“Some initial issues getting it to work with Home Assistant, but that was more due to the chaotic nature of Home Assistant. Aeotec Support was very responsive in solving technical issues, which is rare in mass produced tech in my personal experience”
“Solid piece of kit with a long track record across a lot of different hardware and home automation software. I bought this in May 2019 and it has been working consistently ever since as the main gateway for my zwave network. Easy to install on Raspberry Pi 3 running Home Assistant. Recommend not using the pairing button each time you add a device as disconnecting the USB can sometimes cause undesirable behaviour of the zwave integration. Instead just use the 'add device' feature on the gateway interface on your automation software.”
“Plugged this in to my Raspberry Pi 3 running Home Assistant OS, set it up with the new Zwave JS integration, and added my smart plugs - all straightforward, and everything seems to be working fine.”
“I had to purchase this after advice on the Hubitat forum from other users. With the Hubitat C7 (and apparently the latest iteration of Z Wave in general), if S0 security is the highest security a Z wave module supports, it is automatically included at S0. I’m told S0 is “chatty” and generates the most traffic on the network, so none secure inclusion is preferred. After loading Silicon Labs Simplicity Suite to my laptop, the Aeotec stick was added in the software as a secondary controller and also added to Hubitat as a device. From Simplicity Suites Z Wave Tools I was able to exclude and re include the offending S0 devices (Fibaro Dimmer 2) without security. A bit of a faff on but it has resolved the issue.”
“Overall my experience with this controller has been very good. The range is certainly good enough for my house and the setup is very straightforward. I upgraded to this from the older version as I am using a Raspberry Pi 4 which requires a powered USB hub for the older version - this one does not and is so much more convenient. My only niggle is that there is no obvious difference between this device and the older version (powered USB). Even the model number is the same. When I first received it I thought I had been sent the older version but this was not the case. It would be nice to have an external indication this is the 'NEW' version.”
“So far this has worked for everything I've wanted to do including:
1) flashing firmware of other AeoTec devices on my laptop.
2) running OpenHab on a Pi
3) using Zentool with my laptop to play with Zwave networks adding it as a second controller to my Vera”
