Any updates on Z-Wave line of products

[Rustytek]

Just wondering if anyone has updates on when the newer line of zwave products (release dates and final pricing). I have my shopping list ready (since May) and want to know if there will be anymore push backs. Also I wanted to point out Intermatics press release at the Zen-sys site:

Intermatic z-wave enhancements

This indicates that there will be perhaps even more reliability (maybe - now lot's more rf - could be good). This will allow those distant devices to receive signals better. The message indicator sounds like a great option without having to install expensive touchscreens everywhere for information updates.

So back to my original question - any updates on the status of all of the new devices (Cooper, Leviton, and Intermatic Pro/Intouch devices).

 

[upstatemike]

I didn'y understand that release at all. Are they changing the protocol? Are there going to be a bunch of different Z-Wave standards with different feature sets?

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Nothing new yet....

 

[George West]

I didn'y understand that release at all. Are they changing the protocol? Are there going to be a bunch of different Z-Wave standards with different feature sets?

I don't think they are changing the protocol. There is an existing provision for both 9.6 Kbs and 42-ish kbs at the physical layer. In another post Chris Walker (ControlThink) has mentioned that the faster parts should be available soon. It's unclear if it is an either/or situation or if a designer has to pick one. I could see something like Z-Wave products for specialized applications that wouldn't interact with the larger world of Z-Wave but that would use a lower cost part.

Most of the IEEE802.15.4 products shipping today are in products that have two or three nodes in a network and don't need to talk to anything else. I saw a product at CES2006 that was a beeper that told you if your kid has wandered off which would be ideal for a really cheap Z-Wave chip.

Going further out into speculation land there were some rumors floating around the last ZigBee meeting about a proposal to put the Z-Wave network stack on a IEEE802.15.4 radio. Since the ZigBee alliance seems to trying to adopt every orphan implementation on 802.15.4 we can expect that this will be a new as of yet unidentified implementation of ZigBee. Maybe they could call it ZigBee-Wave. ;-)

Back in the real world, my take on the Intermatic release is that this is a bundle of what was the HomeSettings Pro products with a centralized controller that uses Z-Wave as the network transport infrastructure. If you have 40 Kbs some of the features discussed makes sense. Interesting concept if they can make it work.

Finally betting on when the new Z-Wave products hit the market. Two data points are that the (Not Intermatic) Leviton customer service guys are saying this month and that they should be getting training on the products soon. The other is from a guy that called for some background information on a series of articles about ZigBee and Z-Wave who told me that the current word is "this fall." CEDIA is in September, does that count as fall?

George

 

[tekman]

George - you seem to know a lot about z-wave and zigbee. What about Insteon? I have a few of the products so far and so far so good. Would like to see some more RF products though at some point. I tried the Intermatic Z-wave starter kit about a year ago and it was not for me. Insteon starter kit with a couple of Insteon switches is what I have going right now. Should I wait for zigbee product? Anyone else have any feedback? Thanks.

 

[ChrisWalker]

As I understand it, the Intermatic InTouch system adds capabilities on top of standard Z-Wave while championing interoperability. It's like using Word with your new Windows machine instead of WordPad :lol:

To follow-up on what George said, many of the new products are being manufactured with the 200-series chips, which are the 40kbps/9.6kbps chips. A designer can choose to support either both speeds or just the slower one--but regardless everything will fall back to 9.6kbps because one of the big goals of Z-Wave is to maintain interoperability between devices.

Chris

 

[KenM]

Thanks Chris,

I have a house full of the older Z-Wave load control devices. Heck, to me they work well and respond in an instant. I am primarily using the remotes to do most of the control. I also found some software that works well for control.

All I care about is if they obey the controller commands and, so far, am happy that all devices do.

I am glad to know that advanced devices are available. I suspect that I do not want to know how much these things will cost. The best toys are always too expensive.

Faster is better, but you have to wonder why the extra speed is needed.


Ken

 

[ChrisWalker]

Ken,

The new 40kbps Z-Wave is used heavily by remotes and by appliances and other devices which want to communicate status information (or the currently playing track) on a frequent basis. The extra speed helps speed up scenes, but it also opens up whole new areas of control.

Expect to be able to use Z-Wave to control your AV equipment, for instance. And turn off the lights downstairs when you don't want to wake up getting out of bed

Chris

 

[FrankMc]

Hi Guys

For those who may be interested ...there will soon be an xPL PLugin available

http://www.xplmonkey.com/zwave.html

Frank

 

[Squintz]

Franc,

I am very interested in the xPL plugin. I was working on one for xAP but lost interest.

 

[George West]

George - you seem to know a lot about z-wave and zigbee. What about Insteon? I have a few of the products so far and so far so good. Would like to see some more RF products though at some point. I tried the Intermatic Z-wave starter kit about a year ago and it was not for me. Insteon starter kit with a couple of Insteon switches is what I have going right now. Should I wait for zigbee product? Anyone else have any feedback? Thanks.

tekman -

What I have in my home is INSTEON. Roughly about 10 nodes plus the USB powerline controller. I plan to swap a V2 switchlinc with a new keypadlinc and move the switchlinc into another room, as well as adding an inline module or an Icon switch to a light in a closet where the previous owner installed the light switch eight feet from the floor. I will probably add more nodes when the weather changes since the major access to the electrical system is in the attic which is uncooled...

The only "problem" I have with INSTEON is that at random times the housecleaner or the kids unplug the USB controller which means I need to find it and reset it when I notice the porch lights aren't coming on at sundown. Other than that the INSTEON kit has been rock solid. This includes two appliance modules that are controlling some really cheap florescents in the garage.

I also tried the Intermatic products as well as some of the ACT and ended up removing it. The main reason was a low WAF and when she hammered the controller apart to do a BOM analysis on the module, well that pretty much finished things. As her mother said, "Most people would have picked the lamp module to destroy." The other reason is that my home is very wireless unfriendly, including WiFI and cellular, and wireless only control just isn't an option.

I have a secondary reason for wanting multiple protocols in the house which is to test out some of the vendor claims floating around. At some point soon I will add back in the Z-Wave as well as some UPB.

Regarding ZigBee and lighting control in particular you may be waiting a long time for a variety of reasons. Installing Control4 seems to be your only option at this point. Lighting control looks like an add on to their main media products unless things have changed in the past few months. The thing you have to ask yourself is if a light switch was the first and only ZigBee application profile published why has it taken so long for products to hit the market? Even though the ZigBee Alliance will tell you that home lighting is one of the best applications for ZigBee.

I know that SmartHome is developing some wireless products and there was a roadmap published here a few months ago that had wireless remotes shipping sometime this year. An interesting thing about a wireless remote for INSTEON is that I asked SH about this roughly a year ago and their answer was that they had it on their roadmap and that they would release products in roughly the order that their research showed demand for them, and that a wireless controller was low down on the list. The product release list (without dates) they showed me at that time is almost exactly the list that SH has followed for the past year.

Hope this helps.

George
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