News

Arduino just announced their 32-bit Uno R4:

UNO R4 preserves the standard form factor, shield compatibility, 5 V power supply and robustness of the UNO range while offering no less than a 32-bit Arm® Cortex®-M4 and a 16-fold increase in memory. Thanks to enhanced thermal design, the UNO R4 boards can be powered up to 24 V.

There are 2 different models:

• Arduino UNO R4 WiFi ($27.50 USD): The Arduino UNO R4 WiFi merges the RA4M1 microprocessor from Renesas with the ESP32-S3 from Espressif, creating an all-in-one tool for makers with enhanced processing power and a diverse array of new peripherals. With its built-in Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® capabilities, the UNO R4 WiFi enables makers to venture into boundless creative possibilities. Furthermore, this versatile board boasts a convenient on-board 12x8 LED matrix and a Qwiic connector, offering ample space for innovation and unleashing creativity. This dynamic combination empowers makers to transform their ideas into reality and elevate their projects to unprecedented heights.
• Arduino UNO R4 Minima ($20 USD): Introducing the Arduino UNO R4 Minima! This board boasts the RA4M1 microprocessor from Renesas, delivering increased processing power, expanded memory, and additional peripherals. And the best part? It stays true to the reliable UNO form factor and operates at a practical 5 V voltage. Brace yourself for an upgrade like no other with the Arduino UNO R4 Minima!

WiFi model

RA4M1	256 kB Flash, 32 kB RAM
ESP32-S3	384 kB ROM, 512 kB SRAM

Minima model

Memory

RA4M1

256 kB Flash, 32 kB RAM

 

Home Assistant just announced that it has received official endorsement from the KNX Association for its KNX integration. KNX is a flexible building & residential home automation standard, especially popular in Europe.

 

Some may have noticed that some Z-Wave 800 series hardware is starting to become available for purchase (most of it being manufacturered under the Zooz branding), so I thought it would be useful to post this Z-Wave alliance link which explains the differences between the Z-Wave we all know, and Z-Wave Long Range. It gets into the nitty-gritty of the technology, and what benefits it offers.

• Improved battery life
• Longer range
• Backwards compatible
• Star topology vs network topology

Instead of just rehashing the content here, I'm going to link the article, in case it gets updated. Here's an older video posted by the Z-Wave alliance about 2 years ago (initial support started with the 700 series chipset).

 

 

The UPB Configuration tool UPStart has been updated with important bug fixes and improvements.

As UPStart is a Windows program, we try and stay on top of any changes that Microsoft makes to Windows to ensure that UPStart continues to work reliability on Windows 10 and Windows 11. Recently we became aware of a potential issue that we needed to correct. Because of this, PCS suggests you to update UPStart to this latest build soon

In addition to the changes for correct operation with the latest Windows, several improvements are also in this build:

A new Online Resources tab to let you quickly access the most common online documentation
Improved error messages – less engineering and more what you need to know
A better way to view and modify the PulseWorx Gateway Apps labeling for devices

More release notes:

Version 8.3 Build 27

1. Improved the error message when connecting to the Gateway and it fails due to
and incorrect username or password.

2. UPStart allows a label different from the device name when displayed by a
mobile application. This provides a way for the name used by an installer
to be replaced by a more user-friendly name when seen on a mobile device.

Some users didn't realize this and changed the device name and then didn't
see that change reflected in the mobile application.

To make it more obvious that these two names can be separate, on the ID
tab of the device properties, the remote access name is now also shown.

3. Changed the button names in the PulseWorx Gateway ribbon category
to hopefully be clearer in their function.

4. Improved error messages throughtout the product.

5. Improved the PulseWorx Gateway schedule verify tool.

5. Added an Online Resources ribbon category.

 

With all the announcements about Matter, I was pleasantly surprised learning the Z-Wave Alliance is doubling down on its efforts to stay competitive. The announcement discusses a serious effort about running the Z-Wave stack on 3rd party hardware, while still maintaining certification efforts to guarantee compatibility.

Beaverton, OR – December 14, 2022 – The Z-Wave Alliance, the Standards Development Organization (SDO) dedicated to advancing the smart home and Z-Wave® technology, today announced the completion of the Z-Wave Source Code project, which has been published and made available on GitHub to Alliance members.

The Z-Wave Source Code Project opens development of Z-Wave and enables members to contribute code to shape the future of the protocol under the supervision of the new OS Work Group (OSWG).

The goal of the project is to provide a rich development environment that contains the relevant source code and sample applications to those seeking to play a direct role in the advancement of the Z-Wave standard. The quality and interoperability of products utilizing Z-Wave Source Code will also be enforced by a new mandatory Silicon & Stack Certification program. Full Z-Wave certification will continue to test and certify for Z-Wave S2 security, network connectivity, range, battery life, and interoperability including backwards and forwards compatibility.

“The Z-Wave Alliance is deeply committed to the global smart home market,” said Mitch Klein, Executive Director of the Z-Wave Alliance. “This year the smart home conversations have focused largely on Matter. Shiny and new, and with big brands supporting the initiative, Matter is bringing a lot of attention to the smart home. This makes it easy to overlook Z-Wave as the most established, trusted, and secure smart home protocol, that also happens to have the largest certified interoperable ecosystem in the market. We firmly expect that Z-Wave will play a key role in connecting devices and delivering the experience users really want.”

As the Alliance worked to complete the Source Code project, Z-Wave experienced impressive growth achieving milestones such as the availability of Z-Wave Long Range (LR) certification, surpassing 4100 certified Z-Wave devices in the market, and seeing 90 million new Z-Wave devices enter the market since 2020.

In 2020, when Z-Wave Alliance announced that Silicon Labs was contributing the Z-Wave code to the organization, the Alliance was re-incorporated as an independently run, member-driven non-profit SDO. Over the past 20 months, technical working groups specific to features such as the physical layer working group (mac/PHY), networking layer working group, application layer working group (command class specification), and security working group have collaborated to complete the Z-Wave Source Code project.

Executed in beta testing and shared with members at the Z-Wave Member Summit, Exegin Technologies completed the porting of Z-Wave Source Code to third-party silicon. The operation is outlined in a blog on the Z-Wave Alliance website. The proof-of-concept network demonstrates how the Z-Wave Source Code package will provide developers and manufacturers with flexible implementations from controller (hub/bridge) to end devices. Further extrapolated, the implementation could be for both new controllers, such as Z-Wave/Matter compatible bridges, and for Z-Wave or Z-Wave/Matter end devices.

Silicon Labs, one of the primary code contributors to both Matter and Z-Wave, has developed a multi-protocol software development kit, the Unify SDK, for Matter-based hubs and bridges. The software tool provides for interoperability between the different wireless IoT protocols, including Z-Wave and Matter. The Unify SDK offers a how-to kit for manufacturers and developers to connect both new and legacy Z-Wave devices with new Matter devices.

“This is going to be an incredible year for the smart home industry and an exciting time for verticals we see growing including MDU, hospitality, energy, and insurance,” concluded Klein. “As an SDO, membership is the key to the future of Z-Wave technology. With a new BoD led by Amazon’s Jonathan Adams and John Osborne II who chaired Project CHIP, the industry will start to recognize and embrace all the shiny parts of Z-Wave.”

For more information on joining the Z-Wave Alliance, please visit http://z-wavealliance.org.

Follow the Z-Wave Alliance on Facebook, Twitter and on LinkedIn for the latest updates.

About the Z-Wave Alliance

The Z-Wave Alliance is a standards development organization dedicated to developing and advancing Z-Wave® technology as an open and internationally recognized ITU standard (G.9959) for smart home and IoT solutions. Alliance members lead the home controls market, providing leading edge products and systems that deliver increased comfort, convenience, energy conservation, safety, and security.

Z-Wave® is a registered trademark of the Z-Wave Alliance.

Hat tip to @NormandyHA who first mentioned this announcement.