Just having an Ethernet jack at all would be a huge improvement. Next time I update my z-wave controller it'll be to something that doesn't have to be USB wired directly to my docker host.
I've been having issues with my MRW10.. Are you using it with ZWaveJS UI? Nodes in the same room are having to use multiple hops to reach the controller. And some nodes are dropping despite being within 5m of another node and maybe a total of 20m to the controller. Most of my devices are Zooz 700 series switches (ZEN77s). Any tips?
I luckily had no issues but I don't have any zooz devices. Silly question but did you make sure you used the correct antenna on the correct socket (radio)? Also what are you using the other radio on the MRW10 for? I use Matter on mine. Sorry I can't really help. The only thing I remember having to do a couple of times was hit the restart button in the top right corner of Z-Wave JS UI. Once when I restored the NVM and then another time after updating the firmware on the SMlight.
Edit: I also rebuilt the network once because I moved the controller.
No problem and not a silly question! Yeah, I did make sure of this re which antenna goes where. I use the other for Matter also. I'll have to keep troubleshooting.
8 exposed GPIO connected to the ESP32-S3, hoping someone comes up with firmware tweak for serial streaming and adding an Ethernet module. Even just enabling the WiFi for a Zwave to WiFi bridge (not as ideal).
Yeah that’s a pretty big miss right there… it’s all well and good having this massive antenna, it’ll still be garbage if I have to put it into my basement.
I use a USB extension dongle system that uses CAT5E to extend usb at 2.0 speeds. Works great for me to get my existing "thumb-sized" z-wave stick to the first floor while my server is in the basement. Same wire has the zigbee dongle plugged in too.
I used a USB repeater cable and my old dongle sits half-way up the main level, inside a wall (I used the old central vac pipes that were also in the server area). Pretty sure it worked fine in the basement but now I have no doubt that all 3 floors of Z-wave devices are 100%... There's really no need to replace it, as long as it keeps working. It's hiding behind a wall plate coax cover up on the wall where they thought you might hook up a TV (and there's a art pieces over that) - easy to replace.
This is ultimately why I moved back to Haos on a Raspberry Pi instead of a VM (on a machine in my server rack in the basement). Yeah it'd be neat if the various antennas could be attached over the network but I was forced to come to the conclusion that a SBC/TMM smack dab in the middle of our living area is the best fit given the current state of the art.
Why not pass through a Hubitat hub ot something I just set that up it was fairly easy. I have an eth Hubitat in my upstairs area for random connections and such that my downstairs won’t reach.
I disagree - they were able to keep the cost down by keeping it USB. If you want to relocate it within your home you can always use a USB over POE connector - costs about $60-70 for one.
I asked about why it couldn't come with a POE port and their response was that the z-wave protocol doesn't work over IP. I doubt they will have one anytime soon.
Thanks to the awesome folks at Nabu Casa, I’m testing ZWA2 in the office with Shelly Wave LR relays and sensors as we speak. It’s light year’s beyond any of the old antennas. I am on the second floor in a 4 story building, on the East side and tested my H&T from the West side of two buildings over. Stunning!
The RSSI wasn't consistent. Sometimes it was -48, other times as high as -51
I believe it would have been much higher if I didn't have the antenna sitting in my network rack, which is in my stock room (which has metal slats in the walls, and an air handler overhead). I wanted to see how it would work in what I call "the Dead Zone," which is particularly bad for Wi-Fi APs, and I was thrilled when it did.
I didn't note the latency and I've moved the sensor to a different hub (one that doesn't support LR, testing to make sure H&T still works in standard Z-Wave mesh, which it does, as expected).
When I am done with the other hubs, I'll move it back to Home Assistant, put my hub and antenna out in my workshop instead of the "dead zone" and get you better numbers of real world performance.
I love how the first response to your comment is “what are you doing wrong?” Anyways, you’re not alone. I started out with a Zooz hub but it was pure garbage. No, literally. It arrived broken from the manufacture. It barely function. I was able to solder it and get a year out of it but it was a year of pain. Just like you, I had to create an automation to let me know when zooz was failing again because nothing pissed me off more than finding out while I’m laying in bed I have no light controls. It eventually just stopped working altogether
No, the first response was “something is wrong” and I would agree. I have this product in production with zero issues. Zooz customer service is well known to be phenomenal and very responsive. They’ve sent me new products instantly if I have a problem. The fact that you accepted a broken product gives you no right to complain about it.
Oh I didn’t “accept”. There was back and forth with Amazon because somehow somewhere it got broken. This is what’s wrong with this sub. People like you just blame people for discussing their issues or asking for help because you have zero problems. Anyways, zooz sucks. And yes they have very good responsive customer support, but also very incompetent. I spent several weeks back and forth with customer support over one of their relays (that they replaced twice for free) and the issue never went away. They couldn’t figure it out and eventually gave up. Replacing that crap device with a Shelly relay completely resolved my issues.
Also in the future feel free to refrain from accusations and unhelpful “i hAvE zErO iSsUeS” comments. It doesn’t help
Could always return it if it's only been a day. But yes they did announce "something ZWave" a few weeks ago and realistically it couldn't have been anything but an antenna/adapter
I didn’t notice anything. I ordered the Zooz about a month ago and just didn’t get around to getting the doorknob (my only device) setup bc I had to remove it to get the codes.
Not the end of the world but it’s just funny timing.
Well, they said it was about Z-Wave and they hinted at the shape. I guessed it was a dongle more similar to the SMLIGHT SLZB-06M but they went beyond that shape. I didn't expect it but I love it even if it's massive. The only thing I don't like is the missing ethernet (and maybe PoE).
There is a bit of a price hike over Zigbee but Z-wave devices are certified and just straight up always work. I've not once had a z-wave device randomly disconnect or just not be working on the network. Rock solid for 4+ years and going.
If I ever considered door locks, i would 100% go with Z-wave for them.
Yeah zwave is dead on arrival for my smarthome use. I can’t justify paying 3-4 times the cost for devices compared to zigbee. I’ve never had any range issues with my zigbee devices either so really don’t see the point of zwave.
I think it’s telling that matter essentially builds upon zigbee.
Glad to see Z-Wave getting this level of support lads. I'm a very long-time user and find it to be a very good protocol. Since upgrading to a Zooz 800 about a year ago I've also been enjoying LR as well.
You guys are both right.. the z wave controller/antenna supports both mesh and LR communication. When you add a new z wave device, if it supports long range direct connection, you will be promoted to select LR or mesh.
After you set it up, it'll use that method of connection/communication. The long range antenna is half of the equation, the device also needs to support long range to take advantage of that.
I'm mixed with Zooz. I've had 2 devices fail so far.
One was the $90 power strip. It literally failed 3 weeks past the 1 year warranty and they wouldn't do anything or work with me over it.
Another was the double plug. It's method of failure scared me. One of the two plugs just kept turning on and off rapidly. No it wasn't my HA doing it as it would still do it once removed from the network. Good thing I only had a dumb box fan plugged into it.
One of my double plugs failed exactly the same. Pretty disconcerting. My power strip hasn’t failed completely, but has randomly turned off twice in 3 years. Also disconcerting as I was using it for my network gear.
Just got my slzb-mrw10, doing some testing (its a combi zwave/zigbee/bluetooth/wifi PoE antenna working with mqtt . But this thing looks great too, I am replacing my crappy aotec stick
I only just replaced my aeotec zwave stick with the slzb-mrw10 and I love it. I wouldn't even think about this new device as it still plugs into USB like the old stick. The slzb-mrw10 can be placed anywhere I have poe.
I wish I could give you a proper guide but I'm not 100% sure how I did it. I run a vm of HAOS on proxmox so I made sure to backup the VM so I could restore if I broke something. I remember downloading a backup of the zwave NVM within the config of the Zwave integration in home assistant. I then somehow changed the config to use the IP address of the MRW10 and then restored the Zwave NVM and it just started working again. I only had basic security on my zwave network as well, this might have made it easier. I'm sorry I can't really remember the exact steps I took...
Yeah having both active wouldn't be ideal. I'm pretty sure I went into the setting on the Z-Wave JS UI add-on and changed the serial port to tcp://192.168.1.144:6638 (IP address of the smlight) and then restored the NVM backup.
I have a Sonoff Zigbee Dongle E, a Zooz 800 stick, and a SkyConnect as thread border router all hanging off a hub with long usb extension to my promox machine in the garage/lower level. Everything seems to be pretty solid, but all those SLZB POE devices seem interesting. Everything working solid? I probably have no reason to upgrade for a while, but my interest in them is piqued.
There are so many different models and chip combinations. I saw one does usb over Ethernet to expose a usb zwave dongle in addition to thread and zigbee with built in antennas. How is the SLZB-MRW10 different?
Everything has been solid. When I started I had the sky connect working as ZigBee and a aeotec USB stick for zwave. I always had some issues with the Z-Wave stick and USB passthrough in proxmox especially if using a USB hub. I first purchased the smlight slzb-06 and used that for ZHA replacing the skyconnect. Never had an issue, worked flawlessly. Now I use the slzb-mrw10 for zwave and thread. Also has been flawless which is impressive considering the Z-Wave part isn't certified yet. Now I can migrate the HAOS VM from one host to another without worrying about USB passthrough and physically moving adaptors. I believe the SLZB-MRW10 is the only smlight product capable of zwave at this time. There are a lot of different models and it can get confusing.
I would like to hope so but not really fussed if it does or not. I'm not sure how much the certification actually matters outside of legalities around the use of radios. All I care about is having a PoE zwave radio on my network and this appears to be the only available off the shelf product like it and it works perfectly for me.
Thanks. And thanks for the product feedback. I’ve noticed the device but hadn’t seen much for info/reviews. My only concern with the certification would be for getting z-wave support down the road. Can you confirm that zigbee and zwave each have their own antenna on the device? I might just get one as the current price is extremely reasonable.
There are two radios in the device. An EFR32ZG23 which runs the Z-Wave and a CC2674P10 which can be your ZigBee or Matter-over-Thread radio. There are two separate antennas. I currently use the second radio for Matter-over-Thread as I also have a SLZB-06 (CC2652P) that's been running rock solid for ZigBee. I would guess that they are probably being a bit hesitant with certification as it would probably be expensive and require certification in EU, US and ANZ as they are the three regions you can choose from as the radio frequencies differ in those regions.
SLZB-MRW10 looks sold out on both Ali Express stores. Wonder if any more will be available anytime soon? They said they plan to apply for z-wave certification as the next step, but that should be a slow expensive process, I imagine. Consider yourself lucky to have your device in hand.
I'd have preferred an option to connect to the controller over a network for more flexibility, and will go with a solution like that instead (I'll have my HA in a virtual machine buried in a closet, so I want the radios in a different location.)
I wish z-wave was bigger. It still boggles my mind why zigbee went with the same band as wifi. In noisy environments it's just not as stable as z-wave.
The few z-wave devices I have just work. Never had them randomly disconnect or anything. Just rock solid. I have 8 Zigbee plugs that are also extenders/repeaters just to keep a stable network in my small condo unit.
I live in a condo unit and just checked, I'm picking up 39 other 2.4GHz devices.
It's awesome that this adapter can be configured for any region, but zwave needs to do some sort of OBVIOUS region labelling for devices. DVD style, or colours, or ....
So I have a zooz zwave stick plugged into my home assistant green (on a short usb extension cord). It's a recent one that supports the 800 protocol. It seems to reach everywhere in my house just fine--I've never had any issues. Is there any reason I'd want to change to this?
I had upgraded when i moved into my new house from the original aeotec stick to the 700 sticks. Ended up having a nightmare of a time of devices just going offline constantly which figured out it was due to 700 sticks being terrible. Ended up re-buying the old aeotec stick because it just worked.
The nerd in me wants to buy the new shiny, but ever since then changing the antenna feels like a giant risk to me. I fear the thought of having to re-pair the z-wave deadbolts to a new antenna.
I haven’t been seeing problems with the 800 sticks like the 700 sticks. That said, I haven’t had problems moving from 500 to 700 to 800 and I still have 2 700 sticks in production with no issues. Now zwave js supports backing up and restoring to another stick so you shouldn’t have to re-pair anything. I haven’t tried it, but others are reporting here that it works.
Also the whole z-wave regions concept is a huge no-go for me.
This isn't a thing in modern Z-Wave AFAIK, they even addressed it in the video.
Connect ZWA-2 is built for Home Assistant, and because of this, it’s super easy to get started with. We’ve built Connect ZWA-2 to support every region, no matter where you buy it from. When you plug in Connect ZWA-2, it automatically detects and sets your region using the location configured in your Home Assistant system.
Yeah the zwa-2 might support all regions but individual zwave devices are region specific that’s the problem. In many cases manufacturers only make their products for North American frequencies so you technically can’t even buy a product for your region. That coupled with the increased cost compared to zigbee devices that do exactly the same thing for half or a third of the cost
This looks awesome! I have ~30 Zwave devices today and some struggle to talk to the small USB zwave stick I have have buried in my computer closet. Order placed!
Yellow doesn't have zwave included, so if you are planning on getting any zwave devices, you will need something like this. But if you're an all zigbee household, you don't need this.
The antenna alone makes it a world of difference reception wise. Probably 3-5x better real world reception. That means less latency, more reliability, and significantly more range
Z-Wave LR is not mesh, but regular Z-Wave is. I don’t have any ZLR devices, but I have heard that when you include it into your Z-Wave network it will give you an option to use the mesh network or the LR network.
If it's not in the center of the basement, you shouldn't have any issues with the range it has. I'm sure the team would like to hear if you do experience issues. Right now, we don't suggest positioning it sideways.
Love seeing your approach to a solution for the way radio waves travel through your own home, though!
Nah it's quite close to the front of the house - I've ordered one and am quite interested to try it. The idea of having the antenna the same size as the wave makes a lot of sense.
There are definitely 'weak' but not totally dead spots in the house with the Zooz stick I have. e.g. I have a smart plug that works to switch on and off via HA, but it never quite gets all the firmware version info, and can't update config etc, until I move it closer to the controller.
Does anyone happen to know if this would work with a Ugreen NAS setup? I'm running HA on that, through Docker, but it would be nice to have an option to add some Z-wave devices eventually.
How is this thing going to fit in aesthetically inside anyone’s home is beyond me. Who wants a giant antenna sitting out blinking a status light like it’s signaling airplanes.
At least my Zooz 800 with a usb extension can be hidden and reach every corner of my home.
Am I missing something? Its an antenna, kinda like an SDR or HAM antenna, but its an antenna and a USB dongle? I've only got one Zwave device in my house, wish I didn't have it, and don't really care for the zwave concept of nodes, etc.
This is a Z-Wave antenna that is meant for Long Range applications as it's purpose built for it. Any other USB Antenna for Z-Wave works in a similar fashion as this - via USB, though some exist that work through network.
You choose Z-Wave because:
Mesh Protocol so range is increased
No interference like Zigbee, Matter over WiFi, etc.
Cannot be locked down to a vendor so you can always use z-wave devices with a z-wave hub
No cloud connection
We have ~60 Z-Wave devices and ~80 Zigbee devices because I refuse to use WiFi sensors in my house.
The vast majority of WiFi devices require the manufacturers support in order to continue working. You can find certain things, like ESPHome, that do not require this but you can automatically assume that if it uses WiFi then you'll never actually own it. Plus the issue is that with Wifi devices you have to go out of your way to stop them from sending out data, whereas Zigbee/Z-Wave they don't talk to the internet at all so they can never send data back to the manufacturer.
WiFi spectrum is valuable. If you have 80 WiFi switches then you're going to get slower speeds or more congestion for the important stuff, like your phone or laptop.
The biggest benefit is that IF Home Assistant ever dies, I can move all of my Zigbee and Z-Wave devices to any other hub that supports them. I do not have to rely on the hub company to support these devices for basic functionality.
Question, what communication protocol are you using? Zigbee? Wifi? Matter? I'm confused how you can dislike z wave while only having a single device (thereby defeating the mesh network benefits).
I'm mostly using zigbee with some wifi thrown in. I don't like Zwave because of how you have to pair and unpair nodes..just seems much more complicated than zigbee adding and removing devices.
Dead nodes are also a thing for me in Zwave that aren't in Zigbee
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u/missyquarry Head of Shitposting @ OHF 11d ago
OP - you got this up before I could! Congrats, you get the pin and earn some free karma. 😆