I really need some more help/advice from anyone who knows or is using Series 700. I was expecting to jump right into ZWAVE, but just the opposite has happened and I am stalled. The following is a conversation I had with AEOTEC which has only made me more confused.
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Q: Are these issues with the FW located on the Z-Stick 7 or with the SiLab USB driver on the computer?
A:. These issues are located on the FW of the Z-Stick 7 which is the standard Firmware provided by Silicon Labs, at this time there is no opportunity for customized FW.
Since this issue will effect every Series 700 device type, I'm still not clear, is this an issue with ALL Series 700 devices FW, or the USB MAC driver we would need to install or BOTH?
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Q: How do you update the Z-Stick 7 FW using a MAC?
A: You can update utilizing the RPi4 or a Linux OS, or if you understand how Minicom is utilized: Update Z-Stick 7 with Raspian OS / RPi V7.17.2
Since we have no idea what FW will come on a product we purchase, they really expect us to buy another piece of hardware just to update their FW issue?
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Q: Why would you put out a product with issues that we are expected to troubleshoot and fix?
A: This issue was not detected until late last year, while we do not have control over the internal firmware of the Z-Stick 7, the hardware is solid and optimized for the Z-Wave Frequencies that they are designed for.
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Q: I have owned other controllers and HA devices and never have I needed to update FW. What I was sold just worked.
A: Unfortunately this is the case for the Z-Stick 7 since the issue wasn't found until it was in use (over Zooz Series 700 + other series 700 controllers).
Coming from Insteon, you purchased a device, it came with FW XXX and it worked. When it finally died, you purchased another and it worked.
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Q: Most tech people can’t wait to get their hands on new devices, so if Z-Stick 7 is so good why are they advising me to be cautious?
A: This is due to the issue with series 700 firmware stack, the network did not properly route and mesh causing network lockups, this has been resolved, but still pending time to tell at this time. But it was confirmed by SiLabs (Silicon Labs) that the issue has been resolved in the latest Z-Wave firmware push for series 700.
"FW Push"? Once again this is unclear. If the issue is in the 700 FW, doesn't every device have 700 FW on it and would need to be updated? How do you update Sensors, Switches, etc. If it's a USB driver issue, that's an easy reinstall on the MAC