Ecolink 700 Series Garage Door Controller is a milestone for the smart home standard
18 months after Z-Wave Long Range was announced, we have the first certified device: the Ecolink 700 Series Garage Door Controller has gone live.
With all due respect to Ecolink and what I’m sure is a very fine smart garage door controller, the big story here is without doubt the ‘launch’ of Z-Wave LR, which promises up to a 4x wireless range compared to regular Z-Wave signals.
Z-Wave LR will mean that people could potentially have Z-Wave devices up to 400m apart, with no need for signal repeaters in between.
Explainer: What is Z-Wave
In a move that could spell the end for Z-Wave repeaters, Z-Wave LR is backwards compatible with existing Z-Wave networks and devices and is still a super low power option; in fact, the Z-Wave Alliance has stated that basic smart home sensors could run for up to 10-years from a single cell battery.
Z-Wave LR also means you can build your smart home networks to a much greater size than was previously possible with the standard.
With standard Z-Wave, you can have up to 232 nodes (i.e. connected devices) on the mesh network. Z-Wave LR increases scalability on a single smart home network to over 4,000 nodes.
“We would like to congratulate Ecolink for being the first to complete certification,” said Mitchell Klein, Executive Director of the Z-Wave Alliance.
“The 700 Series Garage Door Controller is an ideal example of the type of device Z-Wave Long Range was designed to enhance.
“The certification of the first Z-Wave LR device is a milestone for the Alliance as a standards development organization,” he added.
“Developing this specification and making it available to members like Ecolink falls perfectly in line with our mission to advance the Z-Wave standard.
“Members who actively seek to build their products featuring this specification will undoubtedly have a competitive edge and we are eager to see more Z-Wave LR enter the market in the coming months.”
