Any lighting controls that work especially well w/ Elk M1?

CORT

Active Member
Are there any lighting control technologies that work especially well with the Elk M1? It seems that Insteon is poop-pooed, Z wave is limited, and UPB is sketchy. What lighting controls do people recommend with the Elk M1? Thanks.
 
I'm recently started working with Lutron RadioRA and it seems to be a good, relaible fit with the M1.

Have also worked with UPB & Insteon in the past at my own home and for customers and may be standardizing on RadioRA...

No experience with Z-Wave.

Cheers,
Paul
 
Well leviton's implementation of zwave (i.e. two way communications) should overcome the standard limitations... Still waiting on spanky to release the update to the serial interface. That should be a solid combination once it's released so i wouldn't rule it out

-brad
 
I think the better question is what lighting technology you want to standardize on. Elk supports many of them well and they all have their quirks. I also use UPB with the M1 and have no issues, but it depends on exactly what 'features' you need.
 
I agree with the above 2 posts. I use UPB controlled by my ELK M1 including Rain8UBP for sprinkler control and it is extremely reliable and easy to set up.
 
Elk and Zwave are not a goot combo right now. Hopefully this will change.

New to this, so help me out. Why is Z-Wave not good right now? Is it due to lack of two way commo? If not Z-Wave what can I use for an older house (only two wire electical). Wireless is a requirement, and all I know is Z-Wave. I did my home theater system up with it, not to complicated. If there is another Wireless system out there, how does it interface with ELK?

thank you.
 
Elk and Zwave are not a goot combo right now. Hopefully this will change.

New to this, so help me out. Why is Z-Wave not good right now? Is it due to lack of two way commo? If not Z-Wave what can I use for an older house (only two wire electical). Wireless is a requirement, and all I know is Z-Wave. I did my home theater system up with it, not to complicated. If there is another Wireless system out there, how does it interface with ELK?

thank you.

The Zwave implementation Elk has (M1XZW) does not work well with larger zwave networks. In my experience the network can become unresponsive and scene/group commands can fail to execute correctly. Spanky can describe the root of the issue better than I can. I think instead of fixing their zwave interface they are going to try to integrate with the Leviton controller via the M1XSP. I've been using homeseer and Elk output tricks as an alternate solution. The Homeseer + Ztroller solution is fantastic - trivial to program, remove/replace nodes, optimize routing, and associate units. I wish there was some better way for the elk to leverage this best in class zwave solution.
 
We have alpha versions of the Leviton Vizia Zwave working quite well. The biggest holdup is some PC software to make the installation simplier.
 
Zensys, Zwave, has gone through some hardware advancements in their processors, adding new capabilities and features. The Vizia line and others are using the new processors in their switches.

The interface will consist of a M1XSP serial expander loaded with the Vizia interface software. It is connected to a Leviton RZCOP, RS-232 to Zwave Serial Interface Module. Through the RZCOP, the M1 can talk to other manufacturers Zwave modules also.
 
Zensys, Zwave, has gone through some hardware advancements in their processors, adding new capabilities and features. The Vizia line and others are using the new processors in their switches.

The interface will consist of a M1XSP serial expander loaded with the Vizia interface software. It is connected to a Leviton RZCOP, RS-232 to Zwave Serial Interface Module. Through the RZCOP, the M1 can talk to other manufacturers Zwave modules also.
Spanky, can you give us more details about the new M1/Z-Wave integration.... How will the Z-Wave lighting nodes be associated in the M1 (Lighting device number # to # for nodes, scenes, groups, etc). Does the RZCOP serial interface act as the Primary/Master controller or Secondary controller like the current M1XZW does where we copy the Primary/Master remote information to it?

The Pod
 
Sounds like the XZW will go away at some point. Can't blame Elk for not wanting the expense of chasing changes to the ZWave silicon. Just wish I hadn't bought two XZWs hoping that Elk's famous firmware upgrades would have kept them current :eek:

Here's the Vizia RF Docs page which as the protocol spec of their serial interface:

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctD...;minisite=10024

Looks like HAI and Superna have gone the same route.
 
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