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Zipato support center Topic Idea General

Zipato, please spend atleast a houre a day to interact with the users in the community

Nicklas Simberg shared this idea ago

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There is so may unanswered threads in the community that you should be able to answer straight away.

The frustration that at least i feel with not getting any response regarding basic things in threads here is creating allot of negativity for zipato.

I can not understand how you can let that happen in times like we live in now, where company's lack of response and ignorance in customers and users spreads like wild fire on the internet.

And to be honest i don't think zipato can afford it.

Sooner or later one of the giants will do a serious attempt on home automation. It will cause a hype around Homeautomation, and you will really need dedicated users that fights for zipatos survival in your ring corner.

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Replies (5)

Carlo ●

Talking about giants an year ago samsung bought smartthings...

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Sebastian Popovic ●

guys, we are keeping an eye on this community all the time. There are many threads and there will be always unanswered ones. Also, sometimes we are more active and sometimes less, but most important questions are generally answered as fast as possible.

Big giants are already present on the market. However, they are big giants because they are earning a lot of money with minimum support. I don't think home automation will fit perfectly into their balance sheet...

Anyway, sorry for threads which are still open, but we are working on them all and we gonna close them as fast as we can.

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Marius ●

A lot of important questions are not answered. Your users have no idea of what to expect when they buy the quite expensive service options, for instance. An important question if Zipato supports Z-wave plus is not answered. List of supported (z-wave) devices... The list is long and users are getting tired of it.

I know you have a lot to do planning and polishing version 1 of the software, but as Niclas says, we, the users are your most important assets. We are your ambassadors. I have recommended the Zipabox to two of my work colleages. One of them has switched from an important competitor of yours. One of the things I was telling them was that the support was very fast. One of them (the renegade) visited my office yesterday and wondered if I was drunk or on medications after having read through this forum. Not good, neither for us or you!

I'm confident that your users want you to succeed. The product really has potential, and that is the reason I am still hanging on. I haven't gone all in yet, simply because several of your payed services are pure mysticism and it is too dificult to find info about supported devices.

PS: My wife has started complaining that I am using too much time on the couch (searching for compatible components) :)

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Sebastian Popovic ●

1. Zipabox was the first controller with the 500 series Z-wave chip inside. We are selling this version of the Zipabox since the Sigma design started to sell 500 series chip.

2. Zipabox is Z-wave plus certified and this is public information on the Z-wave alliance web site.

3. List of compatible devices is HUGE, since we are supporting more protocols than some controllers are supporting devices. Curretntly there are more than 600 devices which are added into our database, but this doesn't mean that these are the only only ones supported. It is complicated to publish and maintain such a list, but we are planing to publish the sort of it on our new web site, which we are planing to launch in September.

4. Your friend is right, there are too many useless and misleading threads on this forum. We should do a big cleaning since some open threads are pointless to answer. However, your friend should buy the Zipato and test it for himself. Relying on the community forum where everyone can write almost everything is not exactly the winning strategy.

p.s. If you wife is complaining, it means she is still interested. Be happy;-)

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Marius ●

I undestand its a tremendous task keeping documentation on hundreds of devices up to date (I work as a system owner myself). Maybe you should work with some of the active users (preferably with no children yet) here. Promote the wiki and encurage people to contribute, maybe. Users can collaborate and help keeping the doc up to date.

It would require that Zipato review the contents on a regular basis and weed out the misinformation, of course.

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Martin Kristensson ●

Sabastian,

Thanks for your answer on the on the Z-wave plus question. Much appreciated. For me as a to-be user, this has been the deal breaker. After reading numerous forums and asking a few dealers, I can tell you that there is a major confusion out there. Many people seems to be in the same limbo as I have been.

I fully understand that you are a small company and extremely busy. But I do believe the Z-wave plus question could mainly be resolved as easy as adding the + logo to the web page. I’m sure your distributers also would appreciate an email or a letter stating the same as I believe they are getting this question even more often than you do.

Again, thanks for the update. Much appreciated!

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HeroS - www.domotica-blog.nl ●

Sebastian,

I still don't understand because Marko/Milan are saying different things about the z-wave + support. But it could be me.

All Zipato boxes support zwave+ (even with the 300 chip). Because the + is not a hardware thing. It's a certification/software upgrade.

But you are saying that you need the 500 chip to get it working.

Please clarify this because there is a lot of confusion about this and people are buying other controllers because of this.

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Sebastian Popovic ●

actually, it is quite simple. You just go to the Z-wave alliance page and you can see which controllers are certified as Z-wave and which ones are Z-wave plus:

http://www.z-wave.com/find_products/controllers

As for the 300 series it is not neither supported for almost a year by Sigma design (owner of the Z-wave)

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HeroS - www.domotica-blog.nl ●

Thank you for this reply. But you did not answer my question.

Let me ask it in a different way:

Are all (old/new) zipaboxes supporting the zwave+ protocol?

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Martin Kristensson ●

After some research I have found the following:

Z-wave plus can only be achieved with 500 chip. On top of that you need firmware and / or software that supports Z-wave plus. You might be able to run the Z-wave plus software on a unit with 300 chip, but you will not get Z-wave plus features.

Please also note a node with a 300 chip cannot repeat the Z-wave plus protocol. In a mesh network with both Z-wave and Z-wave plus capable units (controller, repeaters and nodes). The Z-wave plus (500 series) units will therefore automatically revert to the regular Z-wave protocol.

Therefore, especially if you are setting up a new network and would like to benefit from the Z-wave plus features, ensure all your units are Z-wave plus capable.

All Z-wave plus units should be marked with the Z-wave plus logo (that for example seems to be missing from the current Zipabox).

Sebastian, please acknowledge this statement or correct me if I’m wrong.

z-wave_plus

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HeroS - www.domotica-blog.nl ●

Zipato could you please give us the right answer?

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Sebastian Popovic ●

Z-wave plus is just the specification to make a Z-wave firmware.
It is only officially supported on 500 series chips.
Zipabox was the first controller based on these chips almost 2 years ago. (I know PR is not our strongest weapon)
Current firmware has integrated officially certified Z-wave plus firmware.
Please note that Zipabox firmware is remotely upgradable, so we have upgraded all boxes to this firmware. This also included Zipaboxes which have been bought before we got the official certification and possibility to mark the packaging properly.
the only way to know exactly which device is properly certified is to check the listing here: http://products.z-wavealliance.org/

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Nicklas Simberg ●

Thanks for the replay Sebastian and Marius. I know that zipato always have allot of things to do, and that the company have improved allot when it comes to user support.

In a stressful day it can be easy to forget things like community, forums and other things that don't give effect right away. More easy to focus on the latest development, or the pile of growing tickets and so on

Just don't forget how many tickets in the support that could be avoided with a active response in forum where most users read before posting tickets, And how much the company can gain both in innovations, test help from users.

If you invest in a healthy community, the community will start to answer itself and help out other users. The cost for support will drop, or at least the personal can focus on other things.

And i agree with Marius fully. There is still to little information on what works with zipabox, how its operating, what chip it contains, what the road map looks like, and the version 1 payed services.

Just my thoughts and how i try to work

//nicklas

*edit, did see that you answered the chip question, still in a previous thread there where some comment of the early version of zipato had a other chip and users would like to know what one they had (including myself)*

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derHelle ww.zipabox.de ●

Hi,

in my blog i have a list of devices that are supported:

http://zipabox.de/kompatibilitatsliste-zipabox-wer-darf-alles-mitspielen/

regards Helle

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Sebastian Popovic ●

good job.

Just please note that this list is only the list of devices which were manually added into our description database. Currently, there are twice more various models of devices connected to our system, which are not on this list. However they are working properly since they are supporting some of protocols which are supported by Zipabox.

Anyway, the list is good and it does comply with the list which we gonna publish on our site soon.

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HeroS - www.domotica-blog.nl ●

There should be a list in the zipabox.

Have a look here how nicely Vera solved this:

https://youtu.be/AwGyySUUPh4

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Sebastian Popovic ●

The most important advantage of 2way communication protocols is 2way communication between devices. This means that controller should talk with the device during the pairing process and realize which device this is, and finish the process with all necessary details added to the database. This is the "magic" which should drive the IOT market in the future, not the list selection, like with 433Mhz protocols 10 years ago.

If Z-wave plus is implemented, only supported commands are important. Whichever device you are using, it will work. Just like with the generic medication. Just imagine how many different brands are selling the same product on the market worldwide.

There is only one way for Zipato regarding the Z-wave. If you have the Z-wave plus certified device (WHICH YOU CAN EASILY CHECK ON Z-WAVE ALLIANCE WEB PAGES) than it works with Zipabox or you contact Zipato support. As simple as that. And I know that it will be even more simple in the future...

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