Z Wave Home Automation

[Rick Sanchez]

Hi Guys,

For my next project I want to venture in to home automation using the Z Wave protocol. Well in my search I came across a addon board called RaZberry.

This board links the Pi to Z Wave

The RaZberry Solution

The RaZberry solution consists of 6 parts:

The Raspberry PI Board and Rasperian OS you already have at home or you can buy online.
The RaZberry Daughter Card that connects to the GPIOs of Raspberry and carry the Sigma Designs Z-Wave transceiver. Find more about the RaZberry hardware here.
The Z-Wave low level firmware that runs on the Transceiver. It is compatible to the original Sigma Designs firmware spec but has several enhancements and improvements. Find more about the RaZberry firmware here.
Z-Way – the first certified Z-Wave communication stack, handles all Z-Wave network communication, Java script automation engine, built in web server.
The web based Z-Way Demo User Interface using the Z-Way JSON API and demonstrating all functions of Z-Way. Find our more about Z-Way here.
Your Application!

http://razberry.zwave.me/index.php?id=1

Looks interesting. What do you think?

[blacksheep]

There's quite a few things for this - have a look at http://shop.ciseco.co.uk/sensor/. You've got two choices really zigbee or the z wave stuff. Had a little play with the latter, depending on setup/arial etc you can get serious range on it.

[Rick Sanchez]

Thanks. I'll probably buy a USB stick with a proven track record instead and because it has the inclusion button which will likely save a lot of headaches!

The Z Wave Aeon USB Series 2 Adapter with Battery looks perfect for the job

[blacksheep]

There's a raspberry pi board (slice of pi) that fits the xrf chip on and you only need 4 connections for it to work (power, ground, rx and tx). You then get the i2c and gpio pins free and easily connectable from it.

[Rick Sanchez]

I'm being proper thick mate, can you dumb it down please

[Rick Sanchez]

...

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[blacksheep]

...

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Google?

[Rick Sanchez]

I did, I don't understand

[blacksheep]

Which part don't you understand? There's plenty of examples of usage and code for a variety of sensors out there.

[Rick Sanchez]

The use? I'm after simple, easy solution. I have one hand so can no longer build anything

[blacksheep]

Most of these solutions are going to involve soldering, even with a clamp thing I'd find it pretty tricky to solder one handed. You might find some places that will put together bits for you for a small fee.

What sort of things are you wanting to automate - a use case would probably make it easier to make suggestions.

[Rick Sanchez]

Vertical blinds, heating, lighting including fish tank, door entry system (IP phone), front door lock, audio/visual, energy monitoring/upload readings, who's home/out, tracking/scenarios e.g. leaving work oven turns on etc, speech recognition. Probably more but it's three am and I'm just going bed got to sleep some time!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[blacksheep]

I'd be wary of the door lock thing (was looking at it myself) as it may totally invalidate any insurance should you have to use it.

Who's at home - simple netarp/mac lookup script should do that for you. Lighting, I believe there's already wifi enabled lights, if you want them to come on when it gets dark I'm sure that exists already or would be a simple circuit.

The one I'm waiting for is an oven that's a fridge so you can keep stuff in it and as you say have your meal ready when you get home.

Speech recognition, have a google but I think someone managed to do something with a raspberry pi and Siri.

Blinds would be a simple servo/motor thing, trouble is as I mention above you're going to need to be able to solder (or live with breadboards everywhere). A lot of these items are on the market now but you'll pay a decent wedge for them.