Elk M1 gold functionaliy thorugh Z-wave success stories?

hrhrudi

New Member
Hi all,
 
I am in the market for a security system, though want it to be able to work with home automation products too. I realize that I can get a plain old alarm system and then have it connect to a HA controller through a plug-in and such, but I would rather it be all integrated if possible. So I have been looking at the Leviton z-wave module (acts as a z-wave controller) that connects through another elk adapter, though cannot find much on people with this setup and how well it works. Leviton themselves cannot provide a hard list of tested/supported devices and openly admitted that they had not come across a thermostat that could be fully functional in this scenario (despite them using "industry z-wave protocol").
 
I also want to be able to use the Elk in conjunction with lighting and such, but have read reports of buggyness.
 
Who, if anyone can speak to an Elk and z-wave whole house setup that works smoothly?
 
So what are my best options to prevent spending a ton and getting a lot of disappointment?
 
Thanks all!
 
I have this setup and have deployed it for others. I don't have any issues to report and have dimmers, switches, receptacles, dead bolts and a thermostat. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
 
I went the route of an Elk M1G and ISY-994iZw.  There is an Elk plugin for the ISY, and it works seamlessly.  The isy does a pretty good job at handling the zwave devices, but cannot (as of now, functionality is coming soon) handle multi function devices.  For this, I also have a Vera2 setup as a secondary controller (was just laying around).  Almost all of my rules go through my ISY.  Let me know if you have any questions on this setup.
 
Thank you both for your responses. I was just a little concerned. The whole point of me going with the Elk was to not neccessarily have another separate HA controller (as the Leviton module is considered a z-wave controller). With that said, on inquiries with Leviton, they pretty much said that they only really bother testing their own products to work with the device, which makes me wonder why they bothered to make it z-wave. A bit deceptive in my opinion. They say it is standard industry z-wave, so "should" work with any z-wave devices, but then goes on to say that they have never been able to get full functionality working with a non-Leviton z-wave thermostat...so a bit of a contradiction in my mind.
 
I might add Homeseer or something later on down the line to get more granular control, but I would rather it all function directly at the alarm panel, less points of failure, overall cost and such.
 
@drvnbysound
- can you give me an idea of the brands and models of those different z-wave devices that you have gotten to work with this set-up please?
 
@jon102034050
-I have had a few installers suggest the ISY-994iZw for the extent of the things I want to do, though am concerned that it is somewhat antiquated hardware (not unlike the elk!). Maybe I don't know what I am talking about, but how well do they keep up with newer tech? - you mentioned that they don't even currently support multi-function devices. I would have thought that this would be product specific vs. an overall limitation, but again, maybe I am ignorant to how it works.
 
Would  appreciate any further insight, thanks!
 
You need to understand a bit how Z-Wave is different than a standard like Zigbee.  People often think they are just different variations of the same, but that isn't true.  Zigbee is an open standard owned by the Zigbee Alliance.  There are many "stacks" that Zigbee supports, including LightLink for Zigbee bulbs, Home Automation for well, home automation, and Smart Energy for utility meters.  Companies can even use propriety variations like Control4 does.  In any case, all Zigbee home Automation designed devices will support all other ones IF they support that function. For example, a Leviton Omni panel supports light switches, bulbs, locks and thermostats but not motion sensors and temp sensors. 
 
Z-Wave is not a standard.  It is a proprietary communications technology created by a company named Zensys. In the early days Zensys made 100% of the Z-wave chips, so all devices worked together by default, but since then the rights to make Z-Wave chips have been sold to other companies, and Sigma Designs bought the rights to the Z-wave standard from Zensys in 2008. Since then companies have added in some proprietary tweaks such as status reporting. That is why some devices support some functions and some don't.  So not all Zigbee works with all Zigbee and not all Z-wave supports all the features of other Z-Wave but for much different reasons.
 
hrhrudi said:
Thank you both for your responses. I was just a little concerned. The whole point of me going with the Elk was to not neccessarily have another separate HA controller (as the Leviton module is considered a z-wave controller). With that said, on inquiries with Leviton, they pretty much said that they only really bother testing their own products to work with the device, which makes me wonder why they bothered to make it z-wave. A bit deceptive in my opinion. They say it is standard industry z-wave, so "should" work with any z-wave devices, but then goes on to say that they have never been able to get full functionality working with a non-Leviton z-wave thermostat...so a bit of a contradiction in my mind.
 
I might add Homeseer or something later on down the line to get more granular control, but I would rather it all function directly at the alarm panel, less points of failure, overall cost and such.
 
@drvnbysound
- can you give me an idea of the brands and models of those different z-wave devices that you have gotten to work with this set-up please?
 
@jon102034050
-I have had a few installers suggest the ISY-994iZw for the extent of the things I want to do, though am concerned that it is somewhat antiquated hardware (not unlike the elk!). Maybe I don't know what I am talking about, but how well do they keep up with newer tech? - you mentioned that they don't even currently support multi-function devices. I would have thought that this would be product specific vs. an overall limitation, but again, maybe I am ignorant to how it works.
 
Would  appreciate any further insight, thanks!
 
@ano said it well, I don't have much to add to that point.
 
With regards to your question for me on whether or not I think the antiquated hardware can keep up with newer tech: I guess I'd need to know more about what your goals are in order to better answer this question.  I've got mostly dimmers, switches, and a VRCS4-M0Z controller.  I do a decent amount of automation based off of events with my Elk and sensor status and such.  I wouldn't call my self cutting edge really, I make most of my decisions with HA around reliability.  With my setup (ELK + ISY), I've only had 1 event where a switch didnt trigger when it was supposed to, and my devices are spread throughout a 5500 sqft house.
 
hrhrudi said:
Thank you both for your responses. I was just a little concerned. The whole point of me going with the Elk was to not neccessarily have another separate HA controller (as the Leviton module is considered a z-wave controller). With that said, on inquiries with Leviton, they pretty much said that they only really bother testing their own products to work with the device, which makes me wonder why they bothered to make it z-wave. A bit deceptive in my opinion. They say it is standard industry z-wave, so "should" work with any z-wave devices, but then goes on to say that they have never been able to get full functionality working with a non-Leviton z-wave thermostat...so a bit of a contradiction in my mind.
 
I might add Homeseer or something later on down the line to get more granular control, but I would rather it all function directly at the alarm panel, less points of failure, overall cost and such.
 
@drvnbysound
- can you give me an idea of the brands and models of those different z-wave devices that you have gotten to work with this set-up please?
 
@jon102034050
-I have had a few installers suggest the ISY-994iZw for the extent of the things I want to do, though am concerned that it is somewhat antiquated hardware (not unlike the elk!). Maybe I don't know what I am talking about, but how well do they keep up with newer tech? - you mentioned that they don't even currently support multi-function devices. I would have thought that this would be product specific vs. an overall limitation, but again, maybe I am ignorant to how it works.
 
Would  appreciate any further insight, thanks!
 
I have Leviton dimmers [VRI06] and switches [VRS15] (these support Instant Status, aka Associations, and will report status back to the controller if manually used). I also have GE/Jasco dimmers [45606], switches [45609], and receptacles [45605]; these do not support Instant Status. All of the devices listed above, that I have, support Beaming.
 
I have also have a Kwikset deadbolt [910 Series] and a RCS thermostat [TZ45].
 
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