We were going to save this for a surprise but our community sleuths have put 2+2 together.
As many of you may know, Z-Wave Alliance recently announced the release of Z-Wave Long Range, which will open new opportunities for the Z-Wave protocol. I am happy to announce that we designed Hubitat Elevation to support Z-Wave Long Range with a firmware update and naturally a software update on the hub side. Currently this is a planned feature for 2.2.6. We have the new Long Range developers kits in hand and are well into compatibility testing.
Z-Wave Long Range is no longer a some-day-in-the-future feature, as any 700 series device will be able to be firmware updated to support it. As such, we expect OEMs to release firmware and supported devices rapidly.
With Long Range, mesh issues will be a thing of the past. There is no Long Range mesh, it is a high power signal in a star topology and should cover your entire home / property. Long Range is designed to operate on channel 4, while classic Z-Wave Mesh continues to function on channels 1-3, so there will be no loss of compatibility. It is a radical shift that should dramatically improve user experience and we are excited at the prospects.
Z-Wave Alliance: Look at what we can do with Z-Wave LR.
Zigbee Alliance: We would have done this, except we're limited by spectrum requirements.
Lutron: Been there, done that.
The current version is 2.2.4 and the next version will be 2.2.5. AFTER that will come... yep. 2.2.6
I imagine that Your Beta Testers are testing 2.2.5 -- only because it's been a while since 2.2.4 was released. Who would ever want Beta Testers to have idle time on their hands
With ranges supposedly measured in miles (or kms), how do they plan to deal with interference?
As smart homes become more popular, you could have Z-Wave jabbering from several hundred separate networks sharing channel 4--and all quite noticeable in your house.
This is an issue with Wi-Fi already (and it isn't intended to have nearly that range).
I would imagine it should not be much of an issue as the high output power, with windows in your house, and reflections should deliver the signal wherever you need it.
Ahh...yeah wasn't really in reference to zwave long range...but more so just a regular pain in the butt for so many things....like even cell phones.
I think it's nice it will play nicely along side of the existing zwave. Clearly no need to upgrade devices unless you really need the range. If this existed now there are for sure some sensors I would be adding around the property...so that will be nice in the future.
Will this be a selectable option when pairing a device? I mean for devices that support it, can you chose if you want them to work in Mesh or LR? or supported devices will work in LR mode always? or the hub can use both and chose whatever is best depending on the situation?
and for devices that could support it with a firmware upgrade, will it require an exclusion/reinclusion to switch them from Mesh to LR?
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