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    (Last Updated: 9 September 2020)
    • Need help in finding the right smart switch for my kitchen lights

      M

      Hello,
      I have a kitchen light that can be controlled by two switches, using either to turn it off or on. I have been slowly changing things over to be a smart home but this is the first switch I am attempting to install.
      I am in a double wide modular home (mobile) that was built in 1994.
      At first I thought I would need a 3 way switch but when taking the normal switches apart I realized that was incorrect because the wiring on my switches are different than anything I could find online.
      For one a 3 way smart switch requires 5 wires and there are only 2 wires going into the primary switch with 3 wires going into the secondary switch from the primary switch (at least I think the 3 wires connect the two switches together). Images will be attached of the wiring.
      There are two wires (one black and one white) going into the first switch and 3 wires (black, white, and red) going out of that and into the second switch (I assume). The odd thing is the red wire going to the second switch is connected to the white wire going into the first switch and the white wire going into the second switch seems to be a bridge wire or a traveler wire. Not exactly sure. You will see what I mean in the images.
      I need to know what kind of smart switch I can use in this set up with one remaining a normal switch.
      Note that for some reason the images got switched around when uploading them. The image with 2 wires on one side and 3 on the other is what I think is the primary and the image with just 3 wires is the secondary.
      Primary.jpg Secondary.jpg

      General Discussion
    • Short survey

      P

      Hi,
      I am a student and recently i am working on smart home project and writing a seminar paper about the way users handle and manage IoT devices. I you have 3 min, please fill below survey. Its really short.
      Thank you in advance, I really appreciate everyone's help.

      General Discussion
    • OT: Universal Remote

      CatmanV2

      You lot are more likely to have a view than most I know. Our much used Logitech Harmony is (not so) slowly dying.

      And Logitech have discontinued the entire line.

      And no one else appears to be making something similar.

      Was going for a Sofabaton X1, but no numeric keypad. Sofabaton U1, but no favourites.

      Anyone got suggestions?
      Needs to have those features, oh and not be only a phone app.....

      C

      General Discussion
    • The Home Automation Controller Pyramid

      rafale77

      Since one member asked at one point about the "front end" and "back end", I drew this showing the controller from the base to the tip along with what I have found to be the best options from my testing. Almost every controller will try to integrate all elements, especially commercial ones but... they all have strengths and weaknesses so if one can have a medley of the best ones...

      Screen Shot 2020-05-14 at 07.11.06.png

      General Discussion
    • Thread removed - why?

      Black Cat

      I was just going to add my support for a Update Button for the bare bones version of MSR and find the thread has been removed.
      I'm wondering what was so provocative that required it's removal?
      Have we become as paranoid as an owner of another forum?

      Anyway +1 for an Update Button.

      General Discussion
    • 3-way smart switches in separate buildings.

      D

      So, I think I'm in a bit of an unusual situation. I work at a camp & retreat center that has wifi throughout. I want to put a few switches in the office that can control outdoor lighting throughout the camp. We currently have switches in each of the buildings, but it is a particularly frustrating job to get all the lights on in the evening when it is brutally cold out or we are short staffed.

      Most of our staff is not very tech savvy (my boss literally has his wife print out his emails for him each day!!!) so, I'd love to avoid having to set up any sort of raspberry pi or new phone app.

      Is there type of 3-way switch that can connect to the wifi, turn on a light in another building AND turn on an indicator light in the office, without having any sort of wire running between the buildings? Hopefully looking for a simple solution without breaking the bank too.

      I greatly appreciate any input that you can give. Thank you!

      General Discussion
    • X-10 replacement for a new wall switch (HomeKit)

      G

      I have a X10 wall switch system and I want to get rid of it. What would be the easiest transition to something more modern and easy to use with either wifi/homekit capabilities? My current X10 controls 3 zones in my bedroom. All zones are dimmable.
      Zone 1 is 4 canister ceiling lights. LED bulbs
      Zone 2 is 1 canister ceiling lights. Halogen Bulb
      Zone 3 is 1 canister ceiling lights. Halogen Bulb
      I have an old plug-in remote from Radio Shack and a wall switch with 3 buttons, each controlling one zone. (images attached)
      My wall switch has one two wires from the wall. One black, one white.

      Is there any solution easy to install without the need of an electrician? Thanks for any feedback.

      ij455pd333061.jpg.jpeg ttsjhpd333061.jpg.jpeg

      General Discussion
    • Looking for alternative to Gcal3 in Vera for MSR and public calendar

      T

      Good morning all,
      I'm working on weaning myself off of being totally Vera dependent. I've installed MSR on my Fedora home server, and I've been migrating luup Reactor rules over little by little. My hope is to use Vera as a bare bones z-wave hub, until I replace it either with Ezlo (not so sure about), or perhaps Hubitat. I'm just tired of zero new development in Vera, empty promises of native device integration, and cloud services that go down and leave my automation hanging.

      In any case, I digress. I've attempted to use Gcal3 on Vera to integrate Public calendars, such as Federal Holidays, School Calendars, etc. It use to somewhat work, but more often than not, all I get from Gcal3 is "token error code: HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request". The developer no longer is active, and it's effectively not working anymore.

      I'd like to use these public calendars as Entity Attributes or Constraints in MSR. For instance, if it's a Federal Holiday, I don't have to work, and I may want to sleep in, which means lights may not come on as early, window coverings in the bedrooms may open later in the day, etc. Similar idea with a school calendar. If "closed" is in the event, my daughter may want to sleep in, and not want the window coverings opened as early.

      I'm aware that Ezlo has integration through NuCal to all sorts of web based services, including Google Calendar, but as I stated earlier, I'm undecided on going down that path. Is there anyway to do this on MSR through any of it's abilities, such as HTTP calls or MQTT ( not experienced in MQTT, so I don't know now it works really).

      Has anybody already done this?

      Thanks for any advice in advance.

      General Discussion
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    SilLabs Virtual Meeting - looks at Hub that failed........

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    • Black Cat
      Black Cat last edited by

      General Information - I thought some of the regulars would like to register. Links down the bottom,Interesting that they are looking into the failures....wonder if there will be any mention of you know what.....

      Z-Wave Works With Amazon, Google, Samsung, Apple, Comcast Virtual Conference
      by DrZWave
      Silicon Labs is hosting what was intended to be an in-person conference in Austin Texas but is now a virtual online conference on IoT ecosystems - the Works With Smart Home Developer Event September 9-10. The best part is it is now FREE to attend any of the in-depth technical sessions and you don't have to wear a mask. The downside is that we don't get to experience all that great music down in Austin - well, there's always next year!

      Virtual IoT Works With EcoSystems from Google, Amazon, Apple for Z-Wave development engineers

      Works With 2022 - On-Demand - Silicon Labs

      Works With 2022 - On-Demand - Silicon Labs

      Works With 2022 is over, now what's next? View technical sessions, keynotes and panels on-demand and save the date for Works With 2023.

      I am hosting the Z-Wave track and will be making several presentations including a detailed look at Silicon Labs latest release of Simplicity Studio V5 which just came out yesterday. We'll also have presentations on developing Z-Wave Smart Hubs and Z-Wave Certification. I'll also be describing some IoT failures - you learn more from your failures than your successes. We have speakers and engineers from all of the ecosystem partners, not just Silicon Labs folks. Learn from the experts from across the industry!

      What is Works With 2020? The smart home developer’s virtual event where you will have the opportunity to interact with our ecosystem partners from Amazon, Google, Samsung, and Z-Wave to connect devices, platforms and protocols and be able to immerse yourself in keynotes, a panel discussion on Project CHIP, hands-on, and technical sessions led by smart home engineers who are building the latest advanced IoT devices. The Works With event is live, all-online, free of charge, and you can join from anywhere around the world.

      Works With Z-Wave Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung IoT SmartHome conference 2020
      Click here to Register Today and feel free to forward to the rest of your team.

      Here’s an overview of what you won’t want to miss:

      Specialized Engineer-Led Tracks – Educational sessions and technical training designed for engineers, executives, developers, business development and product managers.

      Hands-On Workshops More than 12 workshops and hands-on sessions to give you experience, knowledge and confidence to develop and accelerate smart home development.

      One-on-One Developer Meetings – Schedule a meeting with Silicon Labs or an ecosystem partner to get 1:1 technical guidance.

      Join me in September and learn how to smoothly get your IoT device plugged into any and all of the ecosystem partners. Register today, it's totally free and you can join from anywhere in the world. See you September!

      DrZWave | July 30, 2020 at 8:22 pm | Tags: WorksWith | Categories: 700 series, Best Practice, Coding Guides, News, Presentations, Summit, Z-Wave Controllers, Z-Wave Developers, Z-Wave Mesh, Z-Wave Network, Z-Wave Slaves, Z-Wave Users | URL: https://wp.me/p6tsK6-o5
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      DrZWave  /  Jul 30, 2020

      Z-Wave Works With Amazon, Google, Samsung, Apple, Comcast Virtual Conference

      Z-Wave Works With Amazon, Google, Samsung, Apple, Comcast Virtual Conference

      Works With Amazon, Google, Apple and more Smart Home EcoSystem vendors. Learn how to design your product to work with these 800 pound gorillas

      aka Zedrally

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
      • akbooer
        akbooer last edited by

        Thanks for that. Signed up to a few sessions. Not clear to be where 'failures' would be discussed... did I miss something? Must go back and take a closer look.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • S
          sender last edited by

          Wonder why ezlo, the biggest, the best, is not a sponsor or attender 🙂

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Black Cat
            Black Cat last edited by

            If you want to talk about failures and it was my company that had to admit defeat with existing FW, then I wouldn't want to be present either. 🙂

            aka Zedrally

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • akbooer
              akbooer last edited by

              Rather disappointed with the just-finished "How to Build a Gateway" session...

              ...perhaps the only marginally interesting bit was that they were advocating Raspberry Pi!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Black Cat
                Black Cat last edited by Black Cat

                It was in the wrong time zone for me, middle of the night. Sounds like I didn't miss much.
                I use RaspPi's a lot and like the flexibility they have.
                With the price of SSD's now it's more feasible to ditch the SD Card and boot from it.
                I have a 340GB that cost me next to nothing which I plan to add to my test Homeseer Controller after our lockdown ends.

                aka Zedrally

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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