Firmware upgrade of ZWave devices

No, i wish we could. Some controllers support OTA firmware updates for their devices, Zipato does not.

Besides that though, the main security breaches are not the Z-wave communication themselves, but the controllers and your network. A Russian hacker would have to be at your front door to hack an old model z-wave device. The devices themselves communicate with your Z-wave Controller only in zwave protocol, in 128 bit encryption. So the risk of hacking from remote locations is due to your own network vulnerabilities and not going to affect your z-wave device unless your controller is compromised. Not z-wave or zigbee or enocean RF protocols.

Also Zipatos login token procedure and cloud security platform is very good, better than 95% of its competitors in the smart home market. So the risk of interception of your Smart Home communication is very unlikely. If you wish to improve your home networks security communication with the outside world, get a vpn, this encrypts all your internet traffic.

Hope this helps put your mind at ease.

Thanks for your reply Adrian, (bedankt!)

However, I have picked up this 'hobby' after three years in the hope that things had advanced in terms of usability. But in just one day I discover things have not advanced at all and it is a terribly time-consuming hobby. I have a box full of ZWave devices of different brands, all with outdated firmware of different brands, and I'm being told to buy a controller FOR EACH BRAND, in order to update each device's firmware? Please, don't offend me! Can you imagine using a smartphone with a 3-years old firmware? SmartPhone... SmartThing... IOT...?

Nope. This hobby is not for me. I don't have the time for this nonsense.

Seriously? First it's: Buy our universal ZWave device which works with any ZWave controller, and then: buy our special device in order to just upgrade the firmware? Think again. I have better things to do with my time (and money).

BTW I have plenty VPN and also many ZWave devices have some buggy CRC security but I'm just glad I don't have a Nuclear Power Plant at home (yet). And I hope no nuclear power plants use ZWave technology (ever).

I'll check up on the sector again in 3-5 years.

Actually I think in the first place this should be the responsibility of the ZWave Alliance. But they appear not too trustworthy or interested.

Good luck Vladimir, we're making it as easy as possible for you...

So Stefan Zipato, why haven't you written a sincere and urgent email to Fibaro et al, and to the ZWave Alliance, so that you can all get your act together??? Do you need me to do it for you?

You are right, Z-wave alliance make a lot of claims, then the poor manufacturers of devices and controllers have to "somehow" work together and get these releases out. As you may be aware, z-wave alliance dont even support gen 3 devices anymore. They also claim, as you mentioned, that any z-wave device works with any z-wave controller, and it simply is not true. They can in theory, but it is still up to the Company of the controller, to get a sample unit, test and include it into their system. It is not a fair responsibility and burden to put on Controller Manufacturers. Nor is it for the resellers who often are not educated in these matters, especially the online sellers who just want to move products and make money. They have no vested interest in the industry and just preach what Z-wave Alliance tell them, you buy , it doesnt work, they say oh well contact the Controller Company, because it should.

My recommendation, if you wanted to start your Home Automation setup, would have been to research a bit more and asked some questions on forums about protocols, controllers, and devices to best use. Purchasing a heap of old devices and expecting them to work as new, is not relevant, despite the software limitations, there are hardware limitations that cant be upgraded. Maybe this is why the seller was getting rid of them in the first place.

ps, alot of the manufacturers of your devices too, dont actually have firmware updates available.

Sure write Mitchel Klein of the Zwave alliance. He is a very nice man, but good luck. Having dealt with Fibaro, you have no chance of them coming to anyone elses party but their own.

Nick, is there a specific reason that you want to update the firmware, or is it just for general security considerations? I'm curious. I'd honestly never even considered this problem before.

So far I haven't had huge problems with Z-Wave devices. I got a CO2 sensor that didn't work correctly until Zipato support got it working, and my timer switch can't be set to 30, 60 or 120 minutes from the Zipabox (it's always set to 120 minutes), but aside from that almost everything has worked out of the box. My sense is that there are a series of generic categories of Z-Wave device that Zipato supports, and if your device falls into one of those, it will probably work (but any extended capabilities that it has will be ignored). This clearly falls somewhat short of the promise of Z-Wave, but I'm not sure where the fault lies (I don't know whether a controller could, in theory, query each device to find out its capabilities and automatically implement all of them).

As far as home automation being a time-consuming hobby... Yes, absolutely :-) Look no further than the posts here telling you to set up a web server so that you can play a sound via your Sonos. Seriously??

What I see are hobbyists spending a lot of time and acquiring a lot of expertise setting up their systems, and installers busting a gut to try to provide a seamless user experience for paying customers (and not always succeeding). This is still a long, long way from "plug and play", depending on what you're trying to do.

Is Firmware upgrade of ZWave devices available yet?

It seems that it has been integrated in the meantime:

I assume that's on V2?