ZWave - Fibaro HomeCenter Lite

[Tim Watts]

Well - got this yesterday after sending the Vera Lite back and getting a
refund.

This beastie looks better - I would classify it as feeling "finished"
and not like a bad linux distro from 1998.


Here's a web browser grab of the overview panel:
http://i58.tinypic.com/4pwp6v.jpg

That's showing one metered power switch (13A plug adaptor style, a TKB
TZ88E) which is running the bedroom electric oil heater.

2kW consumption, 17.8kWh since yesterday.

Here's a very nice graph of the same:
http://i62.tinypic.com/105wbwx.jpg

You can see it cycling on the heater's stat.

At the bottom of the first piccy, there's an Aeon Labs 4-in-1
multisensor. This is outside screwed up under the eaves on a north wall.
I wanted it on the shed but the extra 2 brick walls and couple of meters
destroy the radio signal (bit disappointed there - maybe that will get
better when I have more plug switches as I think these can route
messages forming a network mesh)

Anyway, quite warm outside - 12.7C which feels right. And damp. And dark.

This device is a bitch to pair though - took me about 10 goes. Trick is
to power it from USB while pairing so it does not go to sleep every 2
seconds before it finishes the pairing (it actually looks like 4
devices, not one, so you get the master device, the PIR sensor but end
up missing the rest).


This one shows the gui logic for a simple scheduler for the heater switch:

http://i60.tinypic.com/2lmb11w.jpg


You have to pay 2x the price for the next model that lets you write
actual LUA code (we'll you can hack mine but results are not guaranteed).


However it does sport a REST/JSON HTTP based API that's really simple to
talk to. eg:

curl --request GET \
"http://USERNAME:PASS...@fibaro-hclite.example.com/api/devices" \
| python -mjson.tool | less

give me stuff like:

"name": "Front Bedroom Heater",
"properties": {
<snip crap>
"unit": "",
"unitMeter": "kWh",
"unitSensor": "W",
"useTemplate": "0",
"userDescription": "Bedroom Heater",
"value": "1",
"valueMeter": "17.38", #### < kWh
"valueSensor": "2018.7", ##'' < Watts
<more crap>


so that does offer some possibilities for a server to poll readings out
of it and shove them into RRDtool or a database or even do more
sophisticated logic and alerts.

In theory the API is writeable but I have not tried to remote control a
device yet like this.

Best of all it is a self contained box with a local web interface and
does not depend on any stupid "portals" - though there is an option to
remote access its web via a reverse tunnel if it's stuck behind NAT.



So - just ordered some more 13A switches.

BTW stay away from the Fibaro mains stuff. Sweden has banned some of the
switching modules due to not meeting standards:

http://forum.fibaro.com/viewtopic.php?t=5397

My TKB switch seems OK with a reassuring click of a proper relay...

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Tim Watts <tw_u...@dionic.net> wrote:

>Well - got this yesterday after sending the Vera Lite back and getting a
>refund.
>
>This beastie looks better - I would classify it as feeling "finished"
>and not like a bad linux distro from 1998.
>
>
>Here's a web browser grab of the overview panel:
>http://i58.tinypic.com/4pwp6v.jpg
>
>That's showing one metered power switch (13A plug adaptor style, a TKB
>TZ88E) which is running the bedroom electric oil heater.
>
>2kW consumption, 17.8kWh since yesterday.
>
>Here's a very nice graph of the same:
>http://i62.tinypic.com/105wbwx.jpg

What does the dial saying 1.32 kWh represent?

>
>You can see it cycling on the heater's stat.
>
>At the bottom of the first piccy, there's an Aeon Labs 4-in-1
>multisensor. This is outside screwed up under the eaves on a north wall.
>I wanted it on the shed but the extra 2 brick walls and couple of meters
>destroy the radio signal (bit disappointed there - maybe that will get
>better when I have more plug switches as I think these can route
>messages forming a network mesh)

Is the power used by the switches themselves tiny?

If youhave a house power-cut, do all the devices come back to life when teh
power comes in, and talk to each other again. (I realise you may not know
this yet!)

>This device is a bitch to pair though - took me about 10 goes. Trick is
>to power it from USB while pairing so it does not go to sleep every 2
>seconds before it finishes the pairing (it actually looks like 4
>devices, not one, so you get the master device, the PIR sensor but end
>up missing the rest).

Once a device is paired, is it paired for good? Or will it forget its
pairing at some point?

>This one shows the gui logic for a simple scheduler for the heater switch:
>
>http://i60.tinypic.com/2lmb11w.jpg
>You have to pay 2x the price for the next model that lets you write
>actual LUA code (we'll you can hack mine but results are not guaranteed).

When these scripts run, is there any log file produced that shows what they
did? Maybe the gui logic is impossible to make a mistake in, but I'd also
wonder if one was writing in LUA (never used that...) whether it can
generate disgnostics, log files etc...

>However it does sport a REST/JSON HTTP based API that's really simple to
>talk to. eg:
>
>curl --request GET \
>"http://USERNAME:PASS...@fibaro-hclite.example.com/api/devices" \
>| python -mjson.tool | less

So... do these device have ip addresses just on your LAN, or are they
addressable by anyone in the outside world? Would you have used that curl
command in that form (with the .com address presumably having whatever value
DNS provides) or a local address?

Thanks for continuing to tell the story...

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to newsre...@wingsandbeaks.org.uk replacing "aaa" by "284".

[Tim Watts]

On 22/11/14 20:08, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts wrote:

>> Here's a very nice graph of the same:
>> http://i62.tinypic.com/105wbwx.jpg
>
> What does the dial saying 1.32 kWh represent?

1.32 kWh in the last hour. If you click on the "Daily", "Weekly" etc
button it will change accordingly.

>
> Is the power used by the switches themselves tiny?

Good question - I will be able to measure that when I have some more,
hopefully next week. Not sure how sensitive they are - might not be as
accurate as a KillOWatt type device.

> If youhave a house power-cut, do all the devices come back to life when teh
> power comes in, and talk to each other again. (I realise you may not know
> this yet!)

Yes. I have power cycled the controller.

The one thing this one is too dumb to do is "catch up" on scheduled
operations that happened when it was off - a bit like cron won't run
stuff if you turn the computer off but anacron makes an effort.

>
>> This device is a bitch to pair though - took me about 10 goes. Trick is
>> to power it from USB while pairing so it does not go to sleep every 2
>> seconds before it finishes the pairing (it actually looks like 4
>> devices, not one, so you get the master device, the PIR sensor but end
>> up missing the rest).
>
> Once a device is paired, is it paired for good? Or will it forget its
> pairing at some point?

It shouldn't do.

In fact, bringing devices over, I had to do the "unpair" thing first to
make them forget about the Vera.

This seems reliable even with mains devices unplugged and battery
devices with the batteries removed - I guess that magic numbers are
stored in flash or EEROM.

>
>> This one shows the gui logic for a simple scheduler for the heater switch:
>>
>> http://i60.tinypic.com/2lmb11w.jpg
>> You have to pay 2x the price for the next model that lets you write
>> actual LUA code (we'll you can hack mine but results are not guaranteed).
>
> When these scripts run, is there any log file produced that shows what they
> did? Maybe the gui logic is impossible to make a mistake in, but I'd also
> wonder if one was writing in LUA (never used that...) whether it can
> generate disgnostics, log files etc...
>

The graphical scripts are hard to debug. I forced mine to run 2 mins
into the future until I got the basic logic right - then I changed the
times to the correct ones.

Not sure what LUA is like on the HC2.

>
>> However it does sport a REST/JSON HTTP based API that's really simple to
>> talk to. eg:
>>
>> curl --request GET \
>> "http://USERNAME:PASS...@fibaro-hclite.example.com/api/devices" \
>> | python -mjson.tool | less
>
> So... do these device have ip addresses just on your LAN, or are they
> addressable by anyone in the outside world? Would you have used that curl
> command in that form (with the .com address presumably having whatever value
> DNS provides) or a local address?
>

The controller only has an IP address. You can NAT it, firewall it or
expose it on a public IP as you wish - treat it like any other service.

In about a week I should have some idea of the overall reliability.

Due to ongoing lack of proper CH, I am using these to control my oil
filled electric rads. Also the energy monitor is useful as it will help
me size the CH for next year. After that, the switches will be deployed
on a few desk lamps as burglar deterrents.

I might have a little ZWave in the CH - like the radiator valves. That's
why I'm interested. In the medium to long term I'd liek to move to an
open source project to drive it with maybe a Raspberry Pi but frankly
those projects are not there yet. I think from what I've seen, ZWave
*could* be a reasonably solid technology, for 98% reliability.

Given it can be queried (ie comms are 2 way) there's no reason, with
proper logic and a correct scheduler algorithm (that knows the final
state at any given time without relying on passing through the switching
times) it ought to be able to check and force the devices to get the
correct state. I think the Fibaro is too thick to do that, but that's
not a fault of ZWave itself.

[Tim Watts]

A further update:

OK - I've got some more TZ88s and one more Aeon Multisensor for the
attic space (have the other outside).

I must say, after a few days, I am really quite impressed with the HCL.

I think Fibaro have got it mostly right - it is (fingers crossed) pretty
damn stable and predictable. I am not getting devices going bye-bye
(though I have turned off dead node detection as that seems to cause
more trouble than it's worth).

I have a simple schedule turning on 4 heaters, with different times
depending on which day (big OR-logic jobbie) and it respects a global
"On Holiday" variable so I can set this as a flag for "no heating" or
"minimal heating" if I maybe use another schedule for winter.

All I would say is if the features I mentioned could get worked into the
HCL it would be nice - variable interpolation in messages in particular.
It is rather silly having 8 notifications to email me when 4 heaters
either go on or go off (I like the double check at this stage).

But it's way better than anything else I've tried *in its class*. It is
supposed to be "simple, just works" and I think it's pretty close.

And the energy graphing is the dogs bollocks 

Really very sweet... Far better than I expected from this class of device.

Be nice if there were other graphs like temperature etc - but it should
be possible to poll via the HTTP API and stuff it through say RRDTool on
another server...


So if anyone wants to fiddle with ZWave, the Fibaro Lite is not bad IME
of a couple of weeks!

Depends of course what "fiddling" means. True fiddling probably better
off with a Z-Stick USB dongle and a normal computer, or a RazBerry Pi.

But the Fibaro is in the class of "I want something that works dammit,
and I'd like to do a bit of fiddling later..."