Z Wave 500 vs Z Wave 700 - How to identify?

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1

Hi. Is there an easy way of working out whether a particular device is Z Wave 500 or 700 series? All of my devices are Z Wave plus but some are S2 and smart start compatible - are all devices with S2 and Smart Start 700 series or is there another way of identifying which is which from the device page or elsewhere?

My reason for asking is I've had a couple of Fibaro Double Switch 2s (FGS-223) fail. Each time the same fault - the Q2 is remaining on even when de-powered (welded contact I think). I'm looking at replacing it with the Double Smart Module (FGS-224) but want to make sure whatever I fit as a replacement is up to date.

2

One simple way is to lookup the product on z-wavealliance. In this case, it is zwave+ product, not zwave+v2. So 500-series chip.

https://products.z-wavealliance.org/products/3980

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3

Thanks. I was just on that page but looking for a reference to 500/700 - so zwave+ v1 is 500 series and wave+ v2 is 700 series?

A bit disappointing as most of my kit is Fibaro. I've kept to Fibaro as apart from this one device it seems to have been reliable with no failures. I mistakenly thought that if 1 Fibaro device was Z wave plus but isn't S2 compatible (Dimmer 2), then the ones that have S2 must be 700 series.

Is there much benefit of 700 series over 500? I have searched the web but can't find much comparing the two.

4

Yup.

Iā€™m not the right person to comment on the advantages of 500 vs 700 series devices. Most of my devices are still 300 series :smiley:

5

Well in that case I won't lose too much sleep over those 500 series devices I have. I have just filtered on that Z Wave Alliance page to show only Z Wave Plus v2 devices from Fibaro/Fibar Group. The only v2 devices they make are a couple of hubs and one "Walli" switch.

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6

For battery powered devices there is a lot of benefit to 700. For mains powered not as much for the end user - the range should still be better than 500 on those, but that's about it.

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7

That's good to know. Out of 41 devices, I've only around 6 that are battery and I'm unlikely to add any more.

8

Can't 700 series in theory be flashed to become Zwave LR devices? I thought I read that somewhere. Whether that really happens is another story, very few manufacturers provide firmware updates in the first place.

9

In theory, yes. In practice, who knows if any manufacturers will bother doing the re-certification work (and expense) required to do so.

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10

Would they need recert? I mean it's just firmware updating, Even now, firmware updates don't go through the recert process. My understanding only the hardware needs certified.

11

The frequency used is different (912/920 MHz) and the max output power can be much higher - up to 30dBm.

Since these z-wave+ v2 devices have been certified with the current firmware at 908/916 MHz and max output power of -1dBm, updating to z-wave LR firmware would definitely need FCC re-certification.

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12

Yes. Zwave LR has a completely different cert process. Existing 700 stuff was all done before LR was even added to the cert program.

EDIT: Now... Could they just "do it anyway without recertifying it".... Probably ;). They do have all the tools. Not sure that would be a common thing for a company to do though.

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