currently using a Rpi4 with 8GB. I suppose my alternative to using the Zstation is a Zooz 800 stick for Z-Wave, a SkyConnect for thread, and another SkyConnect or Sonoff adapter for ZigBee? And a collection of USB extensions/stands for the various dongles.
Well Thread and Zigbee are expected to work on the SkyConnect, I believe there is a firmware issue currently that they are working on, but it currently can do either separately depending on the firmware flashed. I also know that USB 3.0 controllers can cause EMI issues.
I don’t have a horse in this race so to speak, just trying to navigate my setup situation as best I can. I’d definitely like feedback from anyone using one.
It is an issue with the SiLabs multiprotocol stack - however the owner of those components for Matter etc. Have said it’s very low priority. Basic function is prioritized… So read:don’t expect it anytime soon. Use two separate dongles.
You don’t really need any USB dongles to have a very robust setup.
While I can’t speak to the Z-Station, other than noting its negative reviews on Amazon and other issues I’ve read about their UZB stick, I personally think the Z-Wave JS UI software is excellent, and the Zooz products very reliable, so I’d go with them any day of the week. Since Z-wave doesn’t benefit from an extension cable the same way Zigbee does, no need unless range/coverage is an issue. So if you really hate dongles you can use the ZAC93 attached directly to the Pi header.
Zigbee, on the other hand, is degraded by interference with USB3 ports, so If I were adding Zigbee today I would probably get a Sonoff bridge running Tasmota to talk to zigbee2mqtt. Athom sells them pre-flashed, or get it on Aliexpress for less and flash it yourself, and put it anywhere you want in the house.
And if I needed Thread, I would take a close look at the devices I already have/need because increasingly there are Thread Border Routers built-in to many routers and smart speakers (in fact, one of the main complaints I see is having too many Thread Border Routers that don’t mesh with each other). The Nest and Eero options, in particular, are interesting because it’s always best to replace a lousy ISP router if you haven’t already.
Z-Wave USB controllers are also affected by USB 3.0 noise, maybe the Pi hat is not. Adding an extension cable is the first recommendation in the Z-Wave JS general troubleshooting guide.
Did a NVM Backup from Z-Stick 7.
Shutdown the Z-waveJS Server. Plug off the Z-Stick and plug in the Z-Station.
Turn on the Z-WaveJS Server. Change the changed the serial port to the Z-Station.
And finally restore the NVM.
In total less than 5 minutes.
I tested the Z-Station before only with one single Plug. And range is definitely much more wider than with the Z-Stick.
I do not habe any issues with the Z-Station in total with 92 Z-Wave Devices.
But also with the Z-Stick I didn’t had any issues except since the last 2 updates the problems with the sporadic dead nodes.
The same with ZigBee. Switched from Aeotec Zi-Stick to Z-Station.
tl;dr: it doesn’t work well, at least for me, and has much worse range than the ConBee III, at least for Zigbee.
I had the same issues as @Arcalos. The Zigbee network LQIs all dropped significantly after switching from the Conbee III to the Z-Station, which is kind of absurd since the Conbee III doesn’t even have an external antenna. I did not test Z-Wave, as a crappy Zigbee network is a non-starter for me.
Guess I’m returning it and getting a Zooz ZST39 instead, and will just run two USB sticks.
Part of the reason I was so attracted to the Z-Station, despite the price, was the multiprotocol support for Zigbee, Thread, and BT. Turns out, the multiprotocol firmware isn’t supported by the ‘ember’ driver in Zigbee2MQTT, so you have to downgrade to the deprecated ‘ezsp’ driver, so that part is pretty useless to me.
Plus, apparently unless you run a specific command immediately after upgrading to the multiprotocol CPC firmware, or if something else connects to it first, you lose the binding key forever and your Z-Station is bricked from any future firmware upgrades or downgrades. Can’t even go back to the Zigbee-specific firmware. There is a warning about this in the docs, but they don’t specify what you’re supposed to do or how to get the info. The tooling to swap firmwares is a pain, and so on. Basically, I think it is a great idea that is poorly executed. May just be too early.
So much for being too clever! Honestly, this is kind of better, since it’s both cheaper and you can swap out the sticks for future upgraded radios whereas with the Z-Station you’re pretty wed to Z-Wave.Me for both Zigbee and Z-Wave.
I installed it on a bare metal install on an HP NUC, and it’s been running great for two months. Only issue is that Z-WAVE JS UI lists it as unknown product.
“dbLink”: “Z-Wave JS Config DB Browser”,
“manufacturerId”: 327,
“productId”: 769,
“productType”: 1025,
“productLabel”: “Unknown product 0x0301”,
“productDescription”: “0x0401”,
“manufacturer”: “Z-Wave.me”,
“firmwareVersion”: “7.40”,
“sdkVersion”: “7.20.1”,
“protocolVersion”: 3,
Had Dead Nodes with Z-Stick 7, Firmware 7.21.2 minimum one per day.
Honestly, this is kind of better, since it’s both cheaper and you can swap out the sticks for future upgraded radios whereas with the Z-Station you’re pretty wed to