*Sticky?* Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 - Raspberry Pi4

Hi,

I did’t try this. But maby this helps.

Hello
After a bad USB hub, U1 on the stick has burnt.
Do you know what is the component?

Thanks! Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 is now working on my Pi 4.

Hi,
it also worked for my Aeotec Gen5 ZStick EU frequency version. I atteched one 1kOhm, two 200Ohm and one 100Ohm resistor as I didnt have a suitable one at hand.
I also updated the firmware to version 4.54 as my stick still had version 3.95 on it.

Thank you @liamstears for the detailed description of this hack :slight_smile:

Same here. Cant find the SDK that is crucial to downloading the PC program.
Anyone that can share a link where they found the SDK and possible a screenshot aswell. =)

New link for software: https://siliconlabs.force.com/s/validatezwsdk?ContentId=0681M000006WUzV%20&ContentType=SDK&rURL=https%3A//www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/z-wave/embedded-sdk.html

You must register to download

I have the oldest one. Version 3.95.
Can I still use it with the RPi 4? Besides the hardware mod, do I also need a firmware upgrade?
If so, where can I find the firmware?

The firmware is not made available and taken down by Aeotec, I guess due to issues/bricking of the stick so it’s not advised.

However the hardware mod should work fine and get you up and running :+1:

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Thanks for replying. I think I can do that mod, but I get cold feet because I don’t have a way to get a new one, should I screw it up.

Edit: I also don’t think there’s physical room behind my Pi to connect another dongle, so I guess I’ll go with the hub.

Hi, all. I landed here because I have an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 but a Raspberry Pi 3B+. My issue is that the Z-Stick is not recognized at boot time. BUT if I unplug it and plug it in again, it comes up and everything’s fine.

I’m using the Pi to run zwave2mqtt to call my Home Assistant which is currently on a Hyper-V VM (Hyper-V cannot pass through USB devices, oy!)

I tried the cheap unpowered Sabrent USB hub, but that didn’t fix anything.

Tonight I got a solution working, which involves compiling a short .c program that can reset the USB bus. This is a software equivalent to unplugging and plugging back in the USB devices.

The downside is that it takes all USB devices offline. I tried targeting only the Z-Stick but it doesn’t work.

I don’t have a storage device on USB (yet), but my network goes down and back up again. But hey, it works fine for me, so I figured I’d share this non-hardware-hacking solution for anyone else who ends up here with a RPI3.

Do be aware that if you have a sensitive device on USB like a hard drive, this might not be the best solution for you. A hard drive might not like being dropped off the USB bus in this manner.

Here’s where I found the C program usbreset.c: https://gist.github.com/x2q/5124616

Compile it with: gcc -o usbreset usbreset.c

Here’s the bash script I use to call it, targeting the Aeotec device:

#!/bin/bash

USBNAME=0424:9514
LSUSB=$(lsusb | grep --ignore-case $USBNAME)
FOLD="/dev/bus/usb/"$(echo $LSUSB | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields='2')"/"$(echo $LSUSB | cut --delimiter=' ' --fields='4' | tr --delete ":")
echo $LSUSB
echo $FOLD
sudo /root/usbreset/usbreset $FOLD; #The path where you have the usbreset executable

I have my .c source, compiled binary and bash script in /root/usbreset.

I modified my zwave2mqtt systemctl service definition to call my bash script before executing zwave2mqtt via docker-compose.

My systemctl service definition for zwave2mqtt looks like this:

# /etc/systemd/system/zwave2mqtt.service

[Unit]
Description=zwave2mqtt Docker Service
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service

[Service]
User=root
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
WorkingDirectory=/root/zwave2mqtt
ExecStartPre=/root/usbreset/resetusb.sh
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/docker-compose up -d
ExecStop=/usr/local/bin/docker-compose down
TimeoutStartSec=0
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=zwave2mqtt

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Works very well, and I may not need to break out the soldering iron at all.

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Hi,

I managed to get the Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 it to work with Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 8GB.
If you add a USB 2.0 hub between the stick and the Raspberry Pi 4 it works.

z-stick

I needed to connect to /dev/serial/by-id/usb-0658_0200-if00 and NOT the /dev/ttyAMA0 device i used on the Pi3

This modification works great !!!

Done with a 1k and 510 ohm resistor in series. To make soldering easier, you can first fix the resistors with hot glue.

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Hello

I switched from a PI3 to a PI4 at the beginning of January and I encountered the power supply problem of my AEOTEC GEN5 key. I made the board modification with the 1.5Ko resistor.
Since then the key is well recognized on my PI4 but I noticed that I regularly lost contact with the Zwave peripherals furthest away from the key. The physical configuration has not changed for 2 years and I had never had this problem with the PI3.
I have the impression that once modified, the key no longer has the same range.
Have you encountered the same thing?
Sincerely

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Take a look at: https://github.com/AdamNaj/ZWaveGraphHA to check if your stick is communicating directly to those remote devices or if they link through other z-wave devices (which is most likely). Doubtful that the modification has anything to do with your problem.

I am under Jeedom and the Zwave plugin allows to visualize how the modules communicate with each other. What I notice is that there is a lot of direct communication with the controller and very little meshing between the modules. And it wasn’t like that before the migration.

Assuming you did the modification correctly (didn’t touch any other component, no solder splashes anywhere on the PCB, etc), this will only affect the signaling on the USB bus. It will not modify the RF part in any way, so it can’t affect the range.

Was this a hardware only migration or did you also change the zwave integration in HA ?

If HW only, there is another difference between the Pi3 and the Pi4: USB3 ports. These are known to cause interference with certain RF devices if too close to the port. Try to use a short USB extension cable to connect your ZStick to the Pi.

Hi, just thought I’d share this:

I definitely have the third stick. But it still doesn’t work with my Pi4 directly. I have to use a powered USB2 Hub.

you don’t need a powered USB2 hub…it will work fine on a Pi4 with just a really cheap usb2 hub.

How do you know you have the very latest stick?

Hi, i have same problem with pi4 and aeotec zstick.
So if i do this resistor moddification, it’s ok ?
No need to flash FW or oher ?

the resistor fix works…but an unpowered USB 2 hub is maybe $6 on EBAY…less if you want it shipped from China.

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