Upgrade path away from Aeotec z-stick gen5

[Quanta]

Greetings all:

A quick search did not reveal any recent info covering all of my questions.

I presently have a Aeotec z-stick gen5 on a usb hub connected to a Rpi4 running HA supervised.

I want to replace the stick because of the usb ‘incompatibility’ as well as not having a backup stick. There are other reasons but these are enough I think.

I am considering either the ZST10 700 or the Aeotec z-stick 7.

Most of my devices are Zooz products though that really shouldn’t matter I think.

So I wonder:

• Is there a less painful path away from Aeotec?
• Are there compelling reasons in the hardware to switch to the Zooz stick instead of the newer Aeotec z-stick 7? The only one(s) I know of might be long range (i can live without it) and Zooz offers 800 series chip option.
• I have seen older posts raising concerns about Aeotec support / market presence. Is this still an issue?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

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[BebeMischa]

Whatever you choose, I can only tell you out of my own experience and daily reading around here, stay away from Aeotec, if you can.

7 series Aeotec stick is the only one out of all Zwave sticks, that is discussed here almost daily. And not because of its qualities
8 series is too early to judge, but also too early to recommend.

I own 10 Aeotec sensors, and I’m getting rid of that crap, between all my Zwave devices from different manufacturers they are the only ones misbehaving very badly.

I swear by the stability of the Zwave.me stick, even if it is 5 series, but does Zwave+, S2 security flawlessly.

I also have very good experience with anything from Fibaro, Qubino, Hank, Technisat (rebranded Hank), and not perfect, but reasonable quality of Neo Coolcam.

[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

You will want to read this thread.

Upgrading Aeotec Stick Gen 5 and restore NVM with error

Note: doing this with a fallback strategy requires two sticks. The one running zwavejs was 1.1, in ordered a new stick and it came with 1.2. This way if the upgrade doesn’t go well you have the ability to go back to the 1.1 stick. I did this today and it worked. Shutdown hass and zwave on production system Remove the 1.1 stick from production system and plugged into PC Run aoetec Gen 5 backup tool and created an NVM backup on a stick with 1.1. Exited the tool, unplugged the 1.1 stick and pl…

[PeteRage]

Step 1 is to check the firmware version on the Aoetec Gen 5 stick. If you are at version 1.1 while you can do an NVM backup from zwavejs, the backup will not be able to be restored to any other stick other than an Aoetec Gen 5 1.1 stick. Note, if you order a new Gen 5 stick it most likely will have 1.2 on it. So this can put you in a position of having a backup but being unable to restore it.

[Quanta]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and observations. I really appreciate it. FWIW this is what Z-Wave JS Control panel says I have:

"productLabel": "ZW090",
  "productDescription": "Z‐Stick Gen5 USB Controller",
  "manufacturer": "AEON Labs",
  "firmwareVersion": "1.2",
  "sdkVersion": "6.81.6",
  "protocolVersion": 3,
  "endpointsCount": 0,

I just got done adding to my troubles by trying the 2023.6.1 core update. It did not go well! I know i have something put together wrong and until I figure that out I can’t move forward much.

My best option might be to buy and test two of whatever stick looks best, throw them in a drawer and understand what is wrong with my config. Then I can decide whether to fix > convert > update, update > fix > convert or update > delete zwave & start over. Having alternative hardware will help some in the event of a disaster.

Another thing I think I read here suggested that there might be a kind of standardized vendor agnostic export/backup import/restore functionality for ?some? sticks sometime in the future. Have I understood this correctly? I wouldn’t wait long for it but I can afford to focus elsewhere for a bit and hope…

Thanks again to all. I look forward to your thoughts on the question above as well - if you find the time.

Regards,
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[PeteRage]

Since your stick is on 1.2, zwavejs should be able to perform an NVM backup and should be able to restore that to other gen5 and gen7 sticks.

[Quanta]

Thanks Pete.

Sorry to be a bit slow on the uptake here but are you saying NVM backup in this context Aeotec gen5 can be restored to a Zooz gen7 stick? That sounds too good to be true!

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[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

That’s exactly what they said. All sticks basically use the same Silicon labs silicon so the tools can backup one and restore to another as long as your starting stick is functional and relatively up to date.

[Quanta]

Thanks Nathan /(all)

I just couldn’t believe my lying cognition!

Looks like it is now it is down to Zooz ZST10 700 or ZST39 800 LR. I don’t need the extra power of the '800 and it isn’t yet supported anyway. loosing mesh - which I think would happen - wouldn’t be great so I will probably opt for the ZST10.

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