USB Smart Home Stick made for My Cloud2 by WD, Z-Wave Plus

I thought for years I'd have to get a smart home hub and pay a subscription fee every month to control my Z-Wave enabled door lock. That wasn't the case! Plugging this dongle into a Raspberry Pi 4 and pairing it with a free program on the Pi called Home Assistant has allowed me to control my front door lock from the Pi completely free of charge. With some tweaks I can even get it working through HomeKit and have the ability to control the lock from my iPhone.This dongle worked flawlessly and was easy to set up. Highly recommended.

I bought this USB stick to control Z-Wave devices using the Z-Way app on my WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra. I give it one star, because I can't give it zero stars. The good, it works. The bad, if you unplug it, or you lose power, all of the devices you have included in the Z-Wave network are gone. So, after a power failure, you have to rebuild your network. Any automation system I've ever worked with before works after a power failure just like it worked before the power failure. I guess if you never lose power where you live, or you have a great UPS that can run the NAS drive for as long as it ever takes for power to be restored, you can use this. Also, you need to purchase a license for this USB stick, which is another $30, and is non-refundable. From my experience phone support is non-existent. They say someone will call you back, and they never do.

Works great for me. I use it with a Raspberry Pi 3. I did buy the license so I could use the Zway software. I've had no issues with it. Some recommend that you use a USB extender cable to keep it away from the computer, but I haven't bothered with that. I may do it eventually. One advantage of this over the Razberry board is that this does not disable the Bluetooth. However, there are some issues with Bluetooth and the Wifi, so it's not 100% clear if this is a net gain. I use a hard lan connection to the Raspberry Pi 3 and this UZB and Bluetooth and it works well.

I'm a newbie to Z-wave and bought this on a recommendation. I'm not sure if it's doing what it's supposed to do or not. I'm not seeing my Z-wave devices in home assistant, that's why this is a work in progress.

This is one of the most commonly DIY Z-Wave sticks. It's dual-frequency: 908 Mhz (US) and 917 Mhz. Works with Linux, Mac, Windows.No USB driver needed except for Windows. Several Z-Wave stacks are able to handle this: Z-Way requires additional license. OpenZWave based controllers, Homeseer, OpenHAB support this.Very small. It emits a bright blue light when in operation.It sticks 2 cm from the USB port.z-wave.me has the Windows drivers, script for change frequency (Defaults to US 908 Mhz) and links t the Z-Way controller software (Requires additional license).Note that if reception is poor (i.e., connected to the rear of a tower PC), try getting an USB extension cable

It took me a little bit to put together the pieces to make this product work but once I did I was very happy. You do need a license. It wasn't clear to me when I purchased it if you would or not but I definitely did. I purchased the license from the US link on the z-wave.me site. It cost me $39USD. I will say the vender when contacted did say that I needed a license. I'm unsure if there are any conditions where you can buy this and not need a license. Once the license was installed it recognized my z-wave devices and I'm off and running.The only reason for not giving 5 stars is I wish the license component was more upfront.

This stick may be full on features, but light on documentation and heavy on technical jargon. I'm on my 4th hour of trying to do a simple firmware update and I'd consider myself a pretty technical-minded person who's comfortable with firmware upgrades and JTAG procedures.Search for the company's 229 page "Z-Way Essentials" PDF. If its content overwhelms you or you're not a true nerd tech expert, don't bother. Forum help involves Linux and knowing about serial ports and undocumented bootloader vs firmware versions.Either way - it's ridiculous to think you'd spend more than even half an hour to do a firmware upgrade.

I recently started experimenting with home control/home automation. There are a lot of devices that use Z-Wave for communication so I needed something to connect to my Linux box running Home Assistant. As promised, Linux has drivers built in, so all I had to do is plug this in and it showed up exactly as the instructions stated. I added it to my Home Assistant config and I was in business.I'm still in the early stages of experimentation, so I only have one device paired with it so far.This device is a very cost effective option if you don't need the Z-Wave license key.