Question. I have moved from a previous house in which I used a Vera controller which they provided a remote hub to walk around and install paired devices which was great. I really wanted to switch to Home Assistant and try that, so I setup a VirtualBox on my desktop running a Zwave USB stick. My question is, is there something out there you can use to remotely pair devices that are not close to the hub/stick like Vera provided. I can’t really drag my Desktop around the house to get close enough to the device =) There’s an older product called the Aeon minimote which doesn’t appear to be available anymore. Maybe there’s something similar today to buy… Personally, I think this is one of the things I’ve always hated about Z-wave is the pairing of devices since it’s always been such a hassle b/c of the distance restriction and I’m surprised this has never been resolved based on today’s technology. So it forces most people to run there automation systems on a laptop/PI so you can get the device close enough to pair them. Anyway, just wondering if there is something out there to buy these days to pair devices that are 50’ away without having to drag a PC around house =) I don’t want to run the virtualbox on a laptop. Maybe using Smartthings instead is the best option with a 100’ ethernet cable to get a hub close enough. Hopefully, there are some options w/ Home Assistant though since I’d really like to use it, but I have switches and door locks installed that are further than just a couple feet away from the ZWave stick on the my PC. Thanks for any options…
Since UI7 vera ditched the support for low power inclusion. High power inclusion is the default there now. Since most (150+) of my zwave devices paired succesfully on their final destination I had no troubles with it. Also for my homeassistant openzwave I had no issues on inclusion on distance. So I would say go for it…
Hmm, that’s good to know. My door locks are around 50’ away, but they won’t pair, but all my sensors and so forth that are not attached and can be closer to the HUSBZB-1 stick in my PC pair fine. Maybe there’s a distance problem w/ the HUSBZB-1 ZWave/Zigbee stick not sure.
It can well be a problem of radio interference or vera being too “chatty” at time of pairing. Larger distance means more “interference” and thus less succes on pairing. Due to the chattiness of Vera it may well be it is not succesfull at all… I for example have too many devices paired meaning lots of traffic and wake ups disturbing the pairing process. There are lots of topics on the vera forum about this problems. Thats why I started with homeassistant bout 6 months ago… and now in the process of stepping over to openzwave… but thats quite a process … moving the brains and the heart from one patient to another 
Secure Pairing generally requires a closer distance to the radio, in my experience. Though I’ve been pairing my locks in HA in place. Otherwise, I always pair in place and have never had an issue with that.