Zwave Aeotec Z-PI7, ZWA025

HI, anyone who knows, has a Zwave Z-PI7,
ZWA025, from Aeotec and knows if it is backwards compatible for zwave generation Aeotec 5.
Would use for Rpi4.
I have an Aeotec 5 but it can not be used in Rpi4 without usb hub, have tried but failed to get it started

The Z-Pi 7 is not widely supported as yet, Aeotec is primarily setting it for developers of controller software to be able to test it with their software. So if you do get it, make sure whatever controller software you are using has definitely added support for it first.

Aeotec did release an updated version of the Z-Stick 5 last year, called the Z-Stick Gen5 Plus which works in the raspberry pi 4, as well as having some upgraded features (Comparison here, including the Z-Pi 7 as well)

There is a guide for transferring your existing Z-Wave network from your original Z-Stick to the new Plus model here, although it requires a Windows installation to perform.

Depending on your controller software, you may be able to then add your original Z-Stick as a secondary controller in your Z-Wave network to provide a greater coverage area and act as a backup controller in case something happens to your new controller. For that to work, you would need your controller software to have “SUC/SIS” support.

Hope all this helps you out

Thanks for the answer.
From Aeotec Support,
Hi ​Christian,
Z-PI 7i is compatible with all Raspberry PI models with GPIO connector.
Also with Raspberry PI 4.

Best regards

Sebastian Putz
Field Application Engineer
Aeotec

Since Aeotec has replied that it works with Rpi 4 has ordered a Z-PI7, should cancel it?

They’ll be talking about it being electrically compatible. Basically that the GPIO pins on the Z-Pi line up with the right pins on the raspberry Pi.
If you have some software to run on the raspberry Pi that definitely works with the Z-Pi 7, then you may as well keep the order. But if the software you’re using does explicitly state it supports the Z-Pi, or at least 700 series z-wave chipsets, then I’d cancel the order and get a controller that has more established support like the gen5+, or the UZB or something like that

HI again,
the motive that I want Z-PI7 was that I had bought RaspberryPi4 installed HassOS with SSD and my old Aeotec5 no longer works with RPi4 without USB hub.
So I decided to invest in the future with the Z-PI7.
In my old RPi3 + with Aeotec5 I only have my Zwave sensors, switches, Dlink camera, IKEA wireless lamps with the ConBee Dresden stick, which works well.
That’s just what I want to move to the new RPi4 ssd with the new Z-PI7.
Im a bit confounded right now if it is not possible to integrate all my old ones.
Are there a chance to fix them or should cancel Z-PI7?

The Z-Pi is a developer kit, meant for software developers to test with, rather than a end-user product. So if you do get it, the software on the raspberry Pi might not be able to use it. If you’re using Home Assistant’s old built in Z-wave integration, or the openzwave beta, neither of them support the Z-Pi 7, and neither of them will be getting updates to support it in the near future.
ZwaveJS is what Home Assistant will be moving to for zwave in the future, but at this early stage it doesn’t have support for 700 series z-wave devices like the Z-Pi yet either, and it’s not likely to have that support added particularly soon unless you can jump in and code it all in for them (which, if you can, please do, that would be amazing).

For a Z-wave network you are using now, I’d suggest the Z-Stick Gen5+, or a UZB stick based on the Z-Wave 500 series.

It’s a little disappointing, I’d love to have the battery life and upspecced processor that the 700 chips support, be realistically it’s going to still be a year or more before the support will be there for them to work.

Another option, if your older Pi3 is still working, is to use zwave2mqtt to connect the old Aeotec stick you currently have to home assistant over the network.
I don’t exactly know how to set it up so it’s running on one Pi and home assistant is running on another (my z-stick is connected directly to my Home Assistant Pi), but a lot of people on here do, and I’m sure they can help you get that running. Then you wouldn’t need to upgrade your controller at all, and you can hold off until 700 series controllers are supported :blush:

Thanks for that.
I canceled the order and ordered Aeotec 5 instead.
Regards Christian

Update

Hi all, sorry to pull this old thread up again;

I’m kinda preparing myself for the arrival of the home-assistant yellow, so snatched myself a CM4 (lite) the RPi IOboard, a PCIE NVME ssd adapter and a Samsung NVME SSD. it was quite a hassle migrate from SD-card to SSD (eventually used the _yellow image, a usb-nvme adapter and Balena etcher and HA restore) boots fine now.

Now I’m trying to add the Aeotec z-pi7 but can’t get it to work. Apparently I have to disable BT to get it working but on HASSOS 8.2 there is no boot partition that I can mount and therefore also no config.txt to edit, On mac I tried to mount with the USB-nvme adapter. but even with macfuse/ext4fuse I was unable to mount the partitions

Who can help me get it working?
(alternatively I might convert the z-PI7 into an USB adapter)