I am looking for suggestions on a decent Z-Wave hub that can attach via CAT-6 or WiFi and work with Home Assistant.
Already looking at a ZigBee network hub, potentially the ZigStar UZG-01 or something similar. I’m also considering just breaking out the soldering iron, grabbing some ESP32’s and making my own for both ZigBee and Zwave.
Thoughts and suggestions?
My main suggestion is to use the forum search! This topic comes up every few months, and the answers don’t change much.
Copy paste form previous post might get you started with a few more keywords to search…
Z-Wave was deployed at scale in large hotel buildings using remote coordinator modules (i.e. one per 1-2 rooms despite a 240 device limit) powered by PoE and controlled centrally over Ethernet. Sadly, the protocols were never released so FOSS couldn’t try to support the hardware.
TL;DR Add more Z-Wave routing (mains powered) devices to extend the mesh, rather than moving the co-ordinator. Unless you own a major hotel in Vegas! 
If you have a specific need to run remote virtulisation, etc it might be possible to run Z-Wave JS on a remote device with the coordinator (RPi4 with PoE?), but then you’re into a world of your own mapping ports and interfaces remotely and supporting the custom environment.
Oh, and for Zigbee, friends don’t let friends buy a Sonoff ZBridge:
If this helps, 
this post!
Pi with docker running zwavejsui works and connects over ethernet.
I personally would like an ethernet zwave dongle solution to eliminate need to manage remote Server. Extending was not possible due to distance >100’
After a check, Digikey has one ACC-ZIPR-CE-U in stock for £50, however:
- Software support will be limited to your own custom stack probably needing the Silicon Labs reference Z/IP code to talk to the ZIPR, and significant HASS development.
- To quote DigiKey, “This product is no longer manufactured and will no longer be stocked once stock is depleted.” No surprise, given the coordinator kit was launched almost ten years ago.
https://www.digikey.co.uk/en/products/detail/ACC-ZIPR-CE-U/703-1084-ND/4135447
I’m guessing at some point the rumoured Vegas hotels using Z-Wave will have refurbished their IT, but there’s no hits for a ZIPR on eBay. I almost bought one back in the day to play with, but though the amount of WireShark work needed to get the radio talking to software stack
These days, the concept of a remote <insert protocol> to Ethernet gateway for commercial use seems to have moved on from one dumb remote radio gateway (ZIPR) to giving every end device an IPv6 address and a Thread Border Router in Matter.
Sadly the flood of cheap, low quality devices (e.g. Zigbee) leads to poorly integrated and insecure commercial systems for apartments - stick an Android landfill tablet into a 3d-printed wall mount and hope no one audits the design…
At least protocols like Z-Wave and Thread/Matter have mandatory certification including security testing.
The search landed me at older post so was hoping for a more updated conversation. I’m starting out and currently have 0 ZWave devices and have some ZigBee in the form of Phillips Hue.
My HASs install is on a VM in my rack in the far corner of my basement, that’s not moving and I really done have any plans for ZWave in that part of the house. Plus, for transportability would like to have something accessible over the network.
I did see a project that had both ZWave/Thread and ZigBee on a board that used an ESP32 to then push that over Ethernet (not wireless) which would be the better option for me.
Open to all suggestions and was hoping for an updated conversation on the topic, and will look at the link provided.
Personally, if I were starting out now, I’d go for Thread + Border Router + Matter and skip Z-Wave and Zigbee.
If this helps, this post!
I’ll take the other side of that this time James… Matter isn’t there yet for me. Still too many issues and not enough reliability nor troubleshooting tools yet to make it a daily driver. (I very much prefer my spouse not yell at me because the lights aren’t working)
Personally, probably going to give it another 6mo to a year to cook. Once they get the commissioning cred sharing sorted, I’ll probably consider moving it into my architecture. Until then, I’m ‘just watching’ I’m afraid.
I would however probably lean heavily zigbee if possible and specifically seek zigbee products or Wi-Fi products with a verified migration path to matter equivalents. (known matter bridge exists or firmware updatable) I do think it’s more of a when than an If. But for me not quite yet…
So a couple of devices I’m looking at getting only support Z-Wave, and I’m looking to take over control of the Hue bulbs away from the Hue Hub and Phillips brain fart they are going through so need ZigBee for that. So I need to be able to support both.
Matter is a standard and not a protocol, as such it can use the ZigBee, Z-Wave, and Thread protocols, as well as WiFi and Ethernet for transport.
HASS already takes care of Matter, so I just need to solve the transport. I’m hoping to find a device that can do Thread/ZigBee and another one that can do Z-Wave and each have an Ethernet connection. If I can only get USB, I will need to use a RPi to act as a serial bridge I suppose, but would like to avoid that if at all possible.