Adding a Nortek Z-Wave/Zigbee USB dongle

Purchased online for $50, the Nortek Z-Wave/Zigbee USB dongle seems like the easy way to add Z-Wave and Zigbee functionality to Home Assistant. 

What is Z-Wave?

It uses radio wave frequencies to connect to each other, in the 800-900 MHz range. This means it's not going to interfere/be interfered with, from your wi-fi network (running either on 2.4 or 5GHz). The Z-Wave devices can (but not all do) repeat signals, creating a Z-Wave mesh. It's limited to 232 devices, which is plenty for my purposes, but allegedly opening up to more as time goes on.

What is Zigbee?

It is similar, but uses the 2.4GHz range. Zigbee devices can also create a mesh, but due to a multitude of different implementations, one Zigbee device may not link to another brand's Zigbee device. Zigbee send messages faster, and can have 65,000 devices on the network...which seems like overkill.

To Choose, or Not to Choose

Rather than pick one, and be limited to one type of device - the USB dongle seems like a fair way to start. My first device to add to the Z-Wave network: a First Alert ZCOMBO (CO2 detector and smoke alarm).

Setting up Z-Wave JS

I started by following a guide from August 2020 but it turned out to be dated. Already! Home Assistant evolves fast. Z-Wave JS is the new way. I had to start the search for a process over again.

First, maybe before buying a Z-Wave JS device, I would have looked at this site to see if my dongle was on it. Unclear. There was a Nortek Security & Control LLC / SmartStick+ HUSBZ on it, but...mine is a HUSBZB-1. (It worked.) Install Z-Wave JS from the Add-on Store.

Using Supervisor > Z-Wave JS > Documentation - it was a very clear path forward. In Configuration, it needs a device path (Documentation is clear on where to find it) and a network key (it will generate on for you, if you don't find a service for it). When I clicked on the device entry, it gave me a choice of three - from the earlier guide, I knew I wanted the USB0 entry.

I did not need to add an entry in the Network section. After saving the Options portion, POOF! The device showed up.

The USB dongle shows up

Setting up the First Alert ZCOMBO alarm

From there, we go to Configuration, scroll down to Z-Wave JS, and click on Configure. The next screen shows us "ADD NODE" which is going to be our smoke alarm, in this case.

ADD NODE is where the magic happens

The next screen allows you to "Start Inclusion", and has an option to make it secure - if it was a door lock or a garage door opener, I would make a secure inclusion. For smoke alarm sensors, not necessary.

The First Alert ZCOMBO is easy to add at this point - get the batteries in, click the "Start Inclusion" button in Home Assistant, and hold down the TEST/SILENCE button as you slide the tray in. After about 30 seconds, the "Start Inclusion" screen pops back in - it didn't mention finding any new devices or entities.

However, going back to Configuration and looking at the Z-Wave JS integration, you'll see this:

2 devices, where there was once but 1

The first device is the USB dongle - it's only a device, and has no entities. The smoke alarm comes in with 4 entities...in my case, it was a low battery sensor, a % battery sensor, an alarm type, and an alarm level. The last two were not enabled by default, but I'll see what I can get out of it. 

Sadly, no silence button.

[Edit: as a follow-up, if you're looking for information on flashing the Nortek firmware, check out my later post: https://jimmernesshaas.blogspot.com/2021/07/iot-button-for-home-assistant-ikea.html.]