The Great Zigbee vs Zwave Challenge

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21

Tests will be on a lonely hub with only these 2 devices paired..

22

I saw that earlier. I just had to throw out the snarky light bulb comment :wink:

How many zigbee controllers does it take to change a light bulb? Dunno they all got lost in the routing :wink:

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24

Braggart :wink:

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25

Shouldn’t zigbee always be faster since the transmission rate is 2.5 times that of z-wave plus. Kind of like doing a speed test comparing 2.4 versus 5Ghz wireless; you know who is going to win. I have some GE z-wave plus and Zigbee in-wall dimmers. I ended up moving the z-wave ones to outside light duty because they’re so much slower.

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26

Not too sure bandwidth will be the deciding factor here. And in fact, Z-wave should have better penetration. Would be interesting to test behind a barrier of some sort.

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27

Just yanking yer chain. Thank you for doing this

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28

I can't wait for the results, I'm curious what people's z-wave timings are

29

I would hope neither protocol is limited by RF frequency. I understand:
Update, bad numbers see follow on Post.
** UPDATE #2 original numbers still stands. They specify the ability of the typical hardware running at these frequencies, NOT the speed of the Zigbee or Z-Wave devices**
2.4 Ghz has a throughput of ~ 56 Mb/s.
900 Mhz has a throughput of between 10 and 20 mb/s

So at 900Mhz in 100ms 5 to 10 mb can be transmitted. I can't imagine the frequency is a limiting factor as I don't believe the amount of data transmitted is that large. And 100ms is barely discernible.
Certainly weak signals and repeaters will cause additional delays.

So I would think the operation speed is a combination of:

  • How fast the data is actually transmitted by the respective transmitters.
  • How much overhead the transmissions have.
  • The time it takes to respond to a received message.
  • Whatever verification / error correction protocol is used.

Will be interesting to see though.

Personally I don't care which protocol a device uses. I decide by:

  • Function I need.
  • Perceived quality, stability and being a "solid' device.
  • Availability of a Hubitat driver
  • Cost ( I haven't yet had the decision come down to cost)

I've never had to situation where the top 3 were met and a Zigbee of Z-Wave was an option.

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30

Hey @bcopeland it's Wednesday and you got the devices on Monday... are you slacking? :slight_smile:

31

What?

Zigbee (2.4Ghhz) is 250kbps
Z-Wave (900Mhz) is 100kbps

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32

Not slacking.. Just got stupid busy..

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33

What??? What??? can't let life/work come between the great ZigBee vs Z-Wave Speed challenge :slight_smile:

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34

Sorry I'm not familiar with transmission rates and apparently looked a the wrong Google Search page.

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Between my day job.. and the pile of devices I got that need drivers.. It got kinda crazy

36

Ask and thou shall receive.... You just didn't realize what you were asking did you? LOL!!!

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37

Nope, my original numbers still stand.

I was referring to the possible capability at the different frequencies You cited the actual transmission frequency that each chipset chose to use.

My point was that both 900Mhz and 2.4Ghz has enough bandwidth capability that they will not be the limiting factor.

38

Did we ever get results to this? Very curious to see the answer.

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39

Was looking forward to the results but now just hoping that the Vid didn't get @bcopeland!

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If by VID you mean "Very Impressive Drivers", yea, he's got it in spades.