Inexpensive rev 2 razberry boards on amazon

Discussions about RaZberry - Z-Wave board for Raspberry computer
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Zebedoux
Posts: 15
Joined: 22 Nov 2021 02:33

Inexpensive rev 2 razberry boards on amazon

Post by Zebedoux »

Hello All

Happy new year

I see what appear to be rev 2 boards on Amazon ( from a company in France ) for under €17 .

Would you mind having a look at my photo and see if they look right ?

The logo etc aren’t quite the same as mine which says Zwave.me.

Thank you
For sale on Amazon.fr
For sale on Amazon.fr
IMG_3189.jpeg (301.21 KiB) Viewed 14801 times
seattleneil
Posts: 232
Joined: 02 Mar 2020 22:41

Re: Inexpensive rev 2 razberry boards on amazon

Post by seattleneil »

Yes, that is the rev 2 RazBerry card. It uses a 500-series chip and works perfectly fine with Z-Way software. The current RazBerry cards (RaZberry 7 and RaZberry 7 Pro) use a 700-series chip. If you're okay with reduced range, higher latency and no long range support, the rev 2 RazBerry card is an excellent deal. Note that the most recent generation of Z-Wave chips from Silicon Labs are the 800-series. However, as best as I can tell, Z-Wave.Me does not sell an 800-series Z-Wave controller. Other vendors sell 800-series based controllers (Zooz ZAC93 is an example), but those controllers are not compatible with Z-Way software.
lanbrown
Posts: 373
Joined: 01 Jun 2021 08:06

Re: Inexpensive rev 2 razberry boards on amazon

Post by lanbrown »

Another factor to consider is that the Razberry 2 board (500 series) is not a universal board, there is actually three different models based upon the frequency.

https://z-wave.me/products/razberry-old/
RaZberry comes in three different versions depending on the transmitting frequency used:

ZMEERAZ2: Version for all frequencies around 868 MHz (EU, Russia, India — default is EU).
ZMEARAZ2: Version for all frequencies around 921 MHz (Australia/Brasil, Japan, Korea — default is Australia/Brasil)
ZMEURAZ2: Version for all frequencies around 908/915 MHz (USA, Israel — default is USA)
Since it is Amazon France and the seller is also in France, these are most likely the EU boards and fine for EU use. My opinion, if you needed a Razberry board, the Razberry 7 series are far superior.

https://www.silabs.com/wireless/z-wave/ ... s-modules#
https://www.silabs.com/wireless/z-wave/ ... modem-soc#

The sensitivity on the 500 series is -98dBm whereas the 700 series is 106dBm.
Zebedoux
Posts: 15
Joined: 22 Nov 2021 02:33

Re: Inexpensive rev 2 razberry boards on amazon

Post by Zebedoux »

@ Seattle Neil and
@ Ian Brown

Thank you for your insights .
I have recently started playing in earnest with my rev 2 ( i think 2.1 in fact ) on Raspberry 3B+ … as you know : you have helped me before .

These are so inexpensive ( and that so rare in the z-wave world ) , I’m gonna grab 2 at least .
One idea I had was for a redundant backup/spare , a total clone of the original and I started looking into the obvious things one would have to do.
In my current “playing” setup - range and latency don’t bother me at all.

But yes - had I not started with the board that I had I would be strongly drawn to the newest,latest best one . So that’s just for another day.

Thank you again , your confirmation that these are probably ok really helps,

Best wishes
lanbrown
Posts: 373
Joined: 01 Jun 2021 08:06

Re: Inexpensive rev 2 razberry boards on amazon

Post by lanbrown »

Do not do a clone, just after adding devices or making changes I would do a backup and keep it off the system. If you ever need to put the spare into use, you have the backup to use to get back up and running. No need to have a hot spare.
Zebedoux
Posts: 15
Joined: 22 Nov 2021 02:33

Re: Inexpensive rev 2 razberry boards on amazon

Post by Zebedoux »

Hello Ian,

I think I should explain :-

Me thinking about a “ hot spare “ was an intellectual exercise taken to logical extreme.
It isn’t that I “need” to do it , more of a “what if”.

I’m very much into doing backups !

Best wishes
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