Well said @mamber
I’m kinda disappointed you have to say it, but I’m glad you did. My perspective is probably skewed by working in technology and dealing with firefighting/debugging all the time. 
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I feel for you @mamber
Working in the Healthcare Technology field as a SRE for 10+ years has taught me a few things about end user testing and it usually ends in “This got tested in non prod right? Nope…” Then it’s test, document change, implement change, test, pull my hair out, revert changes, document my thoughts as I stare into the void, then just keep looping through different iterations and finally figure out the issue. 
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Agree and hope others realize the same!
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When people used to ask what I do for a living I would tell them I’m a part time firefighter and a part time baby sitter. When I’d see the confused look on their face, I could then explain that I did Systems admin. I still typically had to explain after that though.
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I just stick with “computer stuff”.
I’ve found that most people know they don’t want anymore detail after that.
Yeah, that too. Waiting for the website to let me.
I’m well aware of what beta testing is, thanks everyone.
Hey all!
Wanted to give an update here – I’ll have to check with the other Eric on beta testing, we may have a few slots left. I’ll reach out via PM to you guys if there is any room left. If not, don’t feel discouraged, we are honestly grateful for all the volunteers and I think we need to have some formalized process because every time I see all these volunteers, I feel terrible when I am unable to pick someone as I know we’re all home automation enthusiasts and want to help!
That said, here’s an update:
- We received a small batch (8 switches for us, 7 for our B2B partner) a few weeks ago and a few of us have been cranking away at the testing. So far, so good – the manufacturer really has impressed us with nailing their first rounds of firmware. Even the B2B guys who are testing a completely different hub (their own) said how impressed they were and that there were few bugs.
- Next week, we should be receiving the remaining beta units for the rest of the beta testers to start testing and hopefully we can get to a final spot by the end of the year, if not the first couple weeks of January.
Some notes:
- Z-Wave Long Range is going to be a game-changer. Especially for those who have detached garages, pole-barns, etc. Eric and I have a couple of portable generators that we’re testing Long Range on and I’m going to share the results once I have them (I’m waiting on my Z-Stick w/Long Range capabilities). But, from what I’m reading and what the manufacturer has said, it’s awesome. Now we just need the hubs to catch up (as they will need to support Long Range).
–
Regarding timeline, I need to update it – I’m thinking they’ll likely be available in late Jan / early Feb at this point. A lot got pushed back due to the Blue Series fiasco as the engineers working on these switches were also trying to figure out what was wrong with the Blue Series. In addition, it seems like every time someone coughs in China, they shut down factories. There’s been a couple of times the factory has been shut down in the past month which has pushed things back.
I should have more info on official timelines on Thursday – from there I can assess pre-order status. I want to have at least a 75% chance of nailing the production timeline lol!
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Did I read correctly somewhere that the long range feature only works as a direct connection with the controller, and not through the mesh devices?
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Yes, I believe that’s correct. Their claim is that, “it’s so good, you don’t need mesh” (paraphrased haha).
Source: https://z-wavealliance.org/what-is-z-wave-long-range-and-how-does-it-differ-from-z-wave/
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Unless your controller is in the basement and you want to reach the mailbox. I’m going to need to find a way to get an antenna in my attic or out on the roof.
I assume you don’t know either since the ZWave LR differences document doesn’t specify, nor can I easily find it, but how is backwards compatibility handled? The document says LR is backwards compatible with regular ZWave, how do they handle the addressing between normal and LR devices? How would an old ZWave device talk to a LR device with an address 233 or greater?
I’m viewing LR as something similar as 5GHz to wifi. But there, they both use IP so routing between the two networks is easy. Not sure how the 8bit vs 12bit addressing and routing between them will be handled.
Really wish ZWave had some more documentation on it, or easier to find stuff. I’m guessing the hubs will have to handle this. Question is how.
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There is a decent thread on the Hubitat forums discussing Z-Wave Long Range (Hubitat and Z-Wave Long Range - 📰 News and Updates - Hubitat).
The short answer is both Z-wave Classic and Long Range can operate together in some capacity. The thread is from early '21 so things may have changed some.
How far away is your mailbox? Mine isn’t a MILE away lol.
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This looks promising 
Mine i
Mine is about 600ft away, but the line of sight is the biggest issue. Dirt surrounding the basement and a variety of trees cut down on the signal strength a lot.
With a mesh network if the main controller is in the basement it is no big deal because a couple of devices are directly overhead which can pick up the signal and rebroadcast the signal to the sides. Line of sight to the controller requires a lot more consideration of where to mount the controller.
Maybe someone needs to make a PoE access point for Z-wave LR.
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Highly recommend extension for USB and placing in the floor joist section above grade. Transformed the performance of my system for the slab-on-grade half of my house.
I’d love to see a PoE z-wave controller! Bury the hub in the rack in the basement, and have the controller plugged in upstairs in the living room right in the middle of the house. Zigbee has some controllers like this.
Depending on your hub that may already be possible if you want to do a bit of DIY. I run openHAB and have my z-stick connected to a remote raspberry pi running ser2net for the serial interface to the stick. In openHAB you just put in rfc2217://ip_to_pi:ser2net_port under the “serial port” config and it works fine. I’m sure Home Assistant must have similar functionality too.
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Yes, this works perfectly with Z-Wave JS as well (which Home Assistant uses).
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Will brightness pre-staging be included in these new switches?
Maybe this is an obvious one, but I don’t see it listed anywhere in the thread. I’m super excited to see new z-wave equipment coming out after all the disruptions, but after installing a bunch of z-wave switches in my house, I now know that they are pretty much useless to my family without the prestaging. Would love to pick up some new switches to replace the old ones but no pre-staging would be a deal-breaker.