How important is 2-way communication?

[Micah]

Hey guys,

Got another question for ya'll. How important is it for a wall switch to be able to be able to transmit?

I was looking at the Smarthome PLCs vs. their 2-Way SwitchLinc series switches and am trying to justify spending the extra money.

I can see where it'd be handy for looking at a master control to see which lights are on and which are off but beyond getting switch state information I don't see what else it'd be used for.

 

[jrfuda]

I don't own any two-way devices yet, and have only had a few occasions where I wished I had one, one of those is when I'm dimming lights for movies. Without two-ways, I have to turn the lights to 100% then dim them to the correct seetings, this isn't as pretty as it could be if the lights would dim to my desired movie viewing levels regarldess of what on/off/dim state they were at when I started.

I've also hear that 2-ways are signal suckers.... Too many and you'll start getting reliability problems.

I'm probably going to use Z-wave for 2 way stuff (and stuff on the 'other' phase - since a coupler is not practical for my situation) and stick with X-10 for everthing else. I only have the Z-wave USB interface so far (received it as a gift) so I can't comment on it yet, but there are several threads here and at the HomeSeer message board discussing it.

If you do go for 2-ways and have problems with signal loss, I guess you can use some booster/repeaters or something ot overcome it.

 

[electron]

I have only 1 2way lamp module, because I needed a module that could 'soft start'. But with wall switches, I would recommeng going with 2way, so if someone turns on the light using the switch, Your automation software can update the status of the device. Early switchlinc modules used to be known for 'signal sucking', but I am not sure if the new ones still do this.

jrfuda, keep in mind that zwave isn't 2way, it can be polled yes, but it won't report it if the status changes.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

I use 2-way for everything. Not only is it important with having your automation software being updated, but I also use a lot of keypads. If you want the keypads to be updated, you really need to have it receive the status if someone locally hits a switch.

People talk a lot about signal suck. Yeah, they suck a little more signal but it's not really a major deal. I currently have over 50 2-way devices (and growing). I have only one signal booster in the house and I'm not even sure if I realy need that one.

 

[jrfuda]

People talk a lot about signal suck. Yeah, they suck a little more signal but it's not really a major deal. I currently have over 50 2-way devices (and growing). I have only one signal booster in the house and I'm not even sure if I realy need that one.

Martin, I'm happy to hear that. The way some folks talk you'd think two or three 2-ways will kill your system.

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Well, if you look at the people that gripe about signal suck on 2-way switches, you'll find that they don't have any.....

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Maybe I'm spoiled, but, I couldn't live without 2-way devices for everything.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Two way is extremely important if you want to create a very smart system, which can look around and see what is happening. Unfortunately, X-10 is such a slow system that you'd be hard pressed to have a lot of two way modules and keep up with the state of them on a reasonably rapid basis. But you can have two ways for the important stuff certainly. And with newer replacement technologies on the way (wireless) this will become a non-issue and you'll be able to have a lot of the out there and your automation controller will still be able to keep up to date with their state pretty rapidly.