HouseBot

Hi

I'm from Switzerland and I'm currently using an installation with a lot of X-10 devices, but unfortunately the communication is not always as reliable as expected and the devices are not available anymore so I'm currently checking to switch to Z-Wave.
Does anybody use a z-wave installation with HouseBot as home automation software?
Which actual Z-Wave controllers (for Europe) can be recommended?
What are the differences between a z-wave and an X-10 device in HouseBot?

Thanks & BR
-Alex-

Alex,

I'm a relatively new HouseBot user (10 months). I originally had a few X-10 devices and HomeSeer when I switched to HouseBot. Since then I have eliminated the X-10 and switched everything over to Z-Wave (US).

Initially the X-10 reliability was getting very poor. It seems that switching power supplies were adding lots of noise to the power line. I used X10 to control my pool pumps, which had to be reliable to avoid freezing. They were only working if certain other devices were turned off (Microsoft Surface Pro power supplies, newer flourescent light ballasts). I needed something better and was planning on hardwiring the pool pumps to the computer.

I switched to Z-Wave for lights and sensors. Added a lot of new stuff. As I did so the X10 reliability dropped. Near the end the pool pump X10 switches did not work at all! So I converted those, temporarily, to Z-Wave as well.

I must say, the Z-Wave is much more relaible than I thought it would be. Probably because it is on 900 MHz spectrum, avoiding interference with all the new stuff in the US on 2.4 GHz (WiFi, Bluetooth). I would say it is at least 99% reliable and likely closer to 99.9%. I probably don't need to switch the pumps to a hardwired solution.

There were some issues with the Z-Wave plug-ins that Scott has recently addressed. Get the lastest plug-ins from him before you proceed.

I am using an Aeotec Z-Stick Gen 5 with the UZB driver. Be sure to set the comm port to 115K bps and enable hardware flow control. I was getting lots of errors with the default setting of 9600 bps and no flow control. I also found the plug-in was more reliable if Tracing/Advanced/*Z-Wave was turned on, but that is probably not needed after I figured out the comm port settings were wrong.

HouseBot support for all the special Z-Wave device functions is pretty lacking, at this point, compared to other HA programs (battery/tamper notifications, devices that do more than one thing, etc.). But basic switch, dimming and sensors are working fine.

I have about 50 Z-Wave devices, most of them switches or binary sensors of some sort. Almost all are within comm distance of the Z-Stick. A few require a single hop. No issues I can find with the Z-Wave communications. Nearly all of the devices are Z-Wave Plus.

Switching my scripts from X-10 to Z-Wave for basic switches was straightforward, as both devices expose a "Power State" property.

These are the devices I have working:

Aeotec Z-Stick Gen 5 controller
Fibaro Button (it can send dimmer states for single/double/triple button presses if programmed correctly)
Fibaro RGBW LED dimmer (can only dim all channels at the same time, individual channel control is not available in HouseBot)
Fibaro KeyFob (it can send dimmer states for the six different buttons if programmed correctly)
GE/Jasco switches 14282/14288/14291/28169
GE/Jasco dimmers 14294
GE/Jasco PIR indoor motion sensor 34193 (works great indoors, no false positives, but no pets in our house)
Aeotec ZW112A door sensor
Aeotec ZW089A recessed door sensor
MonoPrice 15269 shock sensor
MonoPrice 15271 PIR motion detector (used outside, lots of false positives, as one would expect)
MonoPrice 24259 door sensor (works OK, but I like the look and ease of use of the Aeotec sensors above)
Qubino Flush 1 Relay (switching relay)
Qubino Flush 1D Relay (dry contact relay)
Zipato Siren (works as a dimmer, dim level picks sound)
WaterCop water shutoff valve (not yet installed, but it works on the bench)

I like the GE switches/sensors, reliable and easy to set up but they are a bit more expensive than others. Many of these devices can be found with European Z-Wave frequencies.

Get a copy of the Z-Wave PC Controller software from Silicon Labs. I found it very useful for testing new devices. You will need to create an account at the site first.
https://siliconlabs.force.com/apex/vali ... -ware.html

Overall I am pretty happy with the HouseBot Z-Wave support. Although it could be beefed up a bit, it works for most use cases.

Dave Morey

Hi Dave

Thank you very much about the detailed information, it's highly appreciated!!!
I just ordered a bunch od modules to gain some experience!

Wish you a nice weekend!

BR -Alex Hoog-

Hi Dave

I got now the devices and I'm still somehow struggeling with the basics.
I got the latest Z-Wave plugins from Scott and installed them.
As general question is Housebot supporting Scenes of Z-Wave and how?

As first I have the following equipment here:
Aeotec Z-Stick Gen 5 controller
Nodon Z-Wave Wall Switch
Aeotec Smart Switch

What I wanted to achieve was to control the Smart switch via Wall Switch and via Housebot.
I can create a network where the Wall Switch is the primary controller and I can create a ntework where the Aeotec Z-Stick is the primary controller.
But until now I couldn't achieve to control the Smart Switch via Housebot and via Wall Switch.

If I take the Z-Stick as primary controller and add the Wall Switch as device. I find it there as Remote Controller but the associations are greyed out. So I can't create any associations from the Remote Controller to the Smart Switch. Is this a limitation of the plugin and is there another way to create the associations?

Another question, if you have a remote controller like Fibaro button or the Nodon Wall Switch in my case what device type do you use in Housebot?
I used Z-Wave controller and in the Z-Wave values field I get some Hex-Values depending the button I press, but it would be ugly to create a task depending on these hex values to execute an action.

Any other idea?

Btw. I checked for the software you recommended, but I could not find a Windows version.

Thanks & BR -Alex-

In case you haven't found the config info for the Nodon switch look here:

https://products.z-wavealliance.org/products/1383
https://products.z-wavealliance.org/pro ... 83/configs
https://products.z-wavealliance.org/pro ... ename=True
https://nodon.fr/wp-content/uploads/201 ... e_EN-2.pdf

I have not attempted to use any devices that act as a controller. One controller is enough for me. Housebot is used as the central arbiter of all actions.

As far as I can tell, Housebot has no support for scenes.

I would try setting up the Nodon as a Zwave Switch in HouseBot. Set the "Button Profiles" parameters to "MONO". Use association groups 2,3,4,5 to send Basic Set On/Off to various devices. You can use one of the switches to send Basic Set On/Off to the HouseBot controller and another to the Aeotec smart switch. If you set it up as a HouseBot device, you should be able to use HouseBot to set the associations.

The Fibaro KeyFob and Button allows you to set the Dim Level for each button and/or multi-click. Using a Z-Wave Dimmer Switch device in HouseBot you can figure out which multi-click or button was pressed. I use a Task to detect the Dim Level "changes" (even if same button is pressed twice) and pass the changed state to a script through another property.

With the Nodon and without scenes, I think you will only be able to get one button to communicate with HouseBot.

I found the Z-Wave PC Controller at https://siliconlabs.force.com/0691M000003WIQe It is a Windows version.

I hope this helps,
Dave