TrickleStar 300ZW-US-W Z-Wave USB Stick

I'm giving this 2 stars because you HAVE to buy a $100+ program to use it, to be fair every Z-Wave USB controllor MUST have one of these programs so don;t think that a "Z-Toller" or an "Aeon Z-stick" would be any better. But there are also no instruction..... anywhere... in the whole world.... for the Tricklestar.Ok so this is my second write up of a review on this product. To summarize it comes with no instructions. Not in the box, not on the web site, not on any of your internet. I spent six hour getting it to work but with what I found it can be done in 3 minutes. so what follows is a write up of the instructions you need. I used the HomeSeer program, so thats what HS means.Well so it's a serious #$*&$% but it works with HS just great but heres what you need to know.This is NOT a usb device, It's a serial device. You plug it into a usb port and instal drivers but there are no TrickleStar 300SW-US-W drivers. The drivers are for a "Prolific" Usb to serial converter. The 300sw is two seperate devices. First a data converter that needs driver. Then a Z-Wave that does not need drivers.Confused? you should be. There are no instruction anywhere on the web besides the ones that follow.To use the 300sw-Instal HS-Plug the USB stick into your computer-Go to the "prolific" web site[...]Download and install PL2303_Prolific_DriverInstaller_v130.zip, it's the third on the list.you have now installed the data converter but you don't know what the computer has desired to call it. When a computer uses "Serial data" it creats a "Com #" port but you don't know what # it is yet. YOU MUST IDENTIFY THE COM PORT.-Figure out what com port the usb made. This can vary depending on your version of windows so I'm going to throw out some word and you may have to Google them. +Go to "[B]Control Pane[/B]l" +Go to Hardware +Go to "[B]Device Manager[/B] *Scroll down the list until you see ""Ports (COM & LPT) and click on it to expand the tree. You will see "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm port (COM#) [B]Write down the # that com.[/B]-OK now we go even faster! Run HS and open the website control thingy. +Go to setup +Go to Interface +Go the the drop down menu "Built-In Interfaces" "Z-Wave Interface" +clicky on COM Port and wait for it to auto update +type in the # you wrote down-[B][I]CLICK SAVE[/I][/B]your done.

Since the USB stick actually works (after 2 hours of tinkering), it gets 2 stars. Otherwise I'd give it 1 star for the complete lack of documentation.The OS X Widget can be downloaded from the tricklestar.com website, but they offer no documentation for it. I was able to find the "TrickleStar Widget Mini Server API Widget v.250" documentation here:(amazon keeps blocking the link)[...]

I got this little device up and running with Homeseer PRO and was able to pair with my Trane Thermastat within minutes. I also paired it with my GE on/off and dimmable 3 way switches and everything works great! The light switches and thermastat respond almost immediately to my commands.The instructions that come with it tell you to go to the tricklestar website and download the driver. I had no problems finding the driver and installing it on Windows Server 2003. They also have drivers for linux, mac, and other versions of Windows. It comes with no software, so you'll have to purchase a program such as HomeSeer.Overall I think its a great device for the little you have to pay for it.

Could never find documentation for this.

This did not work as identified and I feel that these units are misrepresented in the advertising by Amazon. No wonder this was on sale for a cheap price, it does not work and it's not worth the cost of sending it back.Very poor

fantastic product for the money. no issues with it so far. works well transmitting zwave signals thru several walls in my house. It was one of the cheapest ones that i had found and it was definitely worth the small amount of money i paid for it.

This is a fantastic z-wave controller. It works flawlessly in Linux unlike the Aeotec / Aeon labs garbage. Keep in mind you're going to need software in order to control devices though.

Has worked great since day one!