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z-wave is kind of competing with zigbee for low power mid-range wireless standard for smart home or smart building since like 20 years ago? then we have low pow

z-wave is kind of competing with zigbee for low power mid-range wireless standard for smart home or smart building since like 20 years ago? then we have low power bluetooth and low-power wifi joined the party. z-wave was proprietary which did not help its deployments, but still I recall it was the most deployed low power wireless devices for IoT. I worked on zigbee and never liked it. I wish z-wave was more open back in time. Did not track what's going on these days for low power mid-range wireless, general feeling is that zigbee did not take off, zwave is used as before(you license it and put it to your sensors), and more and more are using low-power wifi and even bluetooth instead.

zamalek 4y ago
> general feeling is that zigbee did not take off Z-Wave's primary advantage is, ironically, the openness of the ecosystem. Due to the lack of a stringent certification process Zigbee vendors can (and routinely do) lock devices to their proprietary hub. I'm guessing that is one main motivator for its failure. Though, keep in mind that Hue (one of the most successful IoT vendors) is all open Zigbee. Zigbee's main advantage is that it's cheap. Thread (the new standard to fix the old standards) is apparently just "Zigbee, the good parts". We will see if vendors drive it into uselessness like before.
- mckeed 4y ago
  Yep, Z-Wave's advantage is that they enforce the standards. They require that an end device from one manufacturer can work with any other manufacturer's controller. That was a bigger deal when controllers were stand-alone electronics products, though. Being in the cloud, a controller like SmartThings can add one-off support for non-standard end devices at any time, so there's less need for everything to be on one standard.
- synergy20 4y ago
  thread is zigbee but more IPv6 friendly, they both run at 2.4Ghz like wifi and bluetooth do, which could be crowded and in short distance. zwave by default is at 900Mhz so it goes much further than 2.4Ghz and it even has a long-range version(for a few km), that's another advantage of zwave. all of them are low-power, all of them need a gateway or hub to talk to wifi and the internet, other than zwave is strictly co-operatable, zwave is also *much much* simpler, if zwave truly opens up, it could take over the competitors IMO.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
horsawlarway 4y ago
Personally - I got kinda the other feel. Seems like Z-Wave is slowly dying in favor of zigbee devices. I can't really even find z-wave bulbs right now. And basically any device I might want (curtains, alarms, sensors, lights, motors, thermostats, etc) comes in a zigbee form. I agree that Z-Wave did the better standards enforcement, but Zigbee went with the age old route to success: manage to be cheaper. Throw in that the two most common automation situations tend to be either: 1. Upstream cloud service 2. Local management engine (ex: HomeAssistant, OpenHab, etc) And it just doesn't really matter all that much how compatible devices are in terms of point to point control. I can just route the message through HA and take the action I want - mixing and matching as needed. Plus - Alexa pro ships a directly integrated zigbee hub now, which got a lot of devices moving that direction, and Ikea makes some great super cheap zigbee devices. Bluetooth and Wifi devices are the worst of both worlds, in my opinion. Wifi usually needs integration with an upstream service which is a non-starter for me, and bluetooth is just really limited on total device count. Both also eat through a lot of power compared to z-wave/zigbee. It's pretty cool that several recent zigbee switches are completely battery/wire free. They literally use the energy you expend to push to the button to send the signal.
- synergy20 4y ago
  that's new to me, did not track this field for a few years. zigbee protocol was too complex in the past for me on resource restricted devices, while zwave is so much light-weight, then that's just the technical side. maybe that's why z-wave now opens up, it's forced to do so or it dies.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    Zigbee was bigger in Europe, Z-Wave in the US. Or at least that was what I always read ;) Philips Hue was always the big "Zigbee? Never heard of that" Zigbee producer, nowadays, there are also good and cost-effective things from Sonoff and Aqara, and cheap but hit-or-miss devices by tuya (heavily white labeled)
- bioemerl 4y ago
  In my experience both are dying in favor of iot/wifi stuff. Zwave is still strong in the commercial space ZigBee is strong in the consumer space, especially light bulbs that commercial systems do not want to use. I'm thinking it'll be longer before zwave dies for real vs zigbee, but it will only live on the back of the big slow commercial entities that back it.
Lendal 4y ago
My house is standardized on Z-wave because I can afford a bit extra $ for each device in exchange for reliability. I can also add Zigbee if I need to, since my hub can do both. I just haven't needed to yet. Everything is available in both Zigbee and Z-wave versions, so I choose to pay the extra for added reliability. I haven't had much luck with Bluetooth and Wifi IoT devices. They tend to last a couple of years and then die. They also are more hassle to set up, and use more power. I don't need more hassle in my life. Z-wave and Zigbee are both more reliable, with Z-wave taking the slight edge over Zigbee. What's happening now is Thread (Matter) is coming. Thread is basically Zigbee Mark II. Thread is on par with Z-wave, but it supposed will retain its edge in cost benefit. I may start buying Thread stuff as it becomes available, but the problem is my mesh is solidly Z-wave. It doesn't seem worthwhile to start replacing stuff that works perfectly fine.
- oceanplexian 4y ago
  Z-Wave also supports device associations which Zigbee doesn't. You can permanently associate devices together (i.e. switches) to create a virtual 3-way switch that will work even if the "smart home hub" is down. Which, from a reliability perspective is a much better design if you're installing something commercially.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    I wish Z-wave or something would support some form of physical connection instead of relying on wireless. I'd be perfectly happy running CAT-5 to every damn switch in the house if I could get reliability from it. I've fallen back to physical switches that can be relay controlled.
  - ThatPlayer 4y ago
    Is that not binding in Zigbee? Home assistant docs because I can't find a better description: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#binding-and-unbinding https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#binding-and-...

zamalek 4y ago

> general feeling is that zigbee did not take off Z-Wave's primary advantage is, ironically, the openness of the ecosystem. Due to the lack of a stringent certification process Zigbee vendors can (and routinely do) lock devices to their proprietary hub. I'm guessing that is one main motivator for its failure. Though, keep in mind that Hue (one of the most successful IoT vendors) is all open Zigbee. Zigbee's main advantage is that it's cheap. Thread (the new standard to fix the old standards) is apparently just "Zigbee, the good parts". We will see if vendors drive it into uselessness like before.

mckeed 4y ago
Yep, Z-Wave's advantage is that they enforce the standards. They require that an end device from one manufacturer can work with any other manufacturer's controller. That was a bigger deal when controllers were stand-alone electronics products, though. Being in the cloud, a controller like SmartThings can add one-off support for non-standard end devices at any time, so there's less need for everything to be on one standard.
synergy20 4y ago
thread is zigbee but more IPv6 friendly, they both run at 2.4Ghz like wifi and bluetooth do, which could be crowded and in short distance. zwave by default is at 900Mhz so it goes much further than 2.4Ghz and it even has a long-range version(for a few km), that's another advantage of zwave. all of them are low-power, all of them need a gateway or hub to talk to wifi and the internet, other than zwave is strictly co-operatable, zwave is also *much much* simpler, if zwave truly opens up, it could take over the competitors IMO.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

horsawlarway 4y ago

Personally - I got kinda the other feel. Seems like Z-Wave is slowly dying in favor of zigbee devices. I can't really even find z-wave bulbs right now. And basically any device I might want (curtains, alarms, sensors, lights, motors, thermostats, etc) comes in a zigbee form. I agree that Z-Wave did the better standards enforcement, but Zigbee went with the age old route to success: manage to be cheaper. Throw in that the two most common automation situations tend to be either: 1. Upstream cloud service 2. Local management engine (ex: HomeAssistant, OpenHab, etc) And it just doesn't really matter all that much how compatible devices are in terms of point to point control. I can just route the message through HA and take the action I want - mixing and matching as needed. Plus - Alexa pro ships a directly integrated zigbee hub now, which got a lot of devices moving that direction, and Ikea makes some great super cheap zigbee devices. Bluetooth and Wifi devices are the worst of both worlds, in my opinion. Wifi usually needs integration with an upstream service which is a non-starter for me, and bluetooth is just really limited on total device count. Both also eat through a lot of power compared to z-wave/zigbee. It's pretty cool that several recent zigbee switches are completely battery/wire free. They literally use the energy you expend to push to the button to send the signal.

synergy20 4y ago
that's new to me, did not track this field for a few years. zigbee protocol was too complex in the past for me on resource restricted devices, while zwave is so much light-weight, then that's just the technical side. maybe that's why z-wave now opens up, it's forced to do so or it dies.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  Zigbee was bigger in Europe, Z-Wave in the US. Or at least that was what I always read ;) Philips Hue was always the big "Zigbee? Never heard of that" Zigbee producer, nowadays, there are also good and cost-effective things from Sonoff and Aqara, and cheap but hit-or-miss devices by tuya (heavily white labeled)
bioemerl 4y ago
In my experience both are dying in favor of iot/wifi stuff. Zwave is still strong in the commercial space ZigBee is strong in the consumer space, especially light bulbs that commercial systems do not want to use. I'm thinking it'll be longer before zwave dies for real vs zigbee, but it will only live on the back of the big slow commercial entities that back it.

Lendal 4y ago

My house is standardized on Z-wave because I can afford a bit extra $ for each device in exchange for reliability. I can also add Zigbee if I need to, since my hub can do both. I just haven't needed to yet. Everything is available in both Zigbee and Z-wave versions, so I choose to pay the extra for added reliability. I haven't had much luck with Bluetooth and Wifi IoT devices. They tend to last a couple of years and then die. They also are more hassle to set up, and use more power. I don't need more hassle in my life. Z-wave and Zigbee are both more reliable, with Z-wave taking the slight edge over Zigbee. What's happening now is Thread (Matter) is coming. Thread is basically Zigbee Mark II. Thread is on par with Z-wave, but it supposed will retain its edge in cost benefit. I may start buying Thread stuff as it becomes available, but the problem is my mesh is solidly Z-wave. It doesn't seem worthwhile to start replacing stuff that works perfectly fine.

oceanplexian 4y ago
Z-Wave also supports device associations which Zigbee doesn't. You can permanently associate devices together (i.e. switches) to create a virtual 3-way switch that will work even if the "smart home hub" is down. Which, from a reliability perspective is a much better design if you're installing something commercially.
- bombcar 4y ago
  I wish Z-wave or something would support some form of physical connection instead of relying on wireless. I'd be perfectly happy running CAT-5 to every damn switch in the house if I could get reliability from it. I've fallen back to physical switches that can be relay controlled.
- ThatPlayer 4y ago
  Is that not binding in Zigbee? Home assistant docs because I can't find a better description: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#binding-and-unbinding https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#binding-and-...