Another Z-Wave Promise

Lew Sichelman turns in a lengthy column that covers the promise of wireless home automation based on Z-Wave. Now, as I've written before, I'm fairly well impressed with my Z-Wave devices from Intermatic. I think the best thing about this article (which is otherwise a re-hash of press releases) is its discussion of a 1970s home that was retrofitted with Z-Wave based automation. No re-wiring was necessary, and is was done by a pro for $5000.

That's a reasonable price, but the best part follows that figure, where Michael Einstein of Intermatic says that a do-it-yourselfer could have completed the work for 1/2 that much. Now that's refreshing to read--not only is D.I.Y. automation mentioned, it is promoted by an automation company! That doesn't happen very often folks, and it just might indicate that the Z-Wave Alliance is coming around to the oft-neglected "hacker" portion of the market. Let's hope so, it could make a big difference in their success.

Comments

[Neil Cherry]

Hi Gordon;

Z-Wave, DIY? Could this be! ;-) I haven't spoken to Z-Wave in about a year(?). Back then the only thing they were interested in was selling my their $22K dev system or to have a consultant write my open source drivers (as long as I agreed to their NDA). Needless to say I was not happy. I won't hold my breath but I am interested in anything you find out about this.

[Neil Cherry]

I'm still not sure about Z-Wave the and the DIY crowd but Leviton has a new PC interface that we have working with Misterhouse, here's the docs:

http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibcGetAttachment.jsp?cItemId=63825&label=IBE&appName=IBE&JServSessionIdrootlxln0001=c0yg88za41.p7vGpx0Ka34Ip6jQolfJpwTDpAaUp7vGpx0Ka34Ip6jQolfJpwTDpAaUahmKa30-&LCPROD=JBFHjawnpSVvQvqvNKzBsvbe:S&LCPROD_pses=LCPROD%3DJBFHjawnpSVvQvqvNKzBsvbe%253AS%7E

Here's the interface:

http://www.asihome.com/ASIshop/product_info.php?cPath=50_51_521&products_id=2485

You'll need a Z-Wave module, a Primary/Master remote, an RS232 interface and the Leviton RZC0P-1LW - Vizia-RF Plug-In RS-232 Interface for PC's/Automation Controller.