UZB1 Ubuntu - Bad data - communication failed

[pz1]

Why not here ??
I'm not the only one waiting for news

Because apparantly you are impatient for the news.
I am curious too, but have learned over the years that these things do take time. So I just wait an see.

[X3n0]

Yes, I am very impatient , I bought the material and would like to use

[sooty]

Hi everyone I'm Paul from the UK.

I'be been doing home automation for about 10 years and browsing this board for a while and finally decided to join.

Unfortunately my first post is regarding a problem with the UZB1 stick which may be related to the discussion here. I've been running the .me USB-C stick with ZDK 4.5 for almost a year under Homeseer with no issues at all. My network consists entirely of 4.5 devices so works very well.

I decided to get the new UZB1 as a trial with the intention of adding some 500 series devices but I'm having a problem getting it to communicate properly with any software except zensys tools. I set up a new test network with 2 nodes and the UZB1 as primary and then found that any communication with the device was taking a very long time. Minutes as opposed to milliseconds. If I connect to it with zensys tools then everything works normally but with Homeseer or OpenZwave there is a huge delay.

I also read that the UZB1 is not compatible with Z-Way for Windows and I wonder Is this for the same reasons?

Regards

Paul..

[pz1]

I also read that the UZB1 is not compatible with Z-Way for Windows and I wonder Is this for the same reasons?

PoltoS (the man in charge of ZwaveMe) has explained the situation earlier in this thread.

[sooty]

I also read that the UZB1 is not compatible with Z-Way for Windows and I wonder Is this for the same reasons?

PoltoS (the man in charge of ZwaveMe) has explained the situation earlier in this thread.

Yes I read that there will be new firmware to make the UZB compatible with Z-Way however he doesn't say what the issue actually is preventing it from working and if this issue could also cause problems with other software.

FYI I'm testing with Windows software and monitoring the serial traffic between software and the UZB.
If I connect to the UZB with the Zensys utility I can perform all functions on an Aeon micro smart energy G2 device without issue. Commands are received by the node and all ACK's are received etc.

If I connect to the USB with OpenZwave or Homeseer, then some commands to not execute or take a very long time to return (minutes).

The only difference I can see between the serial data is the initialisation of the serial port. There are differences in the TIMEOUT, WAIT MASK and QUEUE SIZE between Zensys and OpenZwave/Homeseer.

Maybe PoltoS can confirm if the firmware update will address this issue or will it require changes to the control software.

Paul..

[pz1]

Yes I read that there will be new firmware to make the UZB compatible with Z-Way however he doesn't say what the issue actually is preventing it from working and if this issue could also cause problems with other software.

At the original release of UZB1 there was no mention of it being compatible with the Zway software. It was a low cost 5gen hardware plain Z-Wave stick. Later on it was announced that they were going to support Z-way on this stick. But that required if I undertood things correctly both a new firmware for the stick, and an option in Z-Way to reliably update the software. That apparantly is taking a bit more time than originally foreseen (not uncommon in software projects).
Side note: On Github I did notice recent activities on the New Expert Interface to accommodate firmware udates. I don know enough from the software to judge if this has to do with the solution for UZB1 stick though.

[sdh]

To me it looks like the github issues are part of expert UI for device firmware update. The UZB flashed would be a standalone application I guess.

[sooty]

Just to be clear I'm not trying to use the UZB with Z-Way I'm just testing it with various Windows software.

From the product page:

This USB Stick connects a PC or any other computing platform with USB interface to a wireless Z-Wave network. A controller software compatible to the Sigma Designs Serial API is required to use the functions of the device.

I have tried software that is compatible (or should be) with the Sigma Serial API. Indeed other controllers including the .me USB-C stick work fine with the software.

The UZB1 appears to be fully functional when used with Zensys-Tools, so I used serial monitoring software to see the differences in serial data when using different software.

I have not had chance to catalogue all the differences yet but there are significant differences in the way that the UZB1 is initialised with different software so I expect this is the cause of the issues.

Paul..

[mamatdv]

@pz1 : zwave.me talked about z-way firmware compatibility for UZB from the begining.

http://www.zwave.me/index.php?id=28

Compared to the standard firmware design used by almost all Z-Wave USB Sticks and other Z-Wave Host Interface hardware, the Z-Way firmware offers several extensions and enhancements:

Backup and recovery function including network topology
Optimized transmitting queue handling to speed up transmitting process
Firmware update from the OS level in the field
Trusted Platform module applying strong encryption
Extended Wakeup Notification
Handling to extend battery life time of battery operated devices in the network

[pz1]

We had a discussion (viewtopic.php?f=3419&t=20836) in November. At the time I was pretty sure Poltos meant this UZB1 was not meant for Z-Way, but that other Z-Way sticks would come. After re-reading it, I am no longer sure about that now I must admit.