Newbie... catching the Z-Wave

ogeneo

New Member
Hi all!

Glad to find this wonderful forum! Been lurking for a few days, decided to post a few questions. As a Mac user, the only game in town is Indigo, so that's what I've been using with my Insteon/X10 setup. I've never been able to get 100% reliability with my Switchlincs and now some Insteon switches.

I spent a few hours yesterday troubleshooting the whole setup and ended up quite frustrated. I have a small home with less than 30 total devices to be controlled, I really want it to work right, the first time! I've tried filters, boosters, unlplugging everything, phase couplers and so on.. I'm done with it all...

I'd really like to turn the Mac off and have everything work offline. I realize that we are in the early adopter phase of Z-Wave, but from what I've read, it seems to be what I desire. I just picked up a handful of switches, a couple of remotes and lamp modules this afternoon at Lowes (thanks to a gift card and 10% off)

Questions:

Three way circuit?

PC or Mac based controller? Program once and unplug?

Is the motion detector outdoor worthy? (docs don't specify) Also, can the motion detector trigger a scene? (turn on rear patio and off in xx minutes when motion stops?)

I'm sure I'll have more, but that should get me started..

Thanks!

Gene
 
ogeneo said:
Hi all!
I'd really like to turn the Mac off and have everything work offline. I realize that we are in the early adopter phase of Z-Wave, but from what I've read, it seems to be what I desire. I just picked up a handful of switches, a couple of remotes and lamp modules this afternoon at Lowes (thanks to a gift card and 10% off)

Questions:

Three way circuit?

PC or Mac based controller? Program once and unplug?

Is the motion detector outdoor worthy? (docs don't specify) Also, can the motion detector trigger a scene? (turn on rear patio and off in xx minutes when motion stops?)

I'm sure I'll have more, but that should get me started..

Thanks!

Gene
Welcome to Cocoontech,

Assuming the products you bought from Lowes are the Intermatic HomeSettings:

The wall switch is a dimmer and does not do 3-way. I have been told from Intermatic that they expect to have 3-way, relay and toggle style switches out first quarter next year. (if you have ACT switches, there are some that do 3-way and act as a transmitter to control the load bearing switch.)

Intermatic makes a computer controller (HA22), but I don't think there is any Mac software to support it (only PC). Also the computer has to be on/running to use the controller. The large Intermatic remote (HA07) does have some capabilities of programming timer controls and can be used to control the Z-Wave modules based upon time.

The Pod
 
ogeneo said:
Glad to find this wonderful forum! Been lurking for a few days, decided to post a few questions. As a Mac user, the only game in town is Indigo, so that's what I've been using with my Insteon/X10 setup. I've never been able to get 100% reliability with my Switchlincs and now some Insteon switches.
Hi Gene,

I saw that you are having some issues with SwitchLincs and INSTEON-enabled switches and would like to help.

Can you outline what is happening with your INSTEON setup in terms of reliability?
 
Zero response at all...

I just have a few Insteon devices and none can be reached.. I then tried plugging an Insteon lamp module into the powerlinc and still no response. I also have a few Switchlincs that cannot be reached as well. (yes, I have a Phase Couples, do they go bad?)


I returned the Z-wave stuff to Lowes this evening, I decided to try a couple additional filters on the PC's in the house. Also, I ordered a new Powerlinc as well as an additional Signalinc.

When it all arrives, we'll see how it goes.

I'd really love to see Indigo support downloading to the Powerlinc..
 
Gene,

Were you having trouble with your Z-Wave gear, or did you return it so you could play with the PLC equipment more?

Chris
 
ogeneo said:
Zero response at all...

I just have a few Insteon devices and none can be reached.. I then tried plugging an Insteon lamp module into the powerlinc and still no response. I also have a few Switchlincs that cannot be reached as well. (yes, I have a Phase Couples, do they go bad?)
Hi Gene -

If your LL is plugged directly into the PLC and you get no response it leads me to believe the indigo configuration is not working. Smarthome has quite a few Indigo enthusiasts in tech support. Can I get you in contact with them to troubleshoot? I would really like to hear what they have to say and see if they can get you back up and running.

PM me your contact info and I will have one of them call to help.
 
ChrisWalker said:
Gene,

Were you having trouble with your Z-Wave gear, or did you return it so you could play with the PLC equipment more?

Chris
I just returned it, decided to give PLC one more shot.

A couple of nits...

- No documentation came with the Z-wave controller (I downloaded some)
- Confusing as all heck... I don't know how any average joe could get it to work easily.
 
Gene,

Which controller did you buy? I wonder if the missing documentation was a fluke; I haven't seen any controllers at Lowe's that don't come with documentation.

Chris
 
ogeneo,
If you are looking at PLC technology and want reliability with "install once and it works" Please look at UPB.
Program once and unplug?
YES!
Read the Insteon and UPB forums for a good feel about reliability. You can purchase a UPB demo kit for around $125 and download the setup program, free online. The UPStart software will allow you to see the signal strength at any device and you can setup a test of the systems where it does tests at intervals and creates a report. The 40 volt+ signal can travel over a mile without a repeater. This translates into a very strong reliable signal. UPB is resistant to many types of interference resulting in few or no filters. .

Good luck
Dave
 
Event5 said:
ogeneo,
If you are looking at PLC technology and want reliability with "install once and it works" Please look at UPB.
Thank you Dave. I'll certainly look into this!
 
ogeneo ,
If you think Z-Wave is confusing and Insteon isn't then this is a first for me. With Z-Wave you walk up, hit the switch, and punch a button on the remote and you are done.
If you are using a HA package like HomeSeer you can then plug in their latest controller to the PC and manage the switch from there.
 
Rupp said:
ogeneo ,
If you think Z-Wave is confusing and Insteon isn't then this is a first for me. With Z-Wave you walk up, hit the switch, and punch a button on the remote and you are done.
Rupp - As one of the most knowledgeable guys in this forum I am sure you are more than familiar with both technologies. You must also know the setup is fairly similar.

"With Z-Wave you walk up, hit the switch, and punch a button on the remote and you are done."
vs.
INSTEON-enabled products - press and hold 10 seconds at the switch - press and hold 10 seconds at the other device.

Currently, this is how INSTEON enabled products link and work. I would be open to your thoughts on how we can make this process less confusing.
 
My vote goes to UPB too. I recently took advantage of SAI's "buy 5 & get one free" offer on US1130s (this brought my price/switch down to $44) and pulled my remaining Switchlincs out of the entire upstairs. Now things are faster and utterly reliable. The WAF on the switch color uniformity is fantastic. She got estatic when I asked her how she wanted her virtual 3-ways set up too.

Don't by slave switches though. The slaves don't have bi-color LED's so they're black when off. Just plug in a standard switch instead and set it for "no local load". UPB's link based virtual "n"-way" programming works flawlessly.

If you're a UPB dealer and you don't already know this, you can get the 6 for 5 offer on US1130W's through Oct. 31st btw.
 
I'm UPB all the way as well, and I also dumped my UPB remote switches. Too bad SA doesn't make switches without load control for 3-way applications.
 
SAI makes a "professional grade" switch. No offense to SmartLabsMike ment here, but from a quality control standpoint, there's simply no comparison between these switches and the ones made by SH. The US1130 switches have high quality, mostly metal switch bodies, a crisp tactile feel and the switch plate/LED colors on the ones I installed last week are identical to the ones I put well in over a year ago.

...and at $44/switch the price was right too! :)
 
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