I used to buy the Aeotec power strips and while they had a few quirks they worked well enough for my needs. Then they were discontinued. Zooz then appeared to pick up the slack and created their own, now that also appears to be discontinued.
I’m wondering if anyone has insight as to why these useful Z-Wave devices keep going the way of the 8-Track. Just not enough interested buyers? I would think anyone who uses Z-Wave would want at least a couple of these around for so many useful automations (I use them in my server closet, grow tents, media cabinets, etc).
The only things I can find now are the wifi, which I don’t like using because many of them require Internet to work, which tells me that someone is tracking my use of them (otherwise why do they need Internet?) and most seem to be very quirky and temperamental.
I’ve got a couple of wifi power strips, a Meross one and a TCP Tuya one. They both have alternative local-only integrations (Meross LAN and Local Tuya). They’ve been pretty reliable.
Several Z-Wave chips are unobtanium for at least another year. Inovelli has been posting publicly that they have no Z-Wave switches left to sell because they can’t get chips to make more…
Perhaps that’s it. I’ve been waiting on my Inovelli 5-button switch for a couple years now , they are pretty good at letting folks know what is going on, and in fact just updated the post on their forums about that 5 button.
Yeah, I can pop in to provide some context. Ours is a simple story as to why we don’t sell them anymore, which is that we switched manufacturers 3ish years ago after getting kinda shafted on a contract and at the time, we white-labeled (just means that we took the manufacturers existing design and put our firmware and name on it) them so we were not able to take them with us to our new manufacturer.
The only reason why we haven’t created our own design is not having enough capital to create one. They did sell really well when we sold them and I miss the 2-Channel.
But, yes, I would assume the chip shortage is playing a huge roll in the other companies not having any in stock. I can’t imagine they’re discontinued.
I didn’t even know you had a power strip! As a die-hard Inovelli fan I would certainly have gotten one if I knew, but I’m a day late and a dollar short .
Lol, it’s ok – I think they’re still being sold w/our firmware under a different brand:
The outdoor version holds a special place in my heart bc it was the first one we designed on our own – lesson learned about making sure we owned the IP, but oh well…
Appreciate the kind words though, that means a lot!
I recommend against buying the Zooz power strip zen 20. It was a major pain in the ass to get and keep working on multiple z-wave networks and then died. Zooz would not replace it, out of warranty. The Version 2 has a lack of inrush current protection and apparently cannot handle a 12 volt DC power adapter. OOF.
, they are pretty good at letting folks know what is going on, and in fact just updated the post on their forums about that 5 button.