Thinka debuts world's first Z-Wave hub for HomeKit

Thinka on Tuesday took the wraps off the first Z-Wave hub for HomeKit, bringing support for more than 3,300 new accessories to Apple's smart home platform.

The new Apple-certified Thinka Z-Wave is a simple hub that allows many Z-Wave accessories to work with HomeKit for the first time. This includes smart switches, thermostats, dimmers, doorbells, speakers, curtains, fans, dimmers and various sensors from over 600 different brands.

"90% of all HomeKit accessories are based on WiFi or Bluetooth, which, unlike the Z-wave protocol, are not optimized for home automation," said Thinka founder and CEO Michael Franken. "Z-Wave offers a full range of over 3,000 smart home products, so by unlocking Z-Wave for HomeKit, Thinka brings the best of two worlds together"

Thinka Z-Wave hub for HomeKit

Unlike Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Z-Wave was designed for smart home automation and has existed far longer than the emerging Thread standard. It is optimized for range and is extremely power efficient. Thinka touts Z-Wave as the protocol with the largest product range, and now those devices will work with HomeKit.

Prior to the Z-Wave hub, Thinka's first product was a KNX hub that works with HomeKit.

The Amsterdam-based company is launching the Thinka Z-Wave in Europe for 429 euros before coming to the United States next year.

11 Comments

22july2013 3725 comments · 11 Years

About 3 years ago

There is a short comparison of Z-Wave to other protocols on wikipedia:
4.5 Comparison to other protocols

There are also longer comparisons on other websites:
https://www.electropages.com/blog/2019/02/smart-homes-explained-smart-home-protocol <--
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/smart-home-wireless-network-primer,news-21085.html <--
https://www.anixter.com/en_us/resources/literature/techbriefs/comparing-wireless-communication-protocols.html <--

I've been unhappy with the reliability of Zigbee (although last month I finally got it working perfectly by assigning a fixed IP to my Hue Hub) so I'm using the above links to decide which protocol I want to use.

I think this new Z-Wave Hub for Homekit is an excellent option for people who are already invested in Z-Wave products. But I'm not sure if that's the protocol I would pick if I were building a new network. Everyone has different requirements, and therefore choose different solutions. The most popular requirements seem to be:

What is the speed of the protocol (data rate) and latency (response time)
What problems exist with wireless interference in busy areas like cities?
What is the maximum range of the protocol
What is the maximum number of devices the protocol supports
Does it support mesh networks? Or even dual mesh networks for redundancy?
Does it use low power, low enough that I can use products that transmit with batteries rather than with wired power
What is the number of companies that provide products for that protocol
Are there security and privacy issues in terms of data encryption and whether products "phone home to company HQ" to update or even to use the product?
Is it compatible with Apple's Homekit? (For people on this website, this is an issue)
Is it compatible with Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Is a hub required?
What is the cost of a basic smart bulb using this protocol?
Does it work in my country? (some countries have different frequencies allotted to the same protocol)

MplsP 4021 comments · 8 Years

About 3 years ago

This is huge. Z wave existed long before HomeKit and there’s a huge installed base of z wave devices. Up until now, if you wanted to switch to HomeKit, you were required to dump your entire inventory of devices and start from scratch. This would cost hundreds to even thousands of dollars, a rather difficult proposition to make. In addition, the number of HomeKit devices is still quite limited and there’s not a lot of choice. Opening up the z wave market increases the possibilities. Of course, 430€ is a hefty sum to shell out just for a bridge, too.

The other problem with HomeKit that’s probably limiting adoption more than anything is it is still so limited functionally. We’ve had a S wave system from Schlage in our house for 10 years and it has far more capabilities than HomeKit.

harry wild 808 comments · 11 Years

About 3 years ago

Seems like it is coming to the U.S. next year. I would not spend $500 for a hub when you have Wi-Fi already in your home. Maybe Amazon Alexa for $29.00?

dewme 5737 comments · 10 Years

About 3 years ago

I have no incentive to move my home automation and security away from Z-Wave+ any time soon. It's been super reliable, stable, incredibly power efficient, affords a huge selection of devices, and forms a natural layer of security obfuscation between the device level network (automation network) and the IP connected world. Once a device is commissioned/adopted into the Z-Wave+ network it is totally hands-off. No worries about IP addresses, DHCP, 2.4 GHz radio frequency interference, or constantly emerging standards. Battery powered devices will need to have their batteries replaced every so often, like once every 3-5 years for simple sensors.

I have nothing against Thread/6LoWPAN or any IP based networks, I've worked on several such networks and device management standards that are integral to the IIoT/Industry 4.0 and have seen the general trend towards IP based connectivity over the past couple of decades. But it's not a panacea and there are still pain points that come along with the move to IP based networks, like the cost/effort for IP address setting and device commissioning on large scale industrial networks and the broad attack surface that anything IP based exhibits on the security front.

Of course there are plenty of benefits too, like TLS, network physical layer redundancy, single pair Ethernet, PoE, PoDL, etc., some of which haven't trickled down to personal home automation - yet. From an engineering perspective, anything running on Ethernet affords an opportunity to use standard Ethernet tools, with WireShark being a favorite. I'd be shocked if someone hasn't already developed a WireShark dissector for Thread.

If the home automation world follows a similar path as industrial automation we'll see more Ethernet and IP adoption but the lower level self-contained device networks that have stayed current and been standardized, like Z-Wave+ has, will be around for at least 20 more years, along with the gateways needed to connect them to IP networks.

lordjohnwhorfin 866 comments · 18 Years

About 3 years ago

At this astronomical price it’s cheaper for me to rip out my legacy ZWave devices and replace them with HomeKit ones, than try to keep them on life support and deal with the idiosyncrasies of yet another hub (I already have Homebridge running on a Raspberry Pi, Philips Hue, Caseta, Ikea Tradfri, Aqara, a Sonoff Zigbee gateway… way too many tiny boxes that use up an Ethernet port and a power outlet, it’s maddening.