Garden/Shed Zwave integration

Hi All,

So, I'm happily trundling away with a fair bit of ZWave flying around my house doing the usual sort of stuff.

I'm about to redo my garden, involving a new patio area at the bottom of the garden with new shed and so on. Of course I'm running power (and cat 5 and security cable) to the shed.

My plan is to use the Cat5 to setup a wireless access point up there so I can use wifi on a laptop whilst BBQ'ing, for example Also to put in some speakers, probably an airport express to get music to them.

I'll also be installing various lighting fixtures - be they aesthetic, practical (for evening BBQ) or security. I want remote control of these devices integrated with Indigo.

Obviously, if within the ZWave sphere this would all be easily achieved. But even with judicious placing of my Z-Stick, repeaters and so on I doubt I'll get the house ZWave reaching to the bottom of the garden.

Is there a better way to approach this? A spark friend of mine has recommended "Wise" boxes for remote lighting control. I can't find any sign of integration with Indigo for these though...

Can I easily add a ZWave node off the end of a cat5 for instance?

Ideas - suggestions, etc. all gratefully received!

Cheers!

Richard.

You could try with a zwave remote if you have zwave signal. Put one zwave repeater in the corner of the main house closest to the garden house. Then check with the remote switching on off a device linked to the remote while walking around.


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I am too considering the same expansion as yours. I am not aware of any ZWave extenders that can tunnel via CAT5/6. This should be technically possible but given that home automation is already a niche a device like that will be a niche within a niche so looks unlikely. My idea comes from the saying that "if the the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain'". Just leave the relay devices at your main home where they can have good ZWave reception and run the cables that output the relay back to the lights you want to control in your shed. Suppose you want to use a Fibaro ZWave relay for a light in your shed. You will need to extend two additional cables (one for the light switch and one for the output to the light itself) from the Fibaro relay in your main house to the shed itself to be able to control it from a relay located in your main house. And since you already are laying cables to the shed this shouldn't add a major cost to your project. Adding an extra 4 Core Armoured SWA cable will allow you to control two devices at your shed and 50mts should cost you around £ 50 (UK pounds).

Since you are going to have CAT5 with an wireless access point at the shed you will be able to control those devices via Indigo Touch which will go via CAT5 back to your main house. So you could be in the middle of the garden controlling your garden lights like a king!

Another idea, since you are running cable could you not place a weatherproof box half way between the house and the shed (let's be hones here, it's really going to be a mancave, right?) for power and place a Z-Wave repeater in there. That way you'll have some options in the future for any further devices you wish to add outside, plus an extra powerpoint. Then any Z-Wave devices you add to the shed will help create a further mesh footprint at the back of the garden.

Simon

I'm considering a Vera controller out in our summerhouse and then using the plugin to run that remotely.

I wouldn't be so sure about that man cave idea though:
http://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/gardening/a3629/she-sheds-trend/

I wouldn't be so sure about that man cave idea though:
http://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/gardening/a3629/she-sheds-trend/

Already seen that and discussed with the other half. There is a small patch at the back available for the said shed.

Thanks for the responses - some interesting thoughts

My favourite at the moment is the remote Vera interface..

Cheers!

Richard.

Thanks for the responses - some interesting thoughts

My favourite at the moment is the remote Vera interface..

Cheers!

Richard.

The Vera Lite is £ 129 and it will be more costly to run as it will consume power. Also there are "consistent delays in the 1-3 second range when controlling devices through the Vera".

Have a system thats been running for about 4 years now using insteon. It covers 4 separate buildings on 14 aches with 3 different power feeds and 3 electric company power meters.
All on different street transformers. One mac mini runs the entire system. Connecting the 3 separate feeds was accomplished with some well placed insteon 2443 access points.


Elwood

Hmmm.. The Insteon route sounds interesting too. I don't have any experience of Insteon - and being UK based the bits only just seem to be filtering through to us.

Out of interest, does anyone know if the Insteon Hub is supported by Indigo? I'm guessing not, which is a shame. Be a great solution - one ethernet connection and there's my local hub in my shed.... Job done.

Cheers,

Richard.