Wow--amazing numbers of Z-Wave products at EHX...

[ChrisWalker]

At EHX, there are a ton of Z-Wave products on display, both at the Z-Wave Pavillion and at the booths of major manufacturers, etc.

At the Z-Wave Pavillion, Intermatic is showing off their current retail product line, and their upcoming retail devices. They're also showing off their new "pro" products, which are very, very nice.

Next to them, Wayne Dalton is showing off their new HomeLink to Z-Wave bridge, and their X10 to Z-Wave bridge. With the latter, you can add new Z-Wave hardware to your existing X10 network, to preserve your investment--and then replace it over time. With the HomeLink bridge, you can make your garage door opener turn on lights in the home, etc. when you press the "Home link" button in your car. That's millions and millions of cars and homes with support--a huge market for Z-Wave devices!

On the other side of Wayne Dalton is Techniku, with some great window coverings. We now know the answer as to how to implement window shades into our systems--with a window shade Z-Wave device!

Boca Devices is next to them, and they may be showing off their X10-to-Z-Wave product as well.

Around the corner, Leviton is showing off their new Vizia RF product line. They have zone and scene controllers, light switches, and plug-in modules. These are going to appeal to a lot of people--and they feature the new "toggle" switch style (where you press the bottom of the button to turn it on/off).

Digital Media Research (DMR) is showing off their "media center" product which features Z-Wave home control (via ControlThink technology).

Zykronix is showing off their Z-Wave enabled touch screens, and Universal Electronics is showing off thier new Z-Wave remotes!

And, ahem, ControlThink is showing off ThinkEssentials, the ThinkBox, and the new Z-Wave PC SDK at our booth :huh: We're letting people set up Z-Wave networks, write their own (few) lines of code with the PC SDK, and more.

At the corner of the booth, there's a very large wall showing interoperable devices. There are dozens of Z-Wave nodes there from multiple manufacturers all working together. It's great.

Logitech is showing off thier new Harmony 890 over at their booth, and I understand that ACT is at the Smart Products booth.

There's more, but that's a great start! It's amazing to see so many of the large established manufacturers put out Z-Wave compliant products.

Chris

 

[Rupp]

Chris,
Is this Z-Wave PC SDK VB based?

 

[pkoslow]

Damn Chris, you just made my day busier by adding a couple more booths to my list!

Paul

 

[Squintz]

Chris, please take some pictures. Wel all want to see what new products are on the horizon.

Also, someone asked last night if Z-wave to IR was possible and are there any plans to make such a device. It would be nice to be able to send an RF signal to turn on an IR device. If its possible and not in the plans perhaps you could be our voice and recommend it to some manufactures.

 

[electron]

Controlling IR with Z-wave is possible already, using the Elk M1, Z-wave interface, and the Ocelot :huh:

 

[mbreeden]

Electron:

Are you going to post the transcript of the chat last night, I was unable to make it but I would love to know what was discussed.

Thanks

Mike

 

[electron]

I will when I get home, which is in a few hours.

 

[Squintz]

All i remember about last night was the discussion which included words that started with P.

 

[pkoslow]

I'm here this afternoon and Chris is right, lots of Z-wave on display (lots of other stuff too!).

Met Martin & Rocco at the Elk booth when I first arrived.

Thinkgs close up here in about an hour, and still have lots to see...

Paul

 

[ChrisWalker]

Chris,
Is this Z-Wave PC SDK VB based?

The SDK will work with all .NET languages, including VB.NET (and C#, and all the fun derivatives).

We're working on samples for it, which we'll create in both VB.NET and C#.

Chris

 

[ChrisWalker]

Chris, please take some pictures. Wel all want to see what new products are on the horizon.

Also, someone asked last night if Z-wave to IR was possible and are there any plans to make such a device. It would be nice to be able to send an RF signal to turn on an IR device. If its possible and not in the plans perhaps you could be our voice and recommend it to some manufactures.

Anything is possible

I did see that Leviton has an IR receiver in their zone controller, so it looks like you can use IR to control them as well as Z-Wave!

Chris

 

[ChrisWalker]

Also, someone asked last night if Z-wave to IR was possible and are there any plans to make such a device. It would be nice to be able to send an RF signal to turn on an IR device.

Hey--check _this_ out. At the show yesterday, I had a chance to get more "up close and personal" with the new Logitech Harmony 890.

It does RF-to-IR.

Here's what happens: there's a Z-Wave IR bridge that you can put in your cabinet with your devices, or in the room behind the wall that has all of your equipment. It has IR built into it, and a few plugs for emitters if you'd like to use those.

Now, when you use the IR part of the remote, the signal will be simultaneously sent over IR and RF. So if you're not in line-of-sight of the device you're controlling (because it's not out in the open, or you're in another room listening to your CDs over your whole-home audio system), you can simply use the remote and it will send the signal over Z-Wave, via the hops in your home, and convert it back to IR at the destination.

Or at least that's how I understand it. We're going to have to get one in the lab soon to test it out.

Isn't that cool?

Chris

 

[Squintz]

Very cool. Sign me up as a beta tester

 

[gunther52]

Hi Chris,

I saw the announcement about the SDK and had a question. I have the insteon sdk and would like to get yours since the price is right

The $49 includes the hardware and everything I need to develop but are there licensing fees per product sold? Assuming I can get my code off of the ground of course.

Thank you,
Gunther

 

[ChrisWalker]

Hi Chris,

I saw the announcement about the SDK and had a question. I have the insteon sdk and would like to get yours since the price is right

The $49 includes the hardware and everything I need to develop but are there licensing fees per product sold? Assuming I can get my code off of the ground of course.

Thank you,
Gunther

Gunther:

Yes, the $49 includes both the Intermatic Z-Wave USB stick and a license to use the programming library. We have samples, and a whole (active) peer support group on the developer forum as well.

It should be very easy for you to get your code off the ground

As far as licensing fees for commercial software, we can set you up with USB sticks which include the run-time license (at a price even lower than the SDK!). You can then sell those to your users. Quite a few companies are already on board doing this.

Plus, using the SDK should make it super-easy to get the Z-Wave logo on your application, since it's already pre-certified.

If you don't want to use the USB stick, we can also license the library per-copy at a very, very inexpensive price. Contact me offline and we can get you started.

But most importantly, go pre-order the SDK from tech-home.com, and download the v1.1 beta. We've written entire sample applications (like the Thermostat sample I posted earlier) in an hour to a few hours.

Chris