Added Z-Wave Stick and can't get it to load

I have the new Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 Plus stick. I've plugged it in and activated the Z-Wave interface. Then it knocks my PowerLinc 2413U offline and neither interface is active. Under the Configure Z-Wave dialogue it says Connection Type: local (physical) and Serial Port: usberial-A704EP2T.

I'm running MacOS 13.0.1 on a MacStudio M1. What am I doing wrong?

-Mac Guy in Cali

[jay (support)]

You have the wrong serial port selected - you have the PowerLinc port selected and that’s why it’s causing Insteon to go offline. The serial port for the Z-Stick should start with “usbmodem”.

I only have one serial port available, the one that say USBSerial-A704EP2PT. Am I missing something?

[jay (support)]

If you don't see a serial port name that starts with usbmodem, then the Mac isn't recognizing your Z-Stick (or at least the Mac's modem driver, which is what that version of the Z-Stick uses). A couple of things to look for:

1) Open the System Information app, select the USB option under Hardware, and look for an entry in the USB Device Tree named Communication Device. If it's there and you click on it, you should see something like this in the details section below the tree:

Communication Device:

Product ID: 0x0200
Vendor ID: 0x0658 (Sigma Designs, Inc.)
Version: 0.00
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/s
Location ID: 0x02141420 / 17
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 100
Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

If you don't see that, then your Z-Stick isn't being recognized at all by your Mac. Try moving it to other USB ports. If you have a USB2 HUB definitely try it there.

2) If it does show up on in the System Information app, then open the Terminal app and paste in the following command:

Code: Select all

ls -la /dev/tty.*

It should show something similar to this:

Code: Select all

crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  0x9000006 Nov 10 11:10 /dev/tty.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  0x9000000 Nov 16 10:54 /dev/tty.usbmodem21414201
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  0x9000002 Nov 16 11:00 /dev/tty.usbserial-A700eTEj

If it doesn't show an entry that contains usbmodem, then the built-in modem driver in macOS isn't recognizing your Z-Stick.

Let us know what you find. Also, please confirm that you indeed have the Z-Stick Gen5 (and not the Gen7 interface which is much smaller and doesn't have a button).

I moved it to another slot and it seems to be working now! Thanks!