AEOTECZ-Stick Gen5 Z-Wave Hub Z-Wave Plus USB to Create Gateway (Ordinary White)

Purchased several of these, they are solid z-wave radios, work perfectly. We've been using them on a project for several months and have no issues to report.99% of the time you will have this device plugged into your home automation controller. When plugged into a HA controller, the USB stick runs in API mode, advertises itself as a serial port, and your HA software can send/receive z-wave frames to your home network.But in addition to that, this device has a cool feature that can be useful. Some devices require very close proximity for inclusion/exclusion to work. So when you need that, you unplug this stick. Inside the USB stick is a tiny battery (that is why it's so huge). If you tap the button quickly, then the USB stick is in "inclusion mode". Bring it close to your z-wave device and do whatever you need to do for "inclusion" (generally toggle the power on/off, etc...). If it succeeded, the light on the USB stick will go solid for 3 seconds. Rinse and repeat if you need.For exclusion, unplug the z-waev stick and instead of tapping the button, press it for 3 seconds. The light stop blinking slowly and will blink fast. Now you can exclude your devices. Again, do whatever you have to on your switch/plug/etc... to exclude. The light on the stick will go solid for 3 seconds to indicate exclusion worked.This may not seem like a big deal, but it's actually quite useful. Because of these challenges, the VeraEdge controller would ship with a giant battery you plug into the controller to bring it closer to the device for inclusion/exclusion. Unplugging a smaller stick like this is far more user friendly.Pros:- Works great- Has battery, button, and LED for inclusion / exclusion when unplugged from the HA controllerCons:- Kind of big- Not exactly cheap, but you only need one

This and openhab, and tasker, changed my lifestyle :) Put it in an rpi and you have a playground of usefulness. No issues since initially configuring all this stuff many month's ago. I have about 12 devices. Power measurements, switches, dimmers, and some custom hardware. A set of older hue bridge and bulbs that I don't let see the internets.... Integrate this into your life service bus :) Suddenly, convenience. Amazon echo is even useful here if you want to yell at your lightbulbs. Just run amazon-echo-bridge-0.2.1.jar and you can integrate on/off and dimmer functionality easily with groups of things. Other than that, echo kinda sucks and of course offers a mic into your personal world. So if you are paranoid, just use openhab and tasker or some bash scripts. It's a bit expensive to automate your home. I'm not convinced the money is worth it for most people. But those people have never arrived home, and had their computers and tv wake up, all their lights turn on, and then clicked a button when going to sleep to turn off everything. Or yelled at their lights while having their hand full of groceries. Anyway, a z-stick is a core piece of equipment.update:no issues. Still a dozen or so zwave devices. I never have connectivity issues or weird things happen, and I've survived many many power outages. I really don't have to think about this thing ever. No real complaints with it's integrating my zwave stack. I guess it's been about two years now. I just don't have to fool with it or think about it.

Works great with my indigo home automation software on my Mac mini. Much more reliable than my previous z-wave controller by Hubitat. Also much faster. I was about to throw my two dozen x-wave modules away because they were so slow to respond and scenes where very unreliable. I decided to give this device a shot using an old Mac mini and a copy of my Indigo software. Wow, what a difference. No repeater needed in my 2400 sq ft house

Great little device, dirt cheap compared to the purpose built hubs, and works with all sorts of opensource home automation/control software. Since it's so ubiquitous, tons of info online for configuration.

I've been using the Indigo Domotics home automation server for years w/ Insteon products, but was looking to expand my functionality and options through implementing Z-Wave. This device was incredibly simple and works exactly as I'd hoped. Simply plugged it into the back of my server (old iMac) and added the extension to the Indigo system, and away I went.My first device was a simple on/off switch for my garage light, which is ~30' away from the server (through walls, flooring, including concrete) and the communication is solid w/ little delay/lag. So, I'm pleased w/ the range of this device out of the box and look forward to adding more Z-Wave devices in the future.The one downside, and reason I gave it only 4-stars, is that there is really no simple way to disable what people are calling the Christmas Lights effect. This thing is constantly blinking between red, blue, and yellow, and if I had it installed anywhere that I'd normally be in a dark environment, it would get really annoying. Since it's in my office, and I'm only here during the day or w/ lights on, I don't notice it. Minus a star for not making it an accessible option out of the box, however, to turn it off.