Lots of components

The remainder of my orders arrived from a 3rd party reseller at Amazon and ASIHome arrived today. I now have a total of 2 plug-in modules, 3 switches, an Internet remote gateway, a remote control, a master remote, one USB stick transceiver and a huge bill.

I'll talk more about the Internet remote gateway later. Today I'll talk about the 2nd appliance module I bought, and the HA09C remote that came with the Internet remote gateway.

I was worried about the rated 42W for compact fluorescent bulbs of the HA02C. So I bought another module from Hawkins - the HRAM1. Unfortunately, I neglected to look closely at the module. This one does not have a 3 pin socket, meaning my fluorescent light cannot plug into it. So I ended up using the HA02C in the garage after all. I could have saved myself $40. Mistakes like this is going to be expensive.

To move the HA02C to the garage, first it has to be excluded from the existing network, moved, then included. The reason for this is that during the inclusion process, it builds a table of what devices are nearby and their signal strength. This all went very smoothly. In the garage, my laptop could not sense the living room modules until the garage module is installed, showing that the relaying of messages from module to module does really work.

I didn't expect the garage lights to be challenging, and it went quickly and smoothly. Next I tried to add the remote control as a secondary controller. This is impossible to do without reading the instruction manual. Unfortunately, no instruction manual came with the remote (as it was part of the Internet remote gateway package). Fortunately it was easy enough to find a copy online. A few button presses later, we're in business.

There are 6 pairs of buttons on the front of the remote. There are 2 more buttons normally hidden by a sliding door, used only for programming. Each pair controls one channel. Each channel can control up to 16 devices. You have to program each channel separately. You start with putting that channel in program mode, then going around and adding devices to it. I programmed channel 1, 2 and 3 for individual lights, and channel 6 for both lights in the family room. I could not program a channel to turn on a light but turn another off. I guess that's what Leviton (and others) call a scene.

One inconvenient thing about Z-Wave is that I can only use the primary controller (the laptop) to add modules, and after adding I need to transfer the information over to the secondary controller.

So now we finally have a handheld remote. I'd get a few more, except they cost more than $30 a piece. Not exactly pocket change (unlike the X-10 remotes). Logitech has a universal remote with Z-Wave function, but there seems to be serious issues with it. Besides, it's a little too rich at $250 each.

So, status so far, 3 devices and a remote, and a PC controller. Let's hope the rest of the install is as painless.

Switch module

Received my HA18C switch module yesterday from Amazon, thanks to USPS, who delivers on Saturdays. I guess I didn't have to wait a month after all.

The switch module is fairly deep. Fitting it into the electrical box was a challenge. More on that later. It came in the usual plastic clamshell packaging.

The switch is a Decora style rocker type. Press the top to turn it on, press the bottom to turn it off. However, unlike a normal switch, the switch does not stay in that position, but returns to a middle position after it has been pressed. This is good for not confusing people not familiar with your switches - the early Leviton X-10 switches only have one position to press, the bottom, and it toggles it between on and off. A stranger to your house might not realize such a switch is the one controlling the light they want to turn on, because it looks like it is in the "on" position already.

The switch makes a springy sound when pressed, unlike the more pleasant, dull click of the Leviton switch. It also only comes in white, and doesn't include the cover plate. Not an issue if you have white switches and is replacing existing switches. You could get the Decora style covers for a couple of dollars, so that shouldn't be a deal breaker.

The package includes a few wire nuts. Only other item is a registration card, with a URL for on-line registration. By the way, the on-line registration does not work.

This switch cannot control other devices (is this what is called "scene capable"?). Meaning, you cannot turn the device on locally, and have it send out commands to turn another device on, for example. It does not send out updates when pressed locally. The documentation says it support 40 kbps, but I don't know of any way to verify that.

One nice feature of this switch is that for 3 or 4 way hard-wired applications, you can use regular switches for the slaves. The wiring details is in the 1 page installation instructions.

Installing it is a major pain. I picked the living room light switch, because it is more accessible and there are only two switches there. Should be easy, right?

Wrong.

Instead of 4 pairs of wire that I expected, there were 6 pairs of wires. I have no idea where the other two wires go. I need access to the neutral. There are 6 neutral wires all crimped together with some metal band. Not good.

I finally ended up swapping the positions of the switches, cutting one of the existing neutral wire and using a wire nut to tie it all together. It was a very tight squeeze and I ended with a slightly crooked switch and sore fingers. I'm definitely not looking forward to installing the other two switches I bought.

After more than an hour, everything is hooked up. I tested it without fitting everything in first, and it works! Instructions for how to include the device is included in the instructions this time (press the "On" position of the switch when asked to). Turned the circuit breaker off again to fit everything into the box, and cover it up. Mission accomplished.

One thing I'd like to point out is that after I switch the lights off, one of my compact fluorescent bulbs will flicker a little for a few seconds before going completely dark. I've never noticed it doing this with the regular switch.

In all, pretty good for $40, I guess, considering everything else I've found cost twice that.

First Module

I actually bought an Intermatic HomeSettings HA18C switch as my first module, but Amazon has it back-ordered for a month or so. I also needed an appliance module for the fluorescent lights in the garage. My needs are :

• Non dimming module
• Under 100W
• 3 pin plug (fluorescent light plug has ground pin)

The HA02C appears to fit the bill. It's relatively inexpensive and there's nothing remarkable about it. It has one LED status light and one button, and comes in a plastic clam shell packaging. I managed to get it open without blood sacrifice, thanks to my trusty pair of Wiss tin snips. Only one thing worries me - the specs say max. of 42W when controlling compact fluorescents. I'm not sure how this applies to fluorescent tubes, but I'm not willing to take the risk. It was too late to cancel by the time I found out. Besides, I have other lights I can control.

The HA02C arrived with the HA07C, but by now I'm having second thoughts about using the HA07C as a central controller. Main reason - the HA02C does not support device association - allowing one device to trigger another. I'd likely return the HA07C to Amazon, unless I cannot find an alternative before the 30 days is up.

I installed ThinkEssential on my wife's laptop. Drawing a rough layout of the house took way more time than anything else. I plugged the module in, used ThinkEssential to include it into the network, and it works. Just like that.

I could turn the lamp plugged into the module on or off using either the buttons on the module, or through ThinkEssential. The LED on the module comes on when the lamp is on. If the lamp is switched on using the button on the module, it takes a while for ThinkEssential to update the status on the light - depending on the polling interval. I'm not sure if this means that the module does not send status when the button is used, or if ThinkEssentials does not know how to interpret the status. I thought I saw the blue LED on the ThinkStick flash when I pressed the button, but I couldn't be sure. More experimenting needed.

When I demonstrated this to my younger daughter, her eyes opened wide and she said "Ooh, magic!" I have to admit, compared to X-10, this seems much smoother.

In all, relatively painless. I only wish the instruction page that came with the module comes with instructions on how to include it into your network, instead of just saying "refer to remote control manual". The actual procedure is, when asked to do so by your master remote (in this case, ThinkEssential with ThinkStick), press the button on the module. I actually pressed and held it down for about 10 seconds waiting for something to happen. Nothing did - you need to release it before the remote will hear it.

A one lamp network, without a remote control, is not terribly useful. But at least now I'm not a total newbie.

Part of the fun of a new home automation project is finding out all the parts available, and thinking of ways you can use them. So far, I've come up with a few candidates.

• Leviton Vizia RF 15A switch RZS15-1LX
• Intermatic Home Settings Three Way In-Wall Switch HA18C
• Intermatic Home Settings Master Control HA07
• Hawkings Door Sensor HRDS1
• Intermatic InTouch PIR Motion Detector CA9000
• ACT PIR Motion Detector ZIR000
  
• Hawkings PIR Motion Detector
  
• Various plug in appliance modules

Amazon carries some of these items. I still haven't figured out why the Leviton switch is almost double the price of the Intermatic switch. Not sure how I could get the door and motion sensors to work without a central controller. Lots more research to do.

And Amazon has a 1 - 2 month backorder on the HA18C. Darn. Guess I'll check out ASIHome.

First Component

The CM-11A for X-10 is quite an amazing device. Sure, it is not a very reliable system, but that one box functions as a computer interface (serial), schedule timer. The CM-11A also acts as a sniffer, reporting all power line events to the PC, and has battery backup. Best of all, it works as a scheduler without needing the PC to be running.

Unfortunately, no one device can do all that the CM-11A does.

After some research, I bought ControlThink's ThinkEssential software with the USB ThinkStick. I'm not sure if it is capable of doing everything I want, but it allows the PC to be part of the Z-Wave network. ThinkEssentials allow the PC to be used as a network configuration tool. A Professional version can even function as a network troubleshooting and repair tool. With a PC running all the time, it can function just like a CM-11A. For customized applications, ControlThink sells a separate SDK.

A Z-Wave network is a lot more complicated than a X-10 network. Instead of codes that can be shared between devices, and simple on / off / dim commands, each device needs to be first included into a network using a master controller. There can only be one master controller in a network, but there can be multiple secondary controllers. If a switch is capable of sending out commands, it needs to be associated with another device so that the target device will respond to the commands. There is much more I am not aware of.

I've not done more than plug it in and fire up ThinkEssential for a look-see. Without any switches and modules, there's really not much for it to do. The USB stick appears to the computer as a HID (human interface device).

Time to automate another house

My previous house was running on mostly X-10. It was working well - as well as could be expected for an X-10 installation, anyway. We had remote controlled outlets, switches, a bunch of little PIR motion detectors, some of which had been hacked to sense door opening / closing. There's even a module to close the garage door in case it had been left open. A CM-11A provides timer functions, and a Linux host running heyu provides a very rudimentary network interface to the system.

Then I moved.

The "new" house has much older wiring, and preliminary experiments with plug-in modules didn't prove very encouraging. Time to look for an alternative. Choosing between Zigbee and Z-Wave, I noticed that Leviton has products for Z-Wave, but not ZigBee. I had good experience with Leviton switches in the past. I hope I picked the right platform.