Broadcom WICED™ Sense - $20 BLE Sensor Tag

This just came out. Makes me wanna swap Zigbee radio for BLE in ST Hub, if I could :smile:

http://www.broadcom.com/products/wiced/sense/

I’m hopeful that the next version of the Hub will have additional radio’s Bluetooth for sure! It’s nice to be able to shop by feature and price and not have to worry about radio!

You’d want to swap the Z-Wave radio :slight_smile:

@ben, I can relate to OEM’s desire to maximize their profit by playing a singe-vendor game with Zigbee, but for me as a consumer, Z-Wave gives access to much wider selection of devices at competitive prices and assurance that I will not be left out in a cold should any individual OEM go under. Just curious, what makes you prefer Zigbee over Z-Wave?

As you know, we obviously support both ZigBee and Z-Wave, but early one we found some things out that made us like the ZigBee chips better. Consistently it was easier to pair and retain connections over longer ranges — we were about to “over-power” the ZigBee chip to gain even better range. Being able to do that was a plus for us. ZigBee is easier to bring internationally as well. The Sub-1GHz range oz Z-wave requires a larger antenna, so we can make our devices smaller with ZigBee. Lastly, we felt the ZigBee Alliance’s stance was more like ours. They were the more open protocol — and Z-Wave. ZigBee chipsets are developed and manufactured by multiple silicon vendors including Texas Instruments, Atmel, Silcon Labs, Freescale, STMicroelectronics and more. Whereas, Z-Wave products are only manufactured and sold by Sigma Designs.

@ben, thank you replying. I agree that Zigbee is more “hackable” and that 2.4 MHz makes it easier to sell internationally. These are valid business and technical points. Still, consumer decisions are either price-driven or brand-driven and it seems to me that Zigbee is a loser on both ends. There was a lot of hype from Zigbee chipmakers that they can make a sub-$10 Zigbee module, but the one you’re using still costs > $20 even in quantities. A $15-dollar GE Zigbee light bulb is rare exception. I hope they’re not selling it below cost just to capture the market.