Aeon Labs Z-Stick Series 2 (DSA02203)

So how much success will I have when I get one of these since my dedicated mac mini is in the basement and I want to use the Z-Wave Home Energy Meter in my garage?

So how much success will I have when I get one of these since my dedicated mac mini is in the basement and I want to use the Z-Wave Home Energy Meter in my garage?

My experience has been that going through the types of barriers that may be present in your situation (cement walls, dirt, outdoor siding, possible chicken-wire-plaster in older homes, etc) you would have much better luck placing at least one z-wave device as a repeater (any lamp dimmer module would work) on the first floor of your home, somewhere between the Mac mini and the garage.

This would allow the z-wave message to be transmitted up to your 1st floor and then get repeated out toward the garage. This is much better than the RF signal trying to permeate the ground and foundation of your home -- hoping to reach the garage. If you have a Lowe's nearby (or don't mind Amazon) they sell the GE 45635 outdoor module. It is always in-stock as it is part of Lowe's Iris home automation system (really bad system-tries to mix WiFi, zigbee and zwave) This, in my opinion works wonderfully as it is an outdoor module and can be placed BETWEEN the garage and the house. It is a low priced alternative to some of the dimmer plugs that you will find on the market -- and repeats both normal z-wave signals as well as the z-wave beaming and encryption standards.

Placement 1/2 way between both locations is best. As earlier stated by Matt and Jay, a vertical USB stand would help immensely -- pointing the button on the Z-Stick toward your garage.



Jann

Thanks. That's perfect! I can use the outdoor module for Xmas lights

Thanks. That's perfect! I can use the outdoor module for Xmas lights

That is exactly what I did with my Christmas and Chanukah lights (one spouse is of each religion).

Well, as Norm knows, I had bought several insteon switches for this purpose -- several as in almost a dozen. Did a great job extending my insteon network. I have learned -- to a large extent -- z-wave benefits from the same "optimizations" that Insteon did.

BTW: After checking http://www.machomestore.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=53 I found that Norm has many z-wave devices as well. Check there first to ensure none of them would perform the same function k?

Also, be aware that if that doesn't completely solve the issue, these puppies: DSD37-ZWUS (also on that link I posted) are fantastic. They just are not advertised as outdoor-safe. But, they are inexpensive and work great!

Those range extenders might actually work better for what I need. I have an outlet in my living room on the wall that joins the garage and living room. I may do one of those and the appliance module to be safe.

According to the website:
http://aeotec.com/z-wave-usb-stick/913-z-stick-manual-instructions.html

This must be done through the host software which takes control of the Z-Stick USB adapter while the Z-Stick is in SerialAPI-Mode. Please consult the instruction manual of the host software to add the Z-Stick to a preexisting Z-Wave network (i.e. “Learn”, “Sync”, “Add as Secondary Controller”, etc.). This function can only be preformed via the host software.

Is there such a capability in Indigo?

Thanks,
-Chris

[matt (support)]

Hello Chris,

At this time Indigo only supports attached controllers in primary mode.

Is there anything I could do you encourage you to look at this? Is there something I could do? Maybe though a plug-in? I'm not sure hard this would be...

-Chris

[matt (support)]

Hi Chris,

Unfortunately, this type of change cannot be done in a plugin or script. It is on our feature request list, but I don't yet have a ETA on when we'll get to it.

Is it possible for you to use the Z-Stick as the primary and have your other controller(s) be secondary?

Matt,

I've been a user of Indigo since version 1 and have always upgraded to the Pro version. I think your product is very nicely done.

I have a large house with mostly X10 devices. I'm not a fan of Insteon (too proprietary for me). Recently I have been introducing z-wave devices and I'm happy with them.

Since I'm away for long periods of time, I run indigo on a mac and have a second machine that I use as backup. If the first machine fails, I can remotely log into my home network and switch to the backup machine. This is fine for the X10 stuff, but I'm sure you can see my problem with the z-wave stuff. If the main server has the primary z-stick, then I cannot switch to my backup machine since it's z-stick must be secondary cannot be the primary controller.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
-Chris

PS: As you might suspect, I'm pretty tech savvy...

[matt (support)]

Gotcha. Thanks for the use case.

I don't have any really good suggestions. Maybe look into using a USB switch (and somehow automating it from the 2nd Mac so you can switch it over remotely)? Then if the Mac fails you can remotely switch the Z-Stick over to the backup Mac. If the Z-Stick itself fails then you are still out-of-luck, however.

I've had my Z-stick series 2 for about 6 months now and periodically the blue ring goes dark while it is plugged in and should be operating. When the ring is dark, no communication occurs between the z-stick and its network. (I have a Vera that receives communication from the new Vera Bridge plugin perfectly).

When the ring is dark, I just unplug the device and plug it back in and it seems to restart fine. I've tried other USB ports on my computer and get the same results. Even if I don't unplug/plug the device, it eventually (at least several minutes later) comes back to life. This is an intermittent problem and I can't seem to find a specific call that triggers it.

The Event log doesn't show any red items while the problem is occurring either.

Any suggestions on troubleshooting? What would cause the blue ring to go dark?

[matt (support)]

I think the LED may be indicating the opposite of what you think. That is, I believe the blue ring goes dark while the Z-Stick is waiting for a reply from a module, or trying to reach/route to a module. I've noticed when I try to send a command to module that isn't reachable (because I've unplugged it), the LED will go off for a while as the Z-Stick tries multiple times and different routes to reach the model. After a few seconds, it then lights back up. So it looks like the LED being out indicates activity, not idle.

I'm not sure why it would go into that state for minutes though, nor why there wouldn't be an error logged in the Event Log. So what you are seeing might be something totally different.

Is the progress bar in the lower-left of the main window doing anything during this time (flashing grey, or showing colored progress nuggets)?

Thank you for your help. If the Z-stick blue light turns off again, I'll take a close look at the progress bar. I didn't notice anything there, but I didn't specifically look either. I'll pay attention next time.

To clean things up, I removed a couple of switches that weren't polling properly 100% of the time and Disabled Indigo Communication on those as well. (I think the switches that weren't polling properly were Evolve brand). The switches didn't respond to polling and ended up red on the device list and the event log. I was not able to match the occasional red entry with the blue light being off because the polling didn't fail all the time--- but that's likely what was causing the dark Z-stick ring.

Your observation that the light goes out while waiting for a response seems absolutely correct. With the adjustments I made, the network has become more reliable and I haven't seen the issue since. Thanks!

Is it possible to run the z-stick in parallel (same time, same machine) with the CM15A? I have a ton of x10 that work great with the CM15A and I don't have the funds to switch over everything to z wave, but my alarm and cameras are all z wave compatible. I was hoping to have the z-stick communicate with those and if it receives an event, it could trigger all my x10 stuff. I read the previous post that says Indigo only supports attached controllers in primary mode. I would assume this means my plan will not work, but wanted to ask. Sorry if this is a noob question and thanks for your help.