New Home Automation Hardware

[BraveSirRobbin]

Homeautomationsales:

Welcome to CocoonTech :lol:

BSR

 

[Homeautomationsales]

Thank you for the welcome.

 

[rocco]

From all the reports I've heard on UPB it seems to be a great product.

I agree, it is a great product.

But powerline, by itself, gives you only half a solution. You still need wireless, which both X10 and Insteon offer, for motion sensors and hand-held remotes. And then there is media.

For that reason, I would bet on a total wireless solution; either ZigBee or ZWave, coupled with something like UWB for media.

 

[kwilcox]

Right now there are no native UPB controllers that can do wireless, so you would need to bridge to X10 wireless devices using a W800RF32. No powerline X10 would actually occur, so reliability would be very high. It will be nice when a native UPB wireless device becomes available since then you could include wireless keypads in a strictly peer based configuration.

 

[upstatemike]

Does the W800RF32 have to be used with a PC controller or could you just connect it directly to a spare serial port on an ELK M1 or Stargate?

 

[WayneW]

Does the W800RF32 have to be used with a PC controller or could you just connect it directly to a spare serial port on an ELK M1 or Stargate?

As far as I know, the W800 is currently only supported by various PC based software. But David has indicated that Elk has considered (or will consider) adding support to the M1 via a serial port if there was sufficient interest/demand. Theoretically, the M1 could support it now, but it would take a ton of rules according to those that have looked at the protocol.

 

[TCassio]

kwilcox,

Right now there are no native UPB controllers that can do wireless, so you would need to bridge to X10 wireless devices using a W800RF32. No powerline X10 would actually occur, so reliability would be very high.

I use the W800 with my X10 system. Lets not forget that RF signals can clobber each other just as X10 PLC's can. I have a motion sensor close to a closet door that has a window/door contact that controls a closet light. There is about a 60% reliability factor as to weather the closet light will turn on.

T.

 

[electron]

Tcassio, I have seen you mention this issue several times, but you really are th exception to the rule here. I have 10 DS10A's, 10+ RF motion sensors, tons of red buttons, palmpads, and my reliability is 100%. Most people seem to have the same experience. Maybe you have another appliance on the same frequency, or a bad unit?

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

TCassio:

Can you start a thread relating to your RF problem and we (Cocoontech community) will try to help you out!

 

[kwilcox]

Not wanting to let this thread stray too far OT, but I've had TCassio's issue as well although my overall reliability is far higher than 60%. It seems to occur when two sensors trip simultaneously and may actually be an issue with my controller software (HCA). It happens too infrequently for me to bother going through the debugging process though. My suppostion had been that the two wireless transmissions simply collide in much the same way as they do on the powerline.

 

[TCassio]

:lol: Maybe there is a common thread KW, I to am using HCA

 

[1audio]

I'm seeing a few isues with network reliability showing up and their impact seems to be significant. Our hypothetical Home Depot customer may be more sensitive to these issues, especially if he isn't interested or equipped to troubleshoot a system.

Perhaps a non scientific "poll" asking for number of problems per system may give us all a better idea of which type of product is easier to setup and more likely to be "reliable". Reliability means different things to different people, so this may best be a personal recount of the system type and what problems were encountered and how difficult they were to fix. I have seen PLC problems here that required tools to sort out (X-10) and wireless links not being reliable (again X-10?) This is no particular condemnation of a particular product but it may highlight the type of problems people encounter.

 

[kwilcox]

:lol: Maybe there is a common thread KW, I to am using HCA

Hmmm very interesting... I'll run it by Kimberly Harms at HCATech and PM you if I find anything.

 

[brute22]

I think you all need to tak a quick look at Vantage Controls. Vantag offers the complete package for home automation, including a retrofit option that is superior to all other retrofits.

www.vantagecontrols.com

 

[electron]

Hi brute22, Welcome to CocoonTech.com!

The site doesn't load for me, and I tried from several places. As for superior, you will have to back that one up and explain why you think it is, since most people never heard of this company/product.