How do you end up going with this? Was the device bricked? Did it work?
I didn’t end up disabling it or even using it. I want to know if z wave will broadcast or not if I don’t use any
Z wave devices. Are you in NZ or AU?
Are you absolutely sure that if I never add or use any z wave devices ST will never broadcast on z wave frequency. I’m sure you can test that being a firmware engineer. Can you please test as I don’t wanna take any chances?
I’m in the AU and have a smart things hub. I read about the z wave thing before I bought one and figured I could just unplug the antenna. I’m guessing that if your not using any z wave devices and your not trying to pair one, it shouldn’t waste its power output a z wave frequency. That’s my theory.
From,
Shaun Haywood.
It still will transmit on Z-Wave frequencies when in Add Device mode.
It’s not enough to actually get you in trouble or cause problems, but for sure not technically compliant.
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If you just happen to be adding a device at the time an NZ ambulance drives by and your transmission interferes with their communication system, you could be in very big trouble. New Zealand takes that stuff very seriously. They even do periodic sweeps for illegal frequency transmissions, something that many other countries do not.
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Sorry since I haven’t even opened it I don’t know much about it but is there an add device mode separately for z wave and zigbee or it’s just one add device mode. I do not plan to ever add any z wave devices. Will ST transmit on z wave frequency when adding a zigbee device?
Also are you able to by any chance remove the z wave radio to confirm if ST still works for other functionality as I don’t have any other option apart from removing the z wave physically but don’t want to brick it as it will be worthless after that.
Yes. Anytime it’s in pairing mode it will check for both kinds of devices.
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Thanks do you by any chance know what will happen if I remove the z wave from the ST board by forcefully pullling it off? Will ST still be usable?
Any updates here. I too am thinking about purchasing a ST in New Zealand to link my Wemo with harmony and don’t need z wave.
Well I finally got some free time to look into this again. I decided to brave it and pull open my smartthings hub to remove its US Z-Wave capability. I’ll check back soon with the results.
I cracked mine open and unsoldiered the z wave aerial. Turned it off in the software so hope that should be ok.
Well I just snapped mine off and didn’t change any settings and it’s still working perfectly. Been using Zigbee sensors all day with no issues and even still paired a smart things zigbee contact sensor with no issues.
Just note too Painkillernz, turning Z-Wave off in the software doesn’t populate across restarts, updates or glitches. It’s only a temporary setting which reverts itself.
Is anyone brave enough to try and remove the whole z wave module then I guess there will be no doubt. I removed my antenna but would ideally like to remove the z wave module. Seems you can snap it off but would it breaks the hub??
Can one of the ST staff confirm what will happen if the module is snapped off or removed?
Thinking of getting myself a ST V3 here in OZ. This thread pretty much confirms what I thought - the Z-Wave module can be removed/disabled. On the topic of removing the antenna, I would suggest replacing the antenna with a 50ohm 1/4 watt resistor (linking the antenna output to ground). This will ensure that any stray RF is dissipated into the resistor and not emitted. I plan to remove the module entirely. I’ll keep you all updated!
That would be great.
Yeah let us know how it goes and some pictures would be good too. How to go about connecting the resistor and is it easy to buy?
That’s so weird, cause in the US we really go out of our ways to do stuff that actually is illegal. Cultural differences are rad!!
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