I have a few sensors and switches operating in Z-Wave standard ( never used, purchased on big sale ). I do not have yet the controller…
What is your opinion about Z-Wave (particularly about OpenZWave) and HA integration…?
I’m asking because I had no chance to use Z-Wave. But now I just started read more about that… And from literature seems better solution than Wi-Fi/Ethernet devices I’m using now…
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/me grabs popcorn and beer, sits back to watch the crapstorm of opinion…
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Honestly everyone is going to have their own opinion and I would try it out and see what works best for you. I’ve tried all three and have a mix of everything. If I can though, I prefer to stay with zwave as I find it works best in my house and I have invested a lot to making my network what it is, which is why it tends to work better for me. I started with HA when the OZ beta was first release and figured I would try it out. I prefer it, even if it’s not ready for primetime, as I did try the old integration and found it didn’t work well with my locks and some other devices without a lot of work.
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I just keep to the facts as I decided 1,5 years ago to go for z-wave (best guess at that time). I have a network of about 60 z-wave devices of different brands and different types. Shutters, dimmers, switches, buttons, smoke, door/window and multisensors, Aeon Doorbell and I like the smart implant from Fibaro (no locks though).
I still use the embedded version based on OZ 1.4 which is very stable now even with all updates of host, core and supervisor. I had to create a few xml device files though in that time.
I have some devices that are not fully functional but I tried the beta releases of the openzwave integration when I switch from the Rpi3 to 4 but that was not stable enough yet for me. Not sure it was the host system or the Openzwave integration (both in beta release). I will wait until the integration is more mature.
Using RPi4, 8Gb with USB SSD boot and compatible Aeotec Z-stick.
Hope it helps.
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I use the embedded Zwave manager. As others have said, it is out of date so I have had to add XML files(which is a pita.) However, seeing the problems with the new OZW integration has kept me away from it. It is listed as “beta” and I think it may be truly “alpha” compared to how well many of the beta softwares tied to HA(HA itself) work.
TLDR;
I stay far away from OZW, my house depends too much on Z-Wave.
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OTOH, I jumped straight into the OpenZWave beta with a migration from Domoticz. I’ve only got a small Z-Wave network with 30 devices, but so far it’s behaved well enough for me to say that I’m sticking with HA and OpenZWave beta, and not going back to Domoticz.
I’ll give you experience instead of opinion.
Using native Z-wave (no add-on):
Speed is slower than expected.
Interface is very bad at showing when devices are added and removed.
Aeotec door sensors never added correctly, lock has similar issues.
Using open z-wave beta add-on:
Speed is even slower than expected.
Interface is VNC over web so it’s a bit clunky at times. At least it shows when assassins and removing devices.
Door sensors and locks added successfully after trying a few times.
Can’t remove dead nodes for some reason.
3rd party hubs:
Started this journey on SmartThings so it has a place in my heart, but the cloud breaks frequently so it’s a no go to me.
It’s an acceptable speed when it works for being a cloud integration.
When you have it connected it’s dead simple if you understand their app.
Hubitat:
I’d say this is my favorite option but my hub died so I’m refusing to let myself buy another newer hub.
Really fast using HACS custom component.
Adding and removing devices via the web interface is super simple.
It’s all local so that’s a big win.
As stated I’d prefer Hubitat but I’m stubborn to spend money on something that served me for 3 years. I know stupid. So now I’m on open z-wave beta add-on which is, I’d say, minimum viable product.
Good luck!
Oh and if I had an optimist not buy z-wave at all and go all WiFi devices… hard for sensors, so Zigbee for those.
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Thank you for the info… Yes, I’ll go for the ZWave. As I also think that this is right direction in term of sensors, range, etc.
Now I’m looking for controller/hub. Not sure yet which one to choose…
Yes, the Hubitat looks very interesting… But the price…
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Yeah it’s more than SmartThings I suppose but local control is priceless when the cloud goes down. And it does A LOT!
Mind boggling how many people accept that.
No offense to them, I was one of them at one point.
You certainly don’t need a hubitat or smartthings. Just buy a compatible usb stick.
Exactly.
Just buy an Aeotec Z stick or a HUSBZB-1 stick.
The latter has the advantage of having both a zwave and a zigbee controller in the same stick.
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+1 for HUSBZB-1 with OZW
Super fast and has been reliable for the past 6 months after some of the latest updates.
HUSBZB-1 stick looks O.K.
However I see major problem - I have ‘Intel-NUC’ installed in metal box.
So radio signal will be blocked…
I would prefer something with cable/external antenna then I could mount the antenna outside the box…
Strange - but I could not find Z-Wave device with possibility to attach external antenna…
Are there any devices like that?
For Zigbee - I see cheap USB sticks with screw to attach 2,4 GHz antenna… But not for Z-Wave…
Or maybe is that an simple hub with both systems (Z-Wave / Zigbee) + Ethernet.
Then I could put this device somewhere in house…
But then I’m not sure if Home Assistant can ‘catch’ the Z-Wave and Zigbee signals via Ethernet…
Just buy a USB Extender.
That’s expected.
A short one works for me but perhaps that’s why I have slow speeds.
Another positive about a hub is that it doesn’t go down after rebooting the HA Host.
I would switch if I wasn’t such a cheapo.
Yes, this could be fine…
P.S. Also -> here <- some more info about the same issue…
But I could not find EU version of the HUSBZB-1.
Looks like it is obsolete…?
This is a really complex issue like on this xkcd, I will try to explain my understanding of the situation as there is no ideal solution.
HA embedded ZWave is handling everything inside HA - device recognition, messages, entity creation etc. Allows reliable but limited configuration (as it lags behind bleeding edge) and recorded states and values are lost when HA has problems or reboots - everyone knows this happens.
OpenZWave (beta) is pretty well integrated with HA in regard to registering devices and device features but comes with preconfigured mosquitto which can become another broker in your setup if mosquitto is already used for zigbee for example. I noticed excessive CPU usage probably due to ZWAve device logs being generated in docker syslog - not nice for all SD Card owners.
Zigbee2MQTT Zwave2MQTT is another take on OpenZWave, this time with pure ZWave integration with existing MQTT gateway, flexible setup but device configuration and stability is lacking, at least in my experience.
Moreover it seems that ozw developer maintaining the library is overwhelmed with work and some issues might not be fixed in reasonable time.
There is a zwavejs2mqtt project which might fill the gap eventually allowing (again) doing one thing only - converting ZWave devices to MQTT messages but as far as I can see it’s HA integration is limited - please somebody correct me if I’m wrong.
As you can see there is no ideal solution - I personally would not switch HA ZWave for OpenZWave (beta) due to duplicate mosquitto broker, Zwave2MQTT Zigbee2MQTT does not configure my Aeotec Gen5 meter, zwavejs2mqtt seems not HA ready unless manually configured with docker + configs.
A tough choice indeed.
I assume you mean zwave2mqtt?
Its called a usb cable!
