xPL Control light bulb wirelessly with Mac - Setup Question

[satz]

Do you recommend any particular hardware interface(s) for bring up and testing?

[Mal]

Do you recommend any particular hardware interface(s) for bring up and testing?

Heh heh - funny you should ask. I received an email yesterday (via TomVDP) from Aeon Labs who want to know whether we are supporting their devices.

I happen to use an Aeon Labs Z-Stick as my main interface (bought from http://www.micasaverde.com), and it's very good - it's a USB stick that has an inclusion button and a battery so you can pull it out and use it to add and remove devices from your network without having to lug a laptop around the house.

I'm hoping they will be willing to provide samples of their other devices for testing - the more hardware we can get hold of the better OpenZWave will be.

Mal

[satz]

I will see what hardware I can find. I suppose more is better so I should find something different. I see some comments about requiring licenses to use various devices. Is it safe to assume the hardware is all the same but the DLLs require the license to talk to the hardware? Is your effort dependent upon certain chipsets and/or chipset versions?

Also what other transmitter and receiver devices are you testing with? I see quite a bit of different devices out there. I will pick up the basic ones to get started but some of these devices aren't inexpensive.

[Mal]

I will see what hardware I can find. I suppose more is better so I should find something different. I see some comments about requiring licenses to use various devices. Is it safe to assume the hardware is all the same but the DLLs require the license to talk to the hardware? Is your effort dependent upon certain chipsets and/or chipset versions?

You shouldn't need to pay for any software. The old xPL Z-Wave app required the user to buy the ControlThink SDK for around $50, which was one of the motivations for the rewrite.

There is a Z-Wave serial API which seems to be used by all the PC Z-Wave controllers. That's what OpenZWave uses, and it works with the Aeon Labs Z-Stick, and the ACT HomePro ZCU-010. I'm 99% sure it will work with all the others too. All the devices supported by LInuxMCE should work with OpenZWave, since that too uses the serial API.

Also what other transmitter and receiver devices are you testing with? I see quite a bit of different devices out there. I will pick up the basic ones to get started but some of these devices aren't inexpensive.

I have old HomePro plug-in appliance and dimmer modules, plus a HomePro ZIR010 motion detector and an HSM100 3-in-1 sensor. I've written support for Z-Wave thermostats, but these are expensive, so I'm going to rely on OpenZWave users to test this part of the codebase.

Where do you live? If you're in the US you'll have access to a lot more toys than me!

Mal

[Jabberwock]

I'm planning to purchase ThermoPlus AS2-RF. Although right now it is controlled proprietary, the manufacturer's representative says it supports Thermostat Mode Command Class.

I assume that means it might be controlled by your application... It cannot be by typical remotes etc., but they say they plan to add a simple switch support later on...

Unfortunately, it will be months before I will have it even installed, so testing will have to wait. And I do hope the tests won't blow up my boiler

Edit: Oh, and it was me who set the Aeon Labs guy on you... I hope you're not mad?

[Mal]

I'm planning to purchase ThermoPlus AS2-RF. Although right now it is controlled proprietary, the manufacturer's representative says it supports Thermostat Mode Command Class.

I've written code to handle the thermostat command classes, but with nothing available here to test with, I might need a guinea pig or two

Edit: Oh, and it was me who set the Aeon Labs guy on you... I hope you're not mad?

Not at all. I'm hoping they can help us out with some sample hardware to test with.

Cheers

Mal