HomeSeer and Z-Troller
homea...@mailinator.com
upgrade everything to Z-Wave and a similar controller. I've been
looking at Z-Troller but having difficulty figuring out if it works
while unplugged from the computer?
With my old X10 controller I would have homeseer update with
everything programmed and then the controller can be unplugged from
the computer and events would trigger etc. without homeseer or the
computer required. Can this be done with Z-Troller? If not, is there a
similar controller for Z-Wave that works this way and also works with
HomeSeer?
Marc_F_Hult
message <e7b96547-4a13-4c8b...@w39g2000prb.googlegroups.com>:
Seems to me that the best place to ask basic questions about the Z-Troller
which was designed and marketed by HomeSeer for HomeSeer software, would be
the forum specifically dedicated to this interface in the Homeseer message
board.
http://board.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=892
When it is not connected to HomeSeer, the Z-Troller can be used to manually
communicate with and interconnect Z-wave devices as a hand-held,
battery-operated device. When it is connected to a PC, HomeSeer can trigger
Z-wave events. The reason you don't see anything in the Z-Troller
documentation or discussion about real-time clocks, or programming events,
or scheduling is that it doesn't do any of those things without HomeSeer
software.
There are several devices and ways to have standalone (no PC)
scheduling/triggering of Z-Wave events that also communicate with HomeSeer
(which I presume is an objective of yours).
One way is to _also_ use an Elk M1G (and perhaps a different panel like HAI
or Stargate -- I dunno) to also communicate with Z-wave. This approach has
significant, possibly fatal limitations depending on your needs including
devices stumbling over themselves and difficulty in sharing groups, scenes,
and events.
Another approach would be to use a Z-Troller as primary controller and _also_
use a secondary controller such as the Intermatic HA07C. In this
configuration, last I knew, the HA07C would have the limitation that it
couldn't directly/natively control most non-lighting Z-wave devices such as
thermostats, and would operate as a secondary controller with attendant
limitations. This may or may not meet your needs. Ask in the HomeSeer
discussion group I previously referenced.
What "old X10 controller" did you use that downloaded events defined using
HomeSeer and then ran them in standalone (no PC running) mode? Downloading
of scheduled X-10 events to the CM11a is not supported by the Homeseer
plug-in or directly by HomeSeer.
The objective of being able to use GUI-based home-automation PC software to
program a standalone controller with events defined using the PC was first
accomplished by CyberHouse ca 1999 using Elk MM443 Magic Modules and X-10.
The plug-in (driver) provided by HomeSeer never provided this capability for
the Adicon Ocelot, CPU-XA and Leopard family of controllers and I don't know
of a third-party plugin that does/did either. Michael McSharry's enhanced
Ocelot plugin for Homeseer adds the essential ability of connecting and
disconnecting the comm port among other useful additions, but also it doesn't
program the Ocelot to trigger events in standalone mode as you want to do.
Many folks bought the Ocelot having been led to believe that programming was
trivially accomplished and then discovered that they actually would need to
manually program the Ocelot in an arcane and proprietary controller language
in order to do what you want to do. This mis-impression was fostered by
misleading the advice and recommendations slathered on comp.home.automation
participants for years.
Keep your eye on development of the new (now in alpha release) HomeSeer
plug-in for the ISY-99 from Universal Devices. It will initially only support
INSTEON although UPB and Z-Wave versions are also planned. See
http://www.universal-devices.com/99i.htm
HTH ... Marc
Visit my updated Home Automation and Electronics Internet Porch Sale at
www.ECOntrol.org/porch_sale.htm
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org