Good DIY Solution for a n00b

[NickTheGreat]

I'm new to posting here but have been lurking for a LONG time here. There is so much knowledge here

I've been fascinated by Home Automation since I bought an RF plug-in lamp switch in college. I'm fairly savvy with home theater and computers, but never ventured into this realm too much. I have my engineering degree, so I have a small amount of pompousness, which helps with this type of thing

Anyway, we just bought our place less than a year ago. Wonderful home, big yard, kitchen, room to grow, etc. But it has walls and I hate to tear them up too much. I have been interested in some lighting control. Then thought I should may like some sort of verification on my garage doors. And then maybe an alert for my freezer . . .

I fell in love with the Lutron RadioRA2 but learned how easy it is for me to purchase and modify on my own. So I started reading about the Insteon stuff. Now I'm on to the Z-Wave stuff. Am I on the right track here? The idea of not pulling miles of cable is appealing (I'll leave that to when I purchase my HTD stuff. I would like to think I'm an amateur computer programmer, so the idea of being able to constantly tweak the program is important to me.

Is starting with a few Z-Wave modules and some sort of controller (MiCaseVerde?) starting on the right path? Or am I trying to buy a VCR when I should be looking at DVRs? Thanks a ton.

 

[etc6849]

Premise might be worth looking at. I'm an engineer and love the logical way the program was designed, and best of all it's free.

Follow the links in my signature. Premise supports RadioRa (not sure about RadioRa2, you would need to probably make a custom RS232 module), z-wave, X10 and some types of insteon controllers.

 

[electron]

Welcome to CocoonTech!

The Mi Casa Verde Vera solution is definitely a great one. The Z-Wave Eco system offers the most type of devices (from light control to door locks), and the Vera controller is very DIY friendly (you can add your own scripts etc if you would like to). INSTEON is definitely starting to look good as well, but the only controller I would recommend is the ISY-99 which is a little bit more expensive. It really depends on the type of things you want to automate.

You can also go with a PC based controller, such as HomeSeer, CQC and Elve (check my sig for a list of software).

 

[Waynedb]

For Insteon there is also this http://www.smarthome.com/1240HR/JDS-Technologies-HRRBI-HomeRunner-RBI-Home-Automation-Controller/p.aspx I have no experience with this controller but it is nice to have more options.

 

[NickTheGreat]

Thanks for the tips, guys. For a while, I was in the Insteon camp. I know that there's no wrong answer, but would I be happier being Z-Wave vs Insteon?

I've kicked around the PC based solution. And being a computer geek, I like this, but I think one of the standalone units will make things simpler.

 

[tmbrown97]

Insteon alone can't quite do everything Z-Wave can; and Z-Wave gets you out of the single-vendor camp, and the controller is less expensive.

 

[potts.mike]

Insteon alone can't quite do everything Z-Wave can; and Z-Wave gets you out of the single-vendor camp, and the controller is less expensive.

Agreed

 

[NickTheGreat]

OK. I'm starting to get good vibes from Z-Wave. Thanks for your help, everybody ray:

 

[drozwood90]

I personally use a combination of technologies. I use UPB for lighting control, Z-wave for specialties (thermostat, door locks, some appliance modules), and I use X10 for some cameras (yes, I still have them around!). I also use X10 as sensors. So, by having multiple paths to feed into my controller (I use Homeseer), I can blend together what I feel is the best solution for me.

Z-Wave has lighting switches. BUT, in MY mind, do I want to tie up the Z-Wave network dealing with switches, and propagating the switch signals through, while I'm trying to do something on the Thermostat? Plus, I did not have to worry about a "good" mesh network with UPB.

So, for ME, with how I use my system, a blend was good so that (at least in my mind) my controller can essentially do things in parallel.

--Dan

 

[NickTheGreat]

I personally use a combination of technologies. I use UPB for lighting control, Z-wave for specialties (thermostat, door locks, some appliance modules), and I use X10 for some cameras (yes, I still have them around!). I also use X10 as sensors. So, by having multiple paths to feed into my controller (I use Homeseer), I can blend together what I feel is the best solution for me.

Z-Wave has lighting switches. BUT, in MY mind, do I want to tie up the Z-Wave network dealing with switches, and propagating the switch signals through, while I'm trying to do something on the Thermostat? Plus, I did not have to worry about a "good" mesh network with UPB.

So, for ME, with how I use my system, a blend was good so that (at least in my mind) my controller can essentially do things in parallel.

--Dan

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for your advice

 

[oberkc]

"Insteon alone can't quite do everything Z-Wave can;"

Perhaps, but I am definitely curious what that is. I have not run into anything that I wanted to do where I found a Z-wave solution.

"I personally use a combination of technologies"

Ideally, I think this is the best approach if you can find a controller that robustly handles multiple protocols. Someone mentioned the "Mi Casa Verde" solution. While it looks very intriguing, my impression from reading the user manual is that support for insteon is pretty basic, currently published compatibility with only three devices. My controller is an ISY-99, cabable only of insteon support, so I cannot offer any first-hand experience in using multiple technologies.

"and Z-Wave gets you out of the single-vendor camp, and the controller is less expensive."

Definitely a good point, assuming compability between device manufacturers. I would definitely value the ability to choose the best devices from each manufacturer and protocol.

 

[xlurkr]

Definitely a good point, assuming compability between device manufacturers. I would definitely value the ability to choose the best devices from each manufacturer and protocol.

I own a lot of Insteon, and have dabbled in Z-Wave, and in my experience vendor interoperability is one of Z-Wave's weak points. Associatability is hit-or-miss. That means your controller may have to resort to polling, leading to lots of network traffic, laggy response, and status displays that are out of sync with the loads. Also, scenes with lots of lights might not change all at once, but in more of a "popcorn" effect.

I may be wrong, but it seems that the happy owners are either all Vizia RF(+), or very tech savvy and good at picking interoperable stuff, or lucky, or not sensitive to the limitations above.

Insteon still doesn't have door locks that can report their status, at least without additional hardware. Z-Wave does. There are also some handy Z-Wave multisensors (motion, temp, humidity.) I can't think of any other big differences in devices available.

-Tom