Bought this several weeks back during initial release.
Any updates on when a Smarthings edge driver is going to be released.
Not really a fan of this sort of advertised spec not being ready on release BTW.
While it did say it was not available at that time, it did not say it would take months to deliver it…
Thanks for reaching out! For some background, hubs like the Z-Box Hub, Home Assistant, and HomeSeer can support almost any Z-Wave certified device out of the box because of how they handle Z-Wave at the core. They use a full local Z-Wave stack (like Z-Wave JS) that speaks the Z-Wave protocol directly.
When you add a device, it sends a built-in Z-Wave “interview” to the hub that lists its command classes and capabilities. Because the hub can read this information directly, it can control the device right away without needing any special setup or custom drivers. Even if the hub doesn’t have a preloaded device template, it can still operate the device generically using its reported features.
Unfortunately, SmartThings Hub works differently on the backend, as it is not a Z-Wave focused hub. While it no longer uses the old cloud-based Groovy system and now runs local Lua drivers through the SmartThings Edge platform, it still doesn’t use a full generic Z-Wave stack. Instead, SmartThings relies on model-specific Edge drivers that tell it how to interpret each device’s Z-Wave commands and which capabilities to expose.
If no matching Edge driver exists, SmartThings will usually just add the device as a generic “Z-Wave” placeholder with very limited or no functionality.
That’s why Z-Box, Home Assistant, and other hubs with a full Z-Wave implementation can integrate new Z-Wave devices automatically, while SmartThings typically needs specific drivers before a device will work properly.
In order for more complex devices to work on a hub like SmartThings, we have to create drivers to tell SmartThings what to do. As I’m sure you can imagine, this is a time and cost intensive process, so we are sure to note that the full support is not available on SmartThings until the driver is complete.
Please also keep in mind that each time we have a firmware update that adds new settings, changes functionality, etc., this also requires a driver update for each device. With over 40 devices and counting in our product line-up, we do our best to ensure drivers are prepared and updated to the best of our ability. However, with a complex device like the ZSE50 and no current working template, our driver developer is still working on the driver and has been since the time of release.
A beta driver is currently available, but it has not been published as of yet as routines cannot be made to select a specific tone, and our developer is still working on that feature. You can use the driver linked here and create a scene that will trigger the default sound on the siren and allow access to parameters. We will post the driver publicly in our files once it is complete.
Please let us know if you have any questions on anything above!
It was published on 9/13
As mentioned above, the one thing I was not able to get working was allowing a routine to trigger a specific tone. It seems to be some sort of a bug in the SmartThings platform, I am trying to find a workaround.
Very impressed with your response.
Thankyou.
I enabled the beta off the zooz edge driver channel and enrolled the zse50 with smartthings. All good.
For my application, I’ve been having opportunistic people roaming my driveway and needed something more than a flood light turning on to scare them away. The ZSE50 will help me.
I was able to create a routine linking the zooz outdoor PIR with the ZSE50 siren but not verify operation until sometime today.
So far, it conceptually allowed it but the test will verify.
I can work with this minimal driver now.
Again, thankyou for the comprehensive reply and professionalism.
Great job!
All good, works fine on smarthings with limited driver.
Hey @Knurek just a heads up that @jtp10181 was able to update the driver and you can now program different sounds on different routines. As this is a new update, it should be available within the next few hours, or you can uninstall and reinstall the driver for it to take immediate effect. We have instructions available here: How to Program & Manage Sounds for the ZSE50 Siren & Chime on SmartThings - Zooz Support Center