2 New Zwave products!!

[ChrisWalker]

I'm sending my last old version remote out for disassembly by a electrical engineer since I wasn't able to find a broken remote. He is going to try to see if flash upgrades are possible. It's a possibility and ACT just doesn't want to deal with it. I'll post complete pictures when he finishes.

It may very well be a cost issue for ACT. It might be more expensive for them to get back a remote control, re-flash the firmware, and send it back out again--having to deal with customers wanting to have their previous configuration saved, etc.

In other words, it might be cheaper to buy a new remote than to get a firmware update.

With software, most of these issues fade away, or at least don't become nearly so troublesome. With software, you can get support for new types of devices by downloading an upgrade--and there are then no ugly firmware issues involved.

Chris

 

[ChrisWalker]

As long as the remote control will just add a device to the network, even if it won't actually control it, then that's good enough for us. But the USB controller firmeware has to be new enough to support the device classes for the devices you want to use.

Has their been more than one firmware on the controller? I assume there has. The firmeware in mine is a few notches behind the current Z-Wave developer's kit level.

Two quick clarifications:

Even the current USB controllers out there (running Z-Wave v3.20) support the newest device classes. I have not seen an upgrade of the USB device which has been necessary to support any of the newest device classes, since that's all software. On the remotes that's a different story, since the software is in "firmware."

And for the current ACT HomePro USB controllers, I believe they've always shipped with Z-Wave v3.20. For lots of good reasons.

Chris