Home Automation Domotica Forum Europe, Bwired Forum

Hello Everyone,

I'm just starting in home automation and though of starting simple.

For my first attempt, I'd like to control lights form my computer. That's it... for now

I'm looking into the Z-sick Series 2 for it but have some questions.

To set up a Z-Wave network the Stick and a Dimmer module are enough? Do I need any central "router" or controller? Or do those 2 devices connect to each other and the network is set?

How well will the stick work with a Mac? I have a home server running 24/7 on a Mac. What softwares would you guys recommend ? Any free ones to get started?

Also what kind of dimmer module should I get so I can still control the lights from the normal switch on the wall? So I don't need the computer every time I want to turn the lights on?

Finally how hard is it to control the Stick with AppleScript? I have some knowledge of it and would like to write some custom scripts ( which I'd be glad to share once they work well ).

That's it for now. Sorry if it sounds like I know nothing, but I'm really starting from scratch.

Thank you!

Hi Praha,

To create your own zwave network, the controller and 1 light will be enough (although you'll be buying more light dimmers in no time :p)
I have a few of the ACT ZDW-230's through my home because at the time these where the only ones that supported association with a primary controller.

What this meens is, that when you push a button locally setting it to another value will also tell your primary controler (so you computer is allways up to date)
As far as I know, not every brand has this because of a patent war from Lutron. You can get a lot of these types of dimmers to replace your current light switches.

I don't know enough about MAC to give any advise on software, but looking around quickly it seems that if you buy the "Wayne Dalton - WDUSB-10R" you get
Mac automation software with it.
Check this link as well: http://www.cepro.com/article/wayne_dalt ... e_mac/K309

As for controlling from apple script..... I don't think so

Regards,
LostDreamer

Hello Dreamer,

Thanks a lot for the info!!!

But another question came up.

Once I plug the stick on my computer, after pairing with the module, I necessarily need an automation software to be able to do anything with the lights? Or the softwares are only needed for more complex scenes and programming? I mean, without it am I still able to turn them on and off from the computer? Maybe via browser?

I hope it makes sense

Thanks!

Simply said: no.

When you set up your network with the stick, and plug it in your pc you only have another COM port to readf rom / write to.

Now, you can use some script (I have a php script for communicating with a zwave controller) to turn on / off lights, BUT when you
switch the light with the local push button, you won't see it on your PC.

For this, you need to give a few more commands to have the light switch "associate" with your controller, ie. sending it's status to it.
You could optionaly also send status request commands every minute or so to see if the light is still on.

So the easiest way is: Get a piece of domotica software.

You could check if open-zwave works on MAC
http://code.google.com/p/open-zwave/


LostDreamer