I’m looking to install a few GE wall dimmers to PI + USB z-wave + Home Assistant.
But I’m a bit scared by some of the posts on how much trouble others have had with zwave. And then there’s others who have had no issues whatsoever. Some posts don’t state which USB z-wave stick they’re using.
Is there some agreement about which USB z-wave adapter work best? A lot of people use the Aeotec Gen 5 zwave plus. But for half the price, you can get the Sigma Designs UZB USB adapter. Does it make a difference in terms of how easy it is to get things working?
For z-wave dimmers/switches, is there a way to spawn actions when the switch is manually turned on? So that you can turn on other connected lights when one of them is turned on? Or can you only do that when you push a UI element on the Home Assistant UI?
I can’t comment on the Sigma stick as I only have an Aeotec. It has been mostly fine. In a month of use it has missed one instance when a switch was supposed to activate but did not. Reaction times are ok, up to 2 seconds.
The state of the zwave dimmer or switch you change manually will be sent to and shown in Home Assistant so you can trigger off that. Might be delayed by a second or two but it will change eventually.
I have half a dozen zwave devices in a well meshed setup but frankly I’m not that impressed. I’m going to purchase a couple of Sonoff Pow R2 devices to compare.
Thanks for the feedback. I have a zwave lock to set up and I need an adapter too. I was thinking the aeotec or the nortec Linear HUSBZB-1 (bonus zigbee). I got the lock after some frustration with my august 2nd gen lock which is bluetooth and wifi. I think the grass is always greener when it comes to protcols for home automation
I have an Aeotec and it has been awesome. All my zwave gear is instant. If I turn a light on using the HA GUI, it comes on absolutely instantly. no delay that the eye can see!
I have the Aeotec stick myself and it works great. Just remember that for every person that has a problem in the forums, there are tons more that don’t. Personally, I would choose Z wave over Zigbee, Wifi, or any other protocol any day.
I started with the Sigma (Nortek/Linear) USB adapter because I had a mix of Z-Wave and Zigbee devices from my previous SmartThings setup. At the time the Zigbee Home Automation component for Home Assistant was a work in progress and I found my zigbee devices were not reliable. It’s totally possible that this has changed in the past 9 months since I switched but someone else would have to chime in there.
With the unsatisfactory performance of my zigbee devices, I decided to sell them all and buy Z-Wave equivalents. This built my Z-Wave network up quite a bit (around 25 devices or so), and I started to notice performance issues. Fearing I made a huge mistake, I decided to upgrade from a RPi3 to a laptop running Linux to see if it would help. This did help some, but I still wasn’t seeing the performance I felt that I should have - Z-Wave commands were frequently failing despite having a strong mesh network.
My next step was giving the Aeotec stick a try. In my opinion this was a huge upgrade. My network has been much more reliable and I have zero regrets. I’ve also heard really good things about the Vera controller and am now contemplating giving it a try because it can be connected via network instead of USB, meaning I could place it in a more central location within my home to build an even stronger network. The VeraPlus also has Zigbee which fills that gap the Aeotec stick leaves.
Possibly more info than you were seeking, but hope it helps!
I suppose I could address some of the other questions you asked too lol…
Regarding setup - all device connections and setup are done via Home Assistant and not the stick itself, so not much differed there from what I recall. Be sure to follow the docs on setting up Z-Wave the first time regardless of the stick; I did run into a few hiccups, but nothing that couldn’t be solved by reading directions more carefully
Regarding status updates - I use GE switches and dimmers. I’ve found that the standard switches reflect status updates immediately for both on and off. My dimmers typically reflect status updates when turning on immediately, but rarely ever do so immediately when turning off. As the Z-Wave controller goes through a polling cycle it will eventually update the status for off (60-90 seconds later for me with the number of devices and polling settings I have). Most of my automation setup is driven by sensors (doors/motion/etc.) so I rarely ever toggle a light switch anyhow.
Another thing to think about when buying a stick is that the Aeotec stick has a backup utility (LINK).
This is a separate, windows based application that backs up the memory on the stick. What’s nice is that you could replace a failed stick in a matter of minutes without having to re-pair anything. The Nortek stick cannot do this.
I have both Aeotec Gen 5 Z Stick and Nortek Linear HUSBZB-1. I run all my Z wave devices on Aeotec and Zigbee on husbzb-1. The only reason I’m still using both is because I am lazy to transfer 20+ Z-wave devices. If I am starting out fresh I would go with as it gives you both Z Wave and ZigBee connectivity.
