Possible to add LR via firmware?

Everything Else
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Hi Zooz!

If I’m reading the change logs correctly, it appears that LR was added via firmware (1.50) to the Zen51/52…

Admittedly, I haven’t had an opportunity yet to actually verify that on my 51, but now that Hubitat is beta testing LR, I think that eventual release will help start driving LR adoption.

If true, does that mean it could be possible to add LR (via firmware update) to other 700 devices like the Titan and Z16 v2?

If so, is such a thing on your roadmap? Thanks very much!

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Hi! Yes, it is definitely possible to add LR via a firmware update, as we have done with the ZEN51/52 and a few other products. We are currently testing the new LR firmware on the 700 series chip with the ZAC36 at this time, so stay tuned for updates!

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Awesome news - thanks Sara!

It would be great to see the Z16v2 and Z17 get it too (if possible), since those devices are commonly used outside main structure (detached garage, irrigation, accent lighting etc).

Thanks again!

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Sure thing! Both the ZEN16 & ZEN17 are in the process of an update to the 800 series Z-Wave chip with Long Range support. The ZEN17 800LR should be available via The Smartest House at the end of this week or early next week.

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To clarify, while it’s technically possible to update a non LR product to an LR product via OTA, you will always need to scan the QR code on the product to add it with LR since LR works with SmartStart only. The issue we’re looking at right now is that the format of the QR code is different for LR, so there is that challenge when looking to upgrade from non-LR to LR.

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As long as the controller supports changing the boot mode after scanning, you can just scan the old QR code and then change the boot mode to Long Rang. I have already done this with a ZEN52 to test and it paired and works fine.

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Our technicians just returned from the Z-Wave summit and this was just confirmed true for Home Assistant and should be true for Hubitat as well. We’re waiting on other systems to introduce LR so we can verify if this will be the case on all systems.

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Hi again Sara – I was perusing The Smartest House website tonight, and noticed that the Titan’s product page claims that it’s LR-ready… But I don’t recall seeing that blurb there before – is that a new change? Either new hardware, or maybe related to an upcoming firmware update (since I don’t see LR mentioned in the current release notes).

The listing of LR products that’s linked in your blog article about LR doesn’t include the Titan, so I’m just curious to confirm its LR status…

FWIW, I’d love to see the Titan get LR (and preferably via f/w, since I’m going to end up in the dog house if I buy a new-hardware version of it lol).

Thank you for your time & help!

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Currently, the new ZAC36 LR version 2.0 (hardware 4) supports LR, but we will look in the future to see if the 1.24 (hardware 3) can also be updated to LR version. Currently, the older 1.24 SDK Z-Wave library does not support LR functionality at all.
When our team decided to add Long Range to the Titan and keep the 700 series chip, we were required to do a Z-Wave certification from scratch again due to the addition of LR support. The original Titan valve was made on an older SDK that did not support Z-Wave certification for LR. The new ZAC36 LR is based on a new SDK with LR and starts with firmware 2.0 (hardware 4). The QR code on the device was updated as well, however, we know that some hubs will support the ‘old’ QR code in LR too.
Currently, we do not know if the 1.24 version will be updated to LR, but this option is not excluded and we will continue looking into this as an option.

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Thanks Sara, that’s helpful info!

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