Contact Hand on ZWA-2 with Home Assistant

I have recently installed the largest smart home antenna that I have ever seen, and it helped to open new areas in my smart home, from Attari to Chicken Coop. Great 12-inch Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2, who launches $ 69 this week, plugs into any home assistant system through USB and can connect any Z-Wave device, including the new Long Range (LR) special.

I brought ZWA-2 to my home assistant yellow center and, in minutes, it was controlling a plug all over my garden. I have struggled in my garden for years of contact issues. An aero -outdoor has been a good fix for 7W -Fi devices such as cameras and robot lawn lanomores. Now ZVOLR, which uses 900 MW of ZVOts bands to connect devices (in ideal conditions) at a distance of one and a half miles, opens the door of the use of sensors, locks and other low -strength devices in the corner corner corner of my property.

The antenna itself is humorous. To get the best performance, it needs to go out in the open, which means it stands on the closet in my sitting room. The HA team says it is “designed to mix in domestic decoration. It not only resembles a candle, but it also becomes bright as one.” They suffer from the shape of a “black spider”, but it still sticks like a shining blue wound thumb.

From this size, though, it also gives even the highest ZV signal to choose and helps make your network more responsible and stable. Until now, Z-Wave Antenna Options in Home Assistant Have In Child-PARTY USB Sticks About 3 Inures Long, and on other platforms, they are genericly hidden inide Hubs, which canl air Range.

The establishment of ZWA-2 was easy. I pulled the stick into the base and plug it into my yellow using the USB A-To-C cable provided. The Home Assistant immediately recognized it, formed a new network. If you already have a ZView network on Home Assistant, the migration device can move your devices in a few minutes (I saw a demo that took less than 5 minutes).

For my first test, I used the Zoz Z View LR smart plug ($ 35) to control two fans in my chicken coup. The coup is located at the bottom of my garden, about 50 yards (150 feet), through two brick walls. I scan the Plug’s QR code, chose the ZVVLR option (you can also choose the traditional mesh The antenna either), and it quickly went on the ship. Then I plug him into an outlet near the coup in my garden shed and drive the fans an extension bone. Even at this distance, the plug immediately responded to fans to turn and turn off.

After that, I set up a zoo ZV LR Water Lake sensor ($ 39) in my attic, where my HVAC drip pan recently left a dirty stain on his roof. The setup was like that. ZVOLR is a good solution here as sub -giga hertz protocols take less power than Wi -Fi, so the coin cell battery in the sensor should continue for longer. (There is no shop near the unit for a plugin sensor.)

If you use ZVO devices, which many domestic assistant users do, and they have problems with contacts or you want to automatically make more areas of your home.

I’ve been using it for a while, so I can’t comment on reliability, but so far, the devices I have attached have worked so easily in the places where I have struggled to find good options. And while, despite the admirable efforts of the home assistant, ZWA-2 is not really a piece of decoration, to the extent that it is worth trade.

Pictures of Jennifer Patison Toy / The Verge