Jasco’s GE Branded Z-Wave Deluxe Hand-Held

[Squintz]

Jasco’s GE Branded Z-Wave Deluxe Hand-Held
Remote Wins 2007 Innovations Honors

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How does the Z-Wave Deluxe Hand-Held Remote work? Users outfit an electrical outlet or lighting switch with a Z-Wave node, which uses wireless technology to speak to the remote. Once lighting or an appliance is outfitted with a Z-Wave node, it only takes a simple touch of a couple of buttons to program the remote to recognize the node. Once a node is programmed, the control possibilities are endless!

The advanced features of the Z-Wave Deluxe Hand-Held Remote give users the ultimate in lighting and appliance control. The group function allows control of more than one node at the push of a button. Scene programming allows users to include timing and dimming features into one program. For example, a home theater scene would turn off all lights in the kitchen and dim overhead lighting to a predetermined level over a time span of two minutes. The calendar and timer features give users the flexibility to wake up with a gradual brightening of the bedroom lights only on Monday through Friday or ensure that outdoor lighting turns on every evening at 7 p.m. An easy-to-read LCD screen also provides quick feedback for all the remote’s functions.
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Read the Press Release

The thought never crossed my mind that GE would adopt the Z-Wave protocol.

 

[George West]

The thought never crossed my mind that GE would adopt the Z-Wave protocol.

Um, GE didn't adopt Z-Wave, Jasco did. Jasco sells GE branded products under license from GE. They exist so that GE can have a presence in markets where they don't want to spend resources to enter or remain. They do this under some direction/agreement from GE and they have their own product marketing and design staff. The story I originally heard was that the Z-Wave decision was mandated from an external player that is neither GE or Jasco.

Notice that the original date on the press release is January 2007 and that this is old news.

At CES I spent about an hour talking to the manager of the home security products. There are two offerings in this product set. One is a low cost home security system capable of (I think) 16 devices - door, window, smoke? sensors - that operates in the 400 MHz band with rolling code security. The other is the line of lighting control products based on Z-Wave.

The lighting control products are supposed to be available soon. May/June was what I was told at CES. Jasco is the only z-wave company that ever gave me a straight answer when I asked what they needed to do to get to market by their deadline - UL testing and certification and they even identified the specific device they thought would have issues and maybe require a redesign. Oh yeah, he needed to get the information for the back of the packaging written and he thought he had a good chance of that given the five month lead time.

There is some good industrial design talent being put to use here. An example is the lamp module. Imagine the typical design of a lamp module, rotate it 90 degrees and move the plug to the bottom center of the device. This lets you install the device in an outlet without covering the second socket. Most of the Jasco stuff shows this kind of thought and design IMHO.

The bad news for CT-ers is that these products are really aimed at the lower end of the market. Think something you might find in RadioShack or in a big box where the product has to sell itself.

Back to the remote, that really is a nice product for this type of device. Nice look and feel and my understanding was that it also could control a z-wave thermostat. If you like/need this type of thing you might want to give this a look.

Aside: I have a wife and two four year olds and a remote that can't be nailed to a wall is a remote that I'm never going to be able to use... No flame bait about remotes here.

George West
www.wtrs.net