cant update z-station firmware or bootloader.

Discussions about Z-Way software and Z-Wave technology in general
seattleneil
Posts: 218
Joined: 02 Mar 2020 22:41

Re: cant update z-station firmware or bootloader.

Post by seattleneil »

Hmm. The detective work by @lanbrown adds credibility to the guess that Z-Wave.Me could be on life support. Perhaps @PoltoS is trying to sell the company.

Unfortunately, if I take the perspective of a potential buyer, it's hard to see how a purchase makes business sense given their shrinking market share, availability of open-source Z-Wave JS UI (see: https://github.com/zwave-js/zwave-js-ui) and less expensive 800-series hardware (see: https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/produc ... le-zac93-l). As best as I can tell, the real value of the company is the knowledge/experience of the developers and @lanbrown's research shows the developers have moved on.

I'm guessing the downward spiral accelerated a few months ago when the 700-series chipsets used by Z-Wave.Me were deprecated by Silicon Labs for their 800-series chipsets. If Z-Wave.Me was a healthy company, I think they would have introduced 800-series based products.

Time will tell.
pdekuewit
Posts: 18
Joined: 30 Oct 2016 12:04

Re: cant update z-station firmware or bootloader.

Post by pdekuewit »

What would be a good alternative for a z-wave.me installation on a raspberry pi 4 in combination with Razberry Pro 7 (keeping the hardware) ?
This in case of new developments on the z-wave.me software are stopped completely ?
enbemokel
Posts: 494
Joined: 08 Aug 2016 17:36

Re: cant update z-station firmware or bootloader.

Post by enbemokel »

I think there are different solutions to use our zwave products in future, HA, OpenHab, IOBroker....depends on personal
ideas or knowledge. I´m testing these systems like once a year, but so far I have everything running with Z-Way and it still works....
lanbrown
Posts: 369
Joined: 01 Jun 2021 08:06

Re: cant update z-station firmware or bootloader.

Post by lanbrown »

seattleneil wrote:
04 Feb 2025 23:51
I'm guessing the downward spiral accelerated a few months ago when the 700-series chipsets used by Z-Wave.Me were deprecated by Silicon Labs for their 800-series chipsets. If Z-Wave.Me was a healthy company, I think they would have introduced 800-series based products.

Time will tell.
There was a 600 series chip that Z-Wave.me never used either. I viewed the odd number chips as a revised chip but nothing really new was added. I think the 800 series might have some lower power consumption but not as important in the controller side. Intel used the Tick-Tock approach for many years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tick–tock_model

From Silabs:
Power consumption
The Z-Wave 800 series reduces current consumption by up to 42% for transmission and up to 600% for reception.
Since the controller is not a battery powered device, this is not important.

So they would take the existing architecture and just release it on a new process node. So if there were issues, it wasn't the architecture but the process node.
seattleneil
Posts: 218
Joined: 02 Mar 2020 22:41

Re: cant update z-station firmware or bootloader.

Post by seattleneil »

From what I can tell, a shutdown of Z-Wave.me servers would break the following:

1. Mobile app remote access (LAN access should still work if the local IP address/hostname is configured in the app). It's entirely possible the app has a built-in kill switch where the app needs to successfully check in with a Z-Wave.me server. As a result, the app might stop working.
2. Remote web access
3. Voice assistant and ecosystem integrations such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home
4. Cloud backups/restores
5. Forum access
6. Firmware/software downloads, including Apps
7. Support (to the extent it exists)

In addition, @PoltoS could disable public access to github Z-Wave.me repositories.

Can you think of anything else?

As for alternatives, I've experimented with a few different options and found Home Assistant to be the best alternative for my needs, followed by OpenHAB. Both of these options are much more resource intensive than Z-Way - a Pi 4 will be fine, a Pi 3 will likely have RAM challenges, a Pi 2 is not going to work.

The biggest hurdle is the learning curve and time/effort to switch to a new automation platform.

The next challenge is dealing with remote access. With Z-Way, remote access is conveniently built into the mobile app and is free (where the app connects to a Z-Wave.me server and the server connects to the user's Z-Way via zbw_connect/ssh). Web-based remote access (via https://find.z-wave.me/) is also free. Remote access via Home Assistant requires using Home Assistant Cloud (not free) or a VPN (not as convenient).

At this point, I've signed up for Oracle's cloud service which offere a free VM (see: https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/ - AMD Compute Instance). This provides a VM with a static public IP address that I use to run an OpenVPN server. On my Pi running Z-Way, mobile phone and PC, I've installed the OpenVPN client. This approach lets me use the Z-Way remote app without relying on a Z-Wave.me server by configuring the app with the remote IP address that's associated with the Pi's VPN address. The downside of using a VPN is that it's not as convenient as using the app's built-in secure connection. This same approach should work for the Home Assistant remote app.

What viable options have you found?
lanbrown
Posts: 369
Joined: 01 Jun 2021 08:06

Re: cant update z-station firmware or bootloader.

Post by lanbrown »

seattleneil wrote:
05 Feb 2025 20:10


In addition, @PoltoS could disable public access to github Z-Wave.me repositories.

As for alternatives, I've experimented with a few different options and found Home Assistant to be the best alternative for my needs, followed by OpenHAB. Both of these options are much more resource intensive than Z-Way - a Pi 4 will be fine, a Pi 3 will likely have RAM challenges, a Pi 2 is not going to work.

The biggest hurdle is the learning curve and time/effort to switch to a new automation platform.

The next challenge is dealing with remote access. With Z-Way, remote access is conveniently built into the mobile app and is free (where the app connects to a Z-Wave.me server and the server connects to the user's Z-Way via zbw_connect/ssh). Web-based remote access (via https://find.z-wave.me/) is also free. Remote access via Home Assistant requires using Home Assistant Cloud (not free) or a VPN (not as convenient).

At this point, I've signed up for Oracle's cloud service which offere a free VM (see: https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/ - AMD Compute Instance). This provides a VM with a static public IP address that I use to run an OpenVPN server. On my Pi running Z-Way, mobile phone and PC, I've installed the OpenVPN client. This approach lets me use the Z-Way remote app without relying on a Z-Wave.me server by configuring the app with the remote IP address that's associated with the Pi's VPN address. The downside of using a VPN is that it's not as convenient as using the app's built-in secure connection. This same approach should work for the Home Assistant remote app.

What viable options have you found?
So it appears that the Github repositories were recently all made public. So I doubt that they will revert them.

I use HA on a CM4 and Z-Wave as an add-on.

For remote access I use Cloudflare and control via ASN and Geo based upon IP address. I also block known torrent sites. So the HA app uses well the cloud I built. Cloudflare has a free tier which works just fine.
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PoltoS
Posts: 7642
Joined: 26 Jan 2011 19:36

Re: cant update z-station firmware or bootloader.

Post by PoltoS »

Hey guys, sorry for being silent. I like your detective work, but let me do the official Z-Wave.Me coming out ;)

https://forum.z-wave.me/viewtopic.php?f ... 0&p=100028
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