Z-Wave in the news

What's your opinion of Z-Wave at this point? I'm thinking of chucking all my X10 equipment in favor of something more reliable.

I'm not sure if Z-Wave offers the same amount of functionality, however. Is there a Z-Wave equivalant of the powerflash, for example?

Thanks in advance. You're always very helpful.

Hi Reg,

IMO, Z-Wave is in a stronger position than most of the other new technologies for automation control. They've managed to garner support from hundreds of manufacturers. Even Intel is planning to include Z-Wave support in upcomming PC microprocessors.

That said, there is not the wide assortment of *current* Z-Wave product that there is with X10. If you must have the whole kit and kaboodle fully automated today, look elsewhere or perhaps use a hybtrid approach with X10 for missing pieces of the Z-Wave puzzle. That way you can upgrade from X10 as more Z-Wave options become available.

Regards, Robert L Bass

X-No-archive: yes On 8 Dec 2005 16:09:24 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net used recycled pixels to say:

Home automation is so popular in my neighborhood and SO crowded, I had to put my stuff away, unless of course, the Home automation segment comes out with a way of "securing" your own X10, Zwave, Insteon, whatever, setup. Until then, I've stopped supporting or purchasing home automation technology, altogether. I've had talking X10, with door sensors and the lot!!! IT worked great, even had an Ocelot setup.

It grew tired of coming home to lights on and other appliances almost to the point of burning down the house!!!!

I've had the Ocelot check for by own code to make sure that N and C if any lights come on when they were not supposed to, that it would turn them off but my "neighbors" found ways of jamming HomeSeer and Ocelot and pretty much screwing up the X10 setup for me that I've given up and tossed my entire setup into the closet to rot. Home filters, etc, were not an option. Oh well.

Like I said, until there is a way to secure your automation, it's just not worth it for me!

------------------------------------------------ Autobot This Spammers!

mailto:postmaster@127.0.0.1 (to reply to actual address, dispense the dots before and after sirname.

Interesting. Symantec put up a page about "Winfixer" just the other day...

What's really scary is that this program is "featured" as a downloadable "pop-up/pop-under" on Robert's site...

So why on earth are you still using a browser that allows pop-ups?

Ummmm... The browsers I use don't. They do flag pop-ups though and give me the option of viewing them.

Yes, it looks like a hybrid solution will be necessary until a wider range of products is available. I'll convert my lights to Z-Wave but maintain X10 for some of the more obscure applications (sensing when the clothes washer cycle is complete, etc).

It's interesting, and a bit of a mystery, why it's taken such a long time for X10 to be replaced with something more reliable. The speed of tech advancement in this area seems to have moved at about 1/10 the speed of say, personal computers.

Thanks Robert.

Bill,

Don't allow Olson to sucker you into his little game. He has been making false accusations about my website in the "other" newsgroup for a while. There are no pop-ups (other than ones you have to click to open when moving a product to the shopping cart) on my site. There are no pop-unders. And there certainly isn't anything from "winfixer".

Regards, Robert L Bass

I agree. I converted all my wall switches to Lutron Radio RA and it's been WONDERFUL. Every command works, EVERY time no matter what other powerline devices I connect. Joy! The only downside, of course, is the lack of wall outlets or plug-in modules for the Christmas lights. Back to the usual train wreck of untangling X10 mysteries.

I do still use some X-10 motion sensors and RF remotes. The cat's water dish is on an X-10 IR sensor that trips the RF receiver right in the same room. Otherwise the rest of the IR and slimswitches all speak to the RF receiver tied into Homeseer.

Home automation is a fringe market. The average resident isn't really prepared to torment themselves with the hassles of properly setting up home automation systems. Partly, I'm sure, by being hesitant to go yanking wall switches. But even if that's overcome it's still a pretty big hassle to get an effective design configured. It falls into the category of "if you want it, you'll do it" but most folks don't. Thus the usual economies of scale never get a chance to kick in. X-10 has been both a blessing and a curse. At this point their continued delivery of such utterly shitty products (mfg and design) is probably doing more to HARM the market than anything else. Were X-10 to die overnight it would probably do more to help the market than anything else.

But hey, that's just the opinion of someone that's suffered through trying to use their crap for the past 2 decades. I've given up entirely on their powerline solutions and am quite hesitant to put up with anyone else's. Perhaps Control4 will "suck less" but thus far I've not heard enough about them to convince me one way or the other.

-Bill Kearney

Oh I know, it's really sad how much energy he puts into doing nothing more than attacking others. Shame really, but basically pretty pathetic.

Your continued denial in the face of such overwhelming evidence would be quite laughable were it not for the fact that it's often couched in a flame. A number of people have taken pains to actually show you both the code that invokes the pop-ups as well as screen shots. "Winfixer" will continue to harass first time visitors to the bassburglaralarms.com site as long as you continue to use kounter.com to track whatever it is you want to. I understand purchasing the full version will limit (if not eliminate) the pop-ups/pop-unders. The "free" version (which you presently employ) uses them to offset the expense they incur for the use of their servers/software.

Robert, Email with a address where I can get to you. I have some interesting information you may like to read.

By they way I'm offering great deals on Intermatic switches, if anyones intersted there on my site. Intermatic is by far the better Zwave products out.

Brian, my snail address is:

4883 Fallcrest Circle Sarasota, FL 34233

I'm leaving for Brazil in January... won't be back until mid April, so if you want to send me something best to do so right away.

E-mail, please send to: sales@bass...alarms.com (you know the word to substitute for the elipsis).

Regards, Robert L Bass