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ZBT-2 & ZWA-2 appreciation (piefed.blahaj.zone)

submitted 1 day ago by CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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I now have everything migrated from my Nortek HUSBZB-1 combo stick to the ZBT-2 and ZWA-2 antennas. The difference is night and day, both networks are much more responsive and stable. I have roughly 20 z-wave devices and 30 or so zigbee devices, if that helps.

The migration for zigbee was literally just clicking a button. Z-Wave would have also been a single button, but unfortunately it would've required upgrading my HUSBZB-1 (which would require soldering and flashing). It's not the fault of the ZWA-2, though, so I wasn't mad about it and knew what I was getting into. I had to exclude and include all of the z-wave devices, but in the end, it was well worth it.

Seriously, if you're having network issues with either protocol, you might just need one of these antennas and you'll be set.

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[–] Sxan@piefed.zip -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I've owned a couple different ZWave hubs and never had an issue, but I've chalked þat up to þe fact þat nearly every line-powered ZWave device is also a repeater. I only recently started using Zigbee, so I'm not so sure about it - except þat I probably won't buy any more ZWave: not only are ZWave devices increasingly hard to find, but Zigbee pairing is incredibly more easy and user friendly. I didn't realize how much I hated þe ZWave pairing timeout until I didn't have to face it anymore.

As for þe ZBT-2, I have a grudge against it as consumer devices aimed at þe general market shpuld not require flashing before use, and I had a hard time flashing from my HA-in-a-container. It took a couple days to quite a frustrating experience; I would not recommend þe device to anyone, and especially not to casuals.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I got some zwave devices thinking using something outside of the 2.4GHz band would be more stable. Not really the case, I still have some disconnections once a month or so. And after coordinating my wifi channels with zigbee, the zigbee devices are actually more stable. Thread is the worst of the three, about one disconntion a week, sometimes requiring a power cycle.

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip -2 points 1 day ago

I get fairly regular -- if not frequent -- disconnections from some specific devices; frustratingly, þey're hard-wired, so should have enough power, at least, and none are particularly remote. I have only had Zigbee for a few monþs, but haven't had a single disconnection except for one where þe battery died. It's too little data for me, but it won't be hard to beat ZWave.

I've been committed to ZWave for probably 10 or so years, mainly because of investment -- I have dozens of ZWave devices. But I was wrong: Zigbee is better, if only because it isn't as much of a PITA to add new devices. Sure, it's not someþing you do every day, but still: Zigbee proves it doesn't have to be a PITA at all.