Reddit reviews Aeon Labs DSA02203-ZWUS Z-Wave Z-Stick Series 2 USB Dongle

I too am starting out and evaluating Home Automation solutions.

BASIC HOME AUTOMATION ARCHITECTURE

The Basic Home Automation Architecture, independent of a specific technology stack, entails:

1. CENTRAL CONTROLLING SOFTWARE.

The controlling software might be:

• Installed on your PC. For example HomeSeer's HS2;
  
• Implemented as firmware on a dedicated hardware device supplied by the manufacturer. For example Mi Casa Verde's VeraLite or HomeSeer's HomeTroller-SE; or
  
• Running on a mini PC you build for the purpose. For example running HomeSeer's HS2 on a Intel NUC Kit DC3217IYE.
  
  As for Raspberry PI ... Mi Casa Verde's VeraLite runs on its own dedicated Linux box. I don't know of any Home Control Software that is offered as Linux Software only. A Raspberry Pi, although a linux platform, therefore wouldn't seem to be a solution to work with Mi Casa Verde.
  
  HomeSeer HS2 only supports windows. HomeSeer HS3, the next software version to be released, is meant to support Linux (in addition to windows). So although Raspberry PI does not support Windows and does not run WINE, perhaps HomeSeer's HS3 will run on it. Or maybe Raspberry PI is not powerful enough.
  
  This software that (centrally) controls your devices is exposed to you as a web interface for setup, direct device control, scripting scenarios, and monitoring power. So the web interface works in a similar fashion to the web interface your router exposes.
  
  2. HARDWARE TO RUN YOUR CENTRAL CONTROLLING SOFTWARE.
  
  See above.
  
  3. PROTOCOL INTERFACE HARDWARE
  
  Either:
  
  
• As an additional piece of hardware, like Homesetting's Zwave USB Controller's or (preferred) Aeon Labs Z-Wave Z-Stick Series 2 USB Dongle. This will plug into whatever hardware is running your (central) controlling software; or
  
• Built into the Central Controlling Hardware Unit (e.g. Mi Casa Verde's VeraLite has a built in Protocol Interface for Z-wave).
  
  There are many Home Automation Protocols. These include Insteon, KNX, UPB, X10, Zigbee, Z-Wave. Z-Wave seems to be emerging as the most popular. X-10 seems to be dying. HomeSeer supports, with an accompanying Hardware Protocol "Interface", all of the protocols except for Zigbee and KNX. Mi Casa Verde supports (built-in) Z-Wave only.
  
  Z-Wave is cool because it is: wireless; mesh (proximate nodes in the network can make distant nodes accessible to the Central Controller that otherwise would not be); and has many cool products already available.
  
  4. END USE DEVICES.
  
  This includes switches (in wall or plug in), motion detectors, lights, cameras, etc. These end use devices support one protocol. That is, one of Insteon, KNX, UPB, X10, Zigbee, Z-Wave, etc.
  
  Aeotec (also referenced as "Aeon Labs") has several cool Z-wave products.
  
  CONTROLLING YOUR FAN
  
  > It makes it look like you can put this behind a regular, non-zwave switch... after which both that switch and the zwave switch can turn a light on and off.
  
  > Could this be used inside the light fixture of a ceiling fan? I'd like to be able to use the chain, and those are simple toggle (mechanical) switches as well.
  
  I don't have the personal experience to verify all this but it looks like the product you linked to is one of three types of Aeotec Aeon Labs "In-Wall Z-Wave Control"s. The three being:
  
  
• "Micro Smart Dimmer", for lights.
  
• "MIcro Smart Switch", for your power outlets (for any appliance including plug in lights). This seems to be the product you linked to.
  
• "Micro Smart Motor Controller", which presumably will be suited for fan control (???). This is said to be able to "Open/Close control via Z-Wave, manual wall switch, and/or built-in button". So I see no reason why you couldn't just pull the chain to override whatever Z-wave commands you had previously sent (but someone with personal experience needs to chime in here).
  
  WHICH HOME AUTOMATION SOLUTION?
  
  I'm tossing up between Mi Casa Verde's VeraLite and a HomeSeer Solution. Edit: But a Raspberry Pi solution needs looking into. That has the potential to blow these competitors out of the water.
  
  Mi Casa Verde is much cheaper, a little more open in broad terms, has an outstanding user created and free Android Client (AutHomationHD), and sufficient energy monitoring options. But it has has poor documentation, messy security issues, scripting deficiencies (mitigated by user created plug-ins).
  
  HomeSeer is expensive, a little bit closed in broad terms (they don't like you talking about competitor's products in their forums for example), doesn't yet have a polished native Android Client (they do have an Android solution that works), energy monitoring I have yet to research, relatively good documentation (but could be improved), apparently solid security solutions (more research by me required), and good scripting/programming options.
  
  HomeSeer uses exposes a .Net and .Aspx Api which I favour. Mi Casa Verde exposes "Luup (Lua-UPnP) is Mi Casa Verde’s new software engine which incorporates Lua, a popular scripting language, and UPnP, the industry standard way to control devices." http://wiki.mios.com/index.php/Luup_Intro. I'd never heard of this "popular scripting language" before. I'm loathe to learn a new one (on top of those I do know or am learning).
  
  http://www.smartthings.com/ requires a connection to the cloud. I don't like that as a requirement. For security reasons I'd like to be able to either have the option to disable remote access or have remote access with my own certificates. Cloud solutions make it easy, moreover, for companies to subscribe your arse.
  
  As for the Protocol, I'm set on Z-wave. I intend to purchase Aetoc:
  
  
• Z-stick, as the Hardware Protocol Interface; and
  
• Several Z-Wave Plug-In Switch Controllers;
  
  HOLD OFF FOR 3 - 6 MONTHS?
  
  It might be prudent to wait for 3 to 6 months to see how the Home Automation scene will shake out:
  
  
• HomeSeer is yet to release it's HS3 which is a substantial rewrite. It might be worth letting that release stabilise.
  
• Google might be in the wings ready to pounce with its Android @ Home solution. But I worry about any Google solution requiring a cloud connection.
  
• Mi Casa Verde might get its act together with respect to documentation and security issues.
  
• Another company might come along and do it right.
  
  Aeotec have yet to release their LED Bulb which will be: directly controlled (wirelessly with Z-wave); dimmable; and variable over the full colour spectrum. While there is no need to wait for this to setup a Home Automation System I would hold off on those parts of the lighting solution. For example I wouldn't bother installing light wall switches or buying a Phillips Hue setup.
  
  At the moment there exists no Home Automation company/solution that does it right. It therefore remains wide open as a opportunity for: an open source project; a business started by some tech savy entrepreneur.
  
  EDITS
  
  Edit 01: A shit load of editing and tidying up ... still ongoing.
  
  Edit 02: Under "WHICH HOME AUTOMATION SOLUTION?" Added explicit mention of which protocol I intend to get: Z-Wave.
  
  Edit 03: But a Raspberry Pi solution needs looking into. That has the potential to blow these competitors out of the water.
  
  Edit 04: Formatted the parts of Basic Home Automation Architecture into subheadings.
  
  Edit 05: Added info about the Central Controlling Software exposing a web interface. Added info about end use devices only supporting one protocol.

Z-Wave is in fact pretty well standardized. It is license-encumbered but currently ubiquitous enough that you can be reasonably sure that most any Z-Wave switch you buy is going to work with any Z-Wave hub.

OpenHAB is pretty complicated but if you want to roll your own solution it's a solid starting point. You're going to need a Z-Wave interface which you can pass through to your Linux VM if your hypervisor supports it. Alternately, you can run OpenHAB on an RPi with this device plugged in.

Finally, you might find that getting started with an existing hardware solution like SmartThings or Vera might be a cheap ($100) way to bootstrap the project so you aren't forced into rolling everything yourself, allowing you to start by working on the use case instead of the infrastructure.

OpenHAB is probably the way you want to go with this. OpenHAB basically just provides you with an API that you can use to send predefined commands to it's supported hardware. It's nice because it can connect to tons of proprietary gear...someone's spent the time looking up documentation or reverse engineering the particular ZigBee or Z-Wave commands and implementing it for you. If you like really low level stuff, you can actually skip OpenHAB entirely and send the commands yourself. It's more involved but still possible.

Home automation devices are largely all ZigBee or Z-Wave these days. Z-Wave is more widely used. You can get a Z-Wave USB stick like this and get started. That should work with OpenHAB on Windows, Linux, or Raspberry Pi. It basically just creates a new device on the mesh network that can send commands to other things. Very little is hardwired anymore and battery life for most things is 1-2 years easy.

Unless you really like building your own hardware, I would mostly stick with what's already out there. You can't beat the quality and battery life of some of these products. As long as a proprietary HUB isn't required then it's fine.

As far as manual overrides, that's going to vary. If you build your system right you should be able to completely shut off all of your automation software and still use your house normally. Here's a good read that was recently posted about this. So for a thermostat, make sure you have a physical thermostat where cloud operation is secondary and only an added convenience just in case your Internet goes down. For lights, don't just fill your house with Hue lights that you can only turn on from an app. Your wall switches still need to work. Physical redundancy is largely up to you as the system manager but be sure to not buy devices that require an Internet connection in order to work.

The best advice I have is to take your time. I was new to this a couple months ago but I've been following this subreddit very actively. There's a lot to learn and home automation is still young enough that everyone in the game is still sort of finding their way. We don't know all the answers yet so sometimes you just have to research a lot and figure it out.

Edit: I'm working on my own open source home automation software solution that I will likely use alongside OpenHAB. It's web based and is slowly getting there. PM me if you're interested and I can set up my demo for you.

I run it on a Linux pc., specifically Ubuntu Server 14.04. It can also be installed on Mac and Windows.

You will need extra hardware to interact with most devices(I think WeMo products work without anything extra). Here is a list of the different hardware hubs they support. I use the ISY from Universal Devices, and setup was a breeze. I think the Z-Stick is popular, but have no experience with it myself.

If you have Home Assistant already running, from what I understand, you should be able to get a USB zwave dongle like this. You'll then be able to connect zwave devices to Home Assistant, which will take care of your light switches.
Harmony Hub is great. The phone app is ok at best but tied with Echo or G home it works great.

I live in the US, its available on amazon:

Newest version

http://www.amazon.com/Aeon-Labs-Aeotec-Z-Wave-Z-Stick/dp/B00X0AWA6E/

I have this one

http://www.amazon.com/Aeon-Labs-DSA02203-ZWUS-Z-Wave-Z-Stick/dp/B003MWQ30E/

The Aeon Labs one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MWQ30E

So far I've just been pairing stuff (door/window sensors) before I install them in the intended location, but I'm going to have to rig up a long USB power cord so I can get the Pi near the door before I can pair my ZWave deadbolt.

I have these bulbs and this z stick. I use home assistant as my hub. It's very flexible at what it can do, but with that flexibility comes complication and a learning curve. But I think it was well worth it.

I've got those bulbs in almost every light and lamp in my house, along with an Amazon Echo, a couple of motion sensors, and a lot of timing based automation. Look thorough the components home assistant supports for an idea of what you can do.

edit:
The bulbs I linked also come with little plastic bits to go over the switches so people don't turn them off accidentally.

Yep :) Should be good, all these USB sticks do is create a serial port which you point the OpenHAB Z-Wave binding to and OpenHAB runs anywhere a JVM runs!

Besides the UZB Z-Wave USB stick mentioned above, there are a few other models that are known to work with OpenHAB. eg. Z-Stick

I've been really pleased with HomeGenie so far. Recently purchased a home and wanted to replace the old thermostats with new 'smart' ones, but wanted to keep the control local and off the cloud. We live in a rural area and really didn't want to have to be tied to the internet to control our devices. Did some research and chose to go Z-Wave, pairing a RasPi2 with a Z-Wave USB dongle (http://www.amazon.com/Aeon-Labs-DSA02203-ZWUS-Z-Wave-Z-Stick/dp/B003MWQ30E). HomeGenie installed onto Raspbian (wheezy) incredibly easy and had no problems getting it up and running. I've been using this setup for about 2 months now and am happy with it. It's paired with all of my Z-Wave devices without issue.

A few things:

• I found HomeGenie to have a slight learning curve, though there are nice examples and docs available.
  
• Most of what I've done with HomeGenie use custom 'Programs' which allow you to write the logic in a few different languages (C#, JavaScript, a couple others). This is exactly what I wanted, but may not be for those that aren't used to programming.
  

This: https://www.amazon.com/Aeon-Labs-DSA02203-ZWUS-Z-Wave-Z-Stick/dp/B003MWQ30E

And this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ge-z-wave-in-wall-smart-wireless-duplex-outlet-white/4978912.p?skuId=4978912&extStoreId=&ref=212&loc=1&ksid=3a25bd05-17a9-487a-9ca1-ca0973e57cdb&ksprof_id=401&ksaffcode=pg246025&ksdevice=m&lsft=ref:212,loc:2&gclid=Cj0KEQjwrsDIBRDX3JCunOrr_YYBEiQAifH1FqfQk-RVNgAT1I-IhrlcvMGjurXExm6wSvp_fQ7wpdoaApJl8P8HAQ

And Python.

Do I have to get a lutron bridge? Or can I use the below stick and integrate with Ha?

Aeon Labs DSA02203-ZWUS Z-Wave Z-Stick Series 2 USB Dongle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003MWQ30E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.FX8Bb8WBYEYJ

>My ideal solution would be a USB or other interfaced radio

Like this? http://www.amazon.com/Aeon-Labs-DSA02203-ZWUS-Z-Wave-Z-Stick/dp/B003MWQ30E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414026842&sr=8-1&keywords=z+stick

I've heard it doesn't work great with R-Pi, but you could probably find a similar platform it cooperates with.

https://github.com/openhab/openhab/wiki/Z-Wave-Binding

> There seems to be an issue with the binding running on the latest oracle VM Beta, on ARM based architectures (e.g. raspberry PI). It manifests itself as messages being received multiple times and causes considerable problems with the operation of the binding. In large networks, the queue can get extremely long, which can delay initialisation considerably and cause potentially long delays in sending messages. Some time has been spent investigating this issue and a solution has not been found - the issue doesn't appear to be with the binding itself as the problem doesn't manifest itself on an other platform. If anyone with the hardware and programming experience can help with this it would be useful.

That's just what this page says. You have a Z-Stick like this connected to an RPi and it's working fine?

Do you need a zwave stick? I have this one that I just replaced today: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003MWQ30E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.CPnxbF8DKF5S

Looking for $22 shipped.

Thanks for the info. Is this the same one?

https://www.amazon.ca/Leviton-VRI06-1LZ-Incandescent-Capable-Dimmer/dp/B001U3Z6YG

It mentions requiring a remote to program them.

I already have this:
https://www.amazon.ca/Aeon-DSA02203-ZWUS-Labs-Z-Wave-Z-Stick/dp/B003MWQ30E/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1463539102&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=zwave+usb

http://www.amazon.com/Aeon-DSA02203-ZWUS-Labs-Z-Wave-Z-Stick/dp/B003MWQ30E

Mine Z-stick was $40.

> Zstick

Is this what you're referring to? http://www.amazon.com/Aeon-Labs-DSA02203-ZWUS-Z-Wave-Z-Stick/dp/B003MWQ30E

I am just getting started and I think thats what I need for my Pi to start connecting to zwave items... anything else you think the Pi needs?