New Z-wave controller
- Thread starter JimMurphy
- Start date
Jim, I'm not active on this community, but please feel free to mail me on "gavin at highpeak dot co dot za" - I'd love to chat more about HA in SA (I'm up in Joburg). I run a heady mix of HA tech at home, including Z-Wave, C-Bus, HomeSeer, Paradox (Alarm), EtherRain (Irrigation), Blue Iris (CCTV).
Looking at the way this thread has gone, it's not really an appropriate one to discuss HA solutions appropriate for fellow South Africans.
Looking at the way this thread has gone, it's not really an appropriate one to discuss HA solutions appropriate for fellow South Africans.
pete_c
Guru
Welcome to Cocoontech beerygaz.
Yup; sometimes the threads here get very entertaining (better than watching television - which I do not do much of these days).
Jim is looking at a new Z-Wave product / touchscreen hub. Wondering if you are using Homeseer with Paradox these days.
I remember a few years back when you were asking about a plugin? Did you end up writing something up yourself?
Yup; sometimes the threads here get very entertaining (better than watching television - which I do not do much of these days).
Jim is looking at a new Z-Wave product / touchscreen hub. Wondering if you are using Homeseer with Paradox these days.
I remember a few years back when you were asking about a plugin? Did you end up writing something up yourself?
I think skeptical is more accurate than paranoid, but Bal's comments sum up the reasons pretty well. Too much spam over the years pushing what purports to be the next big thing.JimMurphy said:I don't know why there seem so many borderline paranoid people on this forum - it's not something I've seen on any other forums I've even been involved with.h34r:
I do applaud your volunteer work - that's something the world needs more of.
Thanks coconut. Good to be here.pete_c said:
I am indeed running HomeSeer3 and Paradox. I ended up writing my own plugin, but I've not released it. It's too buggy right now. To be honest, the Paradox PRT3 interface is half the problem. Poor documentation, inconsistent output and general erratic behavior have made it tricky to get a realizable product out. No indictment on Canadians in general, but the Paradox lot have been less than cooperative too!
Still, that being said, Jim, the offer still stands to chat further about HA options in sunny SA.
pete_c
Guru
Geez; I couldn't figure out where the coconut name came from. Good to see you here berrygaz (well virtually).
Here I am still doing baby steps with Homeseer 3.
I have gone to running Homeseer 3 on Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit from Wintel.
Well the box now is also a LAMP server and running one Windows server VM on it.
Does the Parodox panel do any automation?
Here I am still doing baby steps with Homeseer 3.
I have gone to running Homeseer 3 on Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit from Wintel.
Well the box now is also a LAMP server and running one Windows server VM on it.
Does the Parodox panel do any automation?
ChrisCicc said:There is a difference between "designed in the US, made in China" and "designed in China, made in China".
China isn't good at software. Most of you probably don't know the effort western companies go through to protect their software when doing Chinese manufacturing. Anyone with a laser scanner and x-ray scanner can reverse engineer hardware, but encrypted software is encrypted. To avoid going into too many details, what's usually done is the device is manufactured only with a simple bootloader, and then the software is loaded in via a very secured process after the fact. Sometimes it's done here in the US, sometimes it's done there, but when it's done there it's done in such a way that the software cannot be stolen (again, leaving out the tech details).
You're point about building to the lowest common denominator is very true though. China can create great quality these days, but only if you force them to
These sweeping, generalized, racist comments from you, Chris, make me (and I'm sure others regularly reading this forum and active in the home automation space) never want to do business with you or have anything to do with your CastleOS product.
ChrisCicc
Active Member
tadr said:
WOW now I'm a racist?
Let's put it all on the table. Everything I listed there, I learned from the executives at Dragon Innovation. They are the company behind the manufacturing of such products as the Pebble smartwatch, MakerBot, LIFX smart bulbs, Coin, Jibo, ReThink Robotics, iRobot, and many others. All of those companies used the methods I describe to protect their IP from China.
So I guess we're all racist, eh?
Heh, sorry Pete, i got it from your forum status on your Avatar.pete_c said:
HS3 has been a challenge, but is now (mostly) stable and working well. I'm trying to port my plugins over to mono to be platform independent and I'll switch to Linux too. The Paradox panel does very little in the way of automation, it has the basic PGM outputs that can be triggered on events, and their serial interface has been adapted to work wig the Clipsal (now Schneider) C-Bus platform which is very popular.ar in South Africa and Aus. That's about it though. My plugin uses the Serial interface and its passable. I'm trying to get access to their IP-based SDK though. I'd far rather move to IP than Serial and from the looks of the native Paradox mobile apps, more control is available via the IP interface.
Graphing is an issue for me right now, HS3 Ina's nothing and cross-platform graphing libraries are few and far between.
pete_c
Guru
Not an issue. Yeah; I don't look like my Avatar yet...(dad didn't really get too grey until he was close to 80). Never paid much attention to the verbiage associated with the Avatars.
I noticed that Homegenie is using mono too.
Well that and my favorite weather software called Cumulus is converting over to Linux and also using Mono. I am currently using two mini Wintel servers each running one weather station talking to Homeseer and changing over to a RPi2 attached to the back of a Davis weather console and putting it on the network with a tiny footprint. (currently using a serial to network server to do this).
Slowly here sort of doing a hub and spoke kind of thing with automation mixing Wintel / Linux stuff. IE: you could now run your Paradox "connector" plugin on a tiny Atom Baytrail PC running Wintel and have it talk to Homeseer running on Linux or Wintel.
Goofing around here put a microrouter (well modded with OpenWRT) inside of my Leviton OPII can (powered by the panel). The device can talk to the OPII panel via a serial or network (wired and wireless) or both link (I have both connected). Test connected a LTE modem to the microrouter and it works well as sort of an out of band methodology of management of the panel. (IE: old copper phone, network via home and an autonomous LTE connection) It's just that its a bit slow at 400Mhz and doesn't have a lot of play room.
I am seeing the company name of Schneider in many places these days as they have grown in leaps and bounds.
Asked the Amazon Echo this morning to wiki C-Bus this morning and it read the first paragraph. (bored asking it all sorts of questions).
C-Bus is a communications protocol based on a seven layer OSI model for home and building automation that can handle cable lengths up to 1000 meter using Cat-5 cable. It is used in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East, Russia, USA, South Africa, the UK and other parts of Europe including Greece and Romania. C-Bus was created by Clipsal Australia's Clipsal Integrated Systems division (now part of Schneider Electric) for use with its brand of home automation and building lighting control system. C-Bus has been briefly available in the USA but Schneider Electric has now discontinued sales in the USA.
I am really curious why Schneider Electric has now discontinued sales of C-Bus in the USA. Noticed that they are doing the Zigbee thing here. I am more in to that wired automation stuff over wireless automation stuff; but that is me.
So the IP SDK is more functional than their legacy serial communications?
Yup; here use older HAI OmniTouch serially connected touchscreens and newer Omnitouch IP connected touchscreens. Did a test the other day pulling the network interface off of the panel and the IP connected touchscreens had to be rebooted or reset to connect to the panel even though they never lost power (just a short network outage of sorts).
I noticed that Homegenie is using mono too.
Well that and my favorite weather software called Cumulus is converting over to Linux and also using Mono. I am currently using two mini Wintel servers each running one weather station talking to Homeseer and changing over to a RPi2 attached to the back of a Davis weather console and putting it on the network with a tiny footprint. (currently using a serial to network server to do this).
Slowly here sort of doing a hub and spoke kind of thing with automation mixing Wintel / Linux stuff. IE: you could now run your Paradox "connector" plugin on a tiny Atom Baytrail PC running Wintel and have it talk to Homeseer running on Linux or Wintel.
Goofing around here put a microrouter (well modded with OpenWRT) inside of my Leviton OPII can (powered by the panel). The device can talk to the OPII panel via a serial or network (wired and wireless) or both link (I have both connected). Test connected a LTE modem to the microrouter and it works well as sort of an out of band methodology of management of the panel. (IE: old copper phone, network via home and an autonomous LTE connection) It's just that its a bit slow at 400Mhz and doesn't have a lot of play room.
I am seeing the company name of Schneider in many places these days as they have grown in leaps and bounds.
Asked the Amazon Echo this morning to wiki C-Bus this morning and it read the first paragraph. (bored asking it all sorts of questions).
C-Bus is a communications protocol based on a seven layer OSI model for home and building automation that can handle cable lengths up to 1000 meter using Cat-5 cable. It is used in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East, Russia, USA, South Africa, the UK and other parts of Europe including Greece and Romania. C-Bus was created by Clipsal Australia's Clipsal Integrated Systems division (now part of Schneider Electric) for use with its brand of home automation and building lighting control system. C-Bus has been briefly available in the USA but Schneider Electric has now discontinued sales in the USA.
I am really curious why Schneider Electric has now discontinued sales of C-Bus in the USA. Noticed that they are doing the Zigbee thing here. I am more in to that wired automation stuff over wireless automation stuff; but that is me.
So the IP SDK is more functional than their legacy serial communications?
Yup; here use older HAI OmniTouch serially connected touchscreens and newer Omnitouch IP connected touchscreens. Did a test the other day pulling the network interface off of the panel and the IP connected touchscreens had to be rebooted or reset to connect to the panel even though they never lost power (just a short network outage of sorts).
Frunple
Active Member
Interesting new email from Aeotec.
We've had a great response to Aeotec's three new products: MultiSensor 6, Smart Switch 6 and LED Bulb. In the few short months since they were announced they've become best sellers for us and our partners.
Already available for sale and pre-order across the EU and USA (more info is available via Aeotec.com), each of the 3 devices are currently being integrated into the worlds leading gateways. We'll soon be listing all compatible gateways as a new support feature on Aeotec.com.
Aeotec Helps Make Crowdfunding History
One gateway that has full integration with our new products is Oomi and we want to congratulate them for surpassing 1.5 Million USD on Indiegogo. Oomi is built upon Aeotec products. Using our OEM services, their versions of our accessories extend Z-Wave technology to include NFC and Oomi's proprietary, easiest-to-setup Tap-and-Touch technology.
Oomi is the most successful home automation campaign in crowdfunding history. It is also currently the 18th most funded campaign in Indiegogo history (all categories combined). We're thrilled that Aeotec has been able to be part of such a community based success and want to both thank Oomi for selecting our new devices.
The image above shows some of the accessories that Oomi is offering as part of their campaign. You can find out more here but you'll no doubt already recognise Aeotec's devices and perhaps some we haven't yet announced.
Oomi's Indiegogo campaign now has just about a week left, so be sure to get involved and take advantage of the temporarily reduced price viahttp://igg.me/at/Oomi/x while there's still time.
One more product.
The next Aeotec next newsletter is already lined up to announce one new product. Stay tuned for our next update on it and all our new products.
We've had a great response to Aeotec's three new products: MultiSensor 6, Smart Switch 6 and LED Bulb. In the few short months since they were announced they've become best sellers for us and our partners.
Already available for sale and pre-order across the EU and USA (more info is available via Aeotec.com), each of the 3 devices are currently being integrated into the worlds leading gateways. We'll soon be listing all compatible gateways as a new support feature on Aeotec.com.
Aeotec Helps Make Crowdfunding History
One gateway that has full integration with our new products is Oomi and we want to congratulate them for surpassing 1.5 Million USD on Indiegogo. Oomi is built upon Aeotec products. Using our OEM services, their versions of our accessories extend Z-Wave technology to include NFC and Oomi's proprietary, easiest-to-setup Tap-and-Touch technology.
Oomi is the most successful home automation campaign in crowdfunding history. It is also currently the 18th most funded campaign in Indiegogo history (all categories combined). We're thrilled that Aeotec has been able to be part of such a community based success and want to both thank Oomi for selecting our new devices.
The image above shows some of the accessories that Oomi is offering as part of their campaign. You can find out more here but you'll no doubt already recognise Aeotec's devices and perhaps some we haven't yet announced.
Oomi's Indiegogo campaign now has just about a week left, so be sure to get involved and take advantage of the temporarily reduced price viahttp://igg.me/at/Oomi/x while there's still time.
One more product.
The next Aeotec next newsletter is already lined up to announce one new product. Stay tuned for our next update on it and all our new products.
123
Senior Member
I watched the videos. Pretty slick family of gadgets. Hub is not just a hub but chock full of sensors. Its styling is unobtrusive.
The plug's visible feedback is a nice touch. Sure seems easy to setup. Tapping the controller to a gadget serves to discover/register it. Plug didn't even need to be powered to discover it.
They mentioned "intelligence" (i.e. more than a remote-control for gadgets) but no meaty demo of it.
Only thing I didn't care for is the way scenes are defined. Despite the fact a lamp had already been registered, you have to tap it again to include it in a scene. You want that same lamp to be included in another scene? Tap again. You want to include all lights in the house in a scene? Be prepared to walk around tapping all your lights. Perhaps the next version will allow you to tap a gadget once and then re-use it to create scenes.
Does it need cloud access? I didn't see that mentioned in the videos. What RF magic is it using? zwave? zigbee?
The plug's visible feedback is a nice touch. Sure seems easy to setup. Tapping the controller to a gadget serves to discover/register it. Plug didn't even need to be powered to discover it.
They mentioned "intelligence" (i.e. more than a remote-control for gadgets) but no meaty demo of it.
Only thing I didn't care for is the way scenes are defined. Despite the fact a lamp had already been registered, you have to tap it again to include it in a scene. You want that same lamp to be included in another scene? Tap again. You want to include all lights in the house in a scene? Be prepared to walk around tapping all your lights. Perhaps the next version will allow you to tap a gadget once and then re-use it to create scenes.
Does it need cloud access? I didn't see that mentioned in the videos. What RF magic is it using? zwave? zigbee?
