Cord Switch

Swiid^® Cord Switch will replace your standard switch on e.g. a table lamp and make it smart. Using the standardized Z-wave protocol it will integrate easily into your favorite HA controller. 
http://www.swiid.com/en/produits.html#swiidinter

Fibaro wall plug sale stop.

The Swedish National Electrical Safety Board reported a issue with Fibaro's wall plugs and therefor it seems like some reseller has withdrawn the plugs from the stores: 

http://www.elsakerhetsverket.se/sv/Produktsakerhet/Forsaljningsforbud/Stromstallare-och-dimmer-far-forsaljningsforbud/

http://forum.fibaro.com/viewtopic.php?t=4189&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Z-wave thermostat for electric appliances

When looking around the web after (Smart home) ideas how to lower my electric bill I noticed the Z-wave controllable thermostat. I believe qubinos flush thermostat is the first one built directly to control electric heaters and floor heating being directly connected to a z-wave "gateway".

http://qubino.com/products-2/flush-onoff-thermostat/
Now the only question is, how to find a reseller in EU?...

Let your phone work for you.

Yonomi let your android phone control the Nest thermostats and Sonos players when you e.g. approach or leave your home:
http://yonomi.co/
Smart app that  let you utilize the different devices at home in a very nice package.

VeraEdge Home Controller

VeraEdge has just been released by our friends at getvera.com. The main difference compared to the "old" Veras is the support for Z-wave plus (500) series, thats the new z-wave chips presented last year. This is the first of the Vera series that seems to support them.
The user interface is the new improved UI7 and expect shipping soon.
Take a look at your next home automation controller here:
http://getvera.com/controllers/veraedge/
This could be the Christmas present you been waiting for, unless you put your money down on a Sonos multi room speaker and connect it to the Vera you probably already have...

VeraEdge Home Controller
Hardware
CPU: 600MHz MIPS SoC
Flash Memory: NAND 128MB
Memory: DDR2 128MB
USB Port: 1
WAN Port: 1
Wireless: Z-Wave Plus™ and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
Dimensions
4.55in x 3.13in x 1.2in (HxWxD)
Certifications
FCC, CE, RoHS, Z-Wave Plus
Power Supply
Input: AC 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz
Output: DC 12V/1A

Hong Kong Electronics Fair

The Hong Kong Electronics Fair (spring edition) had this year several stands containing home automation devices.
One very common thing is that several of the manufacturers seems to belive that a non standard protocol is better than using something that can speak to more devices than just their own. Maybe licence prices had something to do with it but then on the other hand there was so much stuff speaking Bluethooth LE there. On the exhibition you could find also well known protocols like Z-wave, Zigbee and X10.
Everspring was presenting their whole area of z-wave devices. Unfortunately no news for this year, but there was some vaugue promises about plug in sockets ala Fibaro style.
Red shield http://www.redshieldsecurity.com/ had also some devices that was market with z-wave but I did not manage to get more information from the staff on-site.

Home Confort uses RF protocol and promised possibility to control up to 24 RF devices. The devices looks very similar in size and shape to the Z-wave / Zigbee devices we have learned to know.

How many years does it take to produce a z-wave light bulb?

I know you all heard the old question "how many does it take to screw in a light bulb?". We know now that it takes about 2 years from promises to ready product. I have been writing several posts about coming z-wave products but see and behold! Here is a ready product:
http://www.zipato.com/default.aspx?id=24&pid=81&page=1&grupe=
For 59€ you get yourself a z-wave enabled led light bulb. I'm not sure if this is supported by the Vera z-wave controler but if you know, please make a comment.

Fibaro news.

http://zwaveforum.se/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4876

Fibaro seems to be going all in with voice control for your home automation project. The discussion board zwaverforum has something that looks like press material from Fibaro promising several new devices. What strikes me is that it seems like most of them support voice control. And could connect to your wired burglar alarm also. Another nice device is the Player, that I hope will work in same way as Sonos different multi room audio system Play, but connected directly to your home automation z-wave network, though Sonos is supported with Vera with the app in the app-store.

Some of the new devices seems to be able to work stand-alone without any of the Fibaro controllers.

The Stack a box controller

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1561203377/the-stack-box-a-smart-home-controller?ref=category_popular

This controller stacks a home automation controller with multiple radios including e.g. Bluetooth 4 into a box that also will double as a storage area unit (a.k.a. SAN). If the kick starter project will fly will soon have yet another HA controller to compete with the billions of homes out there!

Z-wave on Clas Ohlson

If you happen to visit the north and cold part of United Arab Emirates Europe you might have noticed a store that exists in every larger shopping centre called Clas Ohlsson, Clas Olsson, Klas Olssen, Clas Ohlson. Now they will shelf not only the controller zipato box but also plug in modules (39,95€), pucks (49,95€), remote control (69,95€), IR-transmitter (79,95€) and almost any thing you can imagine needed for your z-wave project. (No locks could be seen so far). The stuff has not reached their webbsite yet but is available in their paper catalouge.
This really makes the HA equipment available to a wide audience in north Europe. 

getpiper the new Z-wave controller

http://getpiper.com/ is now available. It's a z-wave controller, camera, two-way audio, siren and environment controller in one device! Price is tempting and the look is very nice.

Fibaro lite vs Vera3

Fibaro has decided to go (almost) heads on with MiCasa now offering a step in home automation model called Fibaro Lite. 
The diffrence in euro is 279,98€ for Fibaro vs 238,00€ for Vera3. Though I have not tested the Fibaro Home Centre Light I noticed in the small print that it does not support "scripting language for advanced scene control" like it's bigger and more expensive version. I'm not sure how big diffrence this is in real life... Leave a comment!

Older Ubuntu upgrade fails with 404

Man was I stuck! My Raspberry Pi has been running nicely in a corner doing things what RPi's does best, like measuring temperature, taking pictures, shining the leds etc. I thought I should give it the traditional treatment "sudo apt-get update". But no, and no. It just answered with error 404.
So after sometime I understand that the friends at ubuntu is doing something to me pretty strange. Ubuntu move their files around, in some kind of house keeping attempt, on their servers so nobody should be able to simply any longer update their machines, since they belive they are too old, one day.
Even microsofts older un-supported OS's can often be upgraded with out poking in the registry.
Well, as always very little is impossible and all you have to do is edit your source list and good instructions are available on Ubuntus pages:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/91815/how-to-install-software-or-upgrade-from-old-unsupported-release

Latest M2M hardware

Some things has happened since first release of the Raspberry Pi board and I think the original RaspPi still is one of the most versatile, available, devices for decent bucks right now.
What you might like to check out is also the newly releases Raspberry Pi Model B+ that hosts 4 USB ports.
Something else that might attract to some of you is the more boosted up Raspberry spin of: Banana Pi  where you get 1GB of RAM.

Last but not least is the Intel Edison that is now (almost) the SD card size but intel chip with integrated bluetooth 4.0 and Wifi.

The fact that also finally after years of waiting the latest iPhone 6 now also includes Bluetooth 4 AND NFC could make up for some nice implementations to control your home devices.

Change from Vera1 to Vera3

Summer is so full of outdoor activities that it affects the home automation projects, but one thing I had to work with for several reasons was to switch the Vera1 at home with the Vera3 in the cottage.
It was not super smooth transition and actually caused 2 support chats to Vera support.
My first issue was the Vera1 in the cottage. For some reason I could not gain access to it from outside, LAN access worked. Support fixed that and stated that there was actually nothing I could do my self to fix it. So no harm made to my proud at this point :-). Then when I had restored the Vera1 backup to the Vera3 I had no visible z-wave devices. 2 minutes later Mios customer support took care of that also since they were already online.
Also the restore of the Vera3 backup to the Vera1 required a bit of hands on for the support and I'm really super grateful for the help I received. I'm not regularly calling (any) support so this was a pleasant experience in my mind.
Now everything is up and running again and I have plenty of power in the Vera3 for continuing exploring the possibilities with Vera and home automation.

Fibaro (3 in 1) door sensor

This evening was spent with Fibaro's Z-wave enabled (3 in 1) Door / Window sensor.
Fibaro makes the a lot of very usefull things to the z-wave world but this door sensor left me wonder if I did the right decission to spend my own money here...
I start with the good things.
The sensor is very small, but the casing feels very fragile and you wonder several times if it will break before it's mounted on the door frame.
It has some ER14250 battery, but you better remember which ways it goes in since it's not visible in the manual or in the device itself. Good thing is that the battery should last for years and are not much more expensive than other, if you can find it.
Edit. The battery did not last for years. I needed a new one after only some month, but that was probably due to the issue with leaving the device not attached to the magnet, so it was basicly triggered the whole time. I have seen this with other magnetic door sensor also so it might be a z-wave thing. Battery costed me 9.99€ from Clas Ohlson Art Nr. 36-5215 (SAFT LS-14250 3.6V)
Inclusion... Was somewhat confusing but not worse then other devices. Issue seemed for me that if you include two door sensors with tmp sensors attached you must re-name the temp sensor before you include the sencond one. Or else it's overwritten somehow.

It's pretty neat that you can add the DS18B20 tmp sensor, but if you do that you must reset the device before including it.

How to reset it:

• Take of cover,
• Remove battery
• Make sure Tampere button is intact
• Touch sensor with magnet
• Insert battery
• Remove magnet
• Remove battery
• Re-install battery
• Reset will be confirmed with super short double blink.

Here comes the super tricky thing. It sems like it's almost impossible to mount this on the door frame wihtout resetting it by misstake. So the trick is to first mount it on a mounting plate, then include it, then mount the mounting plate on the door frame where the door sensor already is screwed to. And to be extra sure keep the door open so the magnets is not close when you screw it on. It's a bit confusing and actually render the tamper switch useless, since somebody can just unscrew the mounting plate.

My idea was to use the tmp sensor and a momentary switch but it turns out that it's either the magnetic switch or the momentary switch. So this device is more like (3 in 1, but not more than 2 at a time) http://www.vesternet.com/resources/application-notes/apnt-38#.UvkzX7SFnm2

Duewi Duwi Switch on / off FIX!

I have had several Duewi Duwi z-wave socket plug in module that switches istelf on and off constantly. I have sent atleast one back on RMA and got it fixed but in this thread 
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,12500.30.html
somebody has discovered that you can:

changed 4 under device options to 0

This fixed it! So far it seems to be working without any issue.
Nah. Issue is back... So now my only hope is that some body will post a comment on how to repair this thing.

4 is Relay output 1 and 5 is relay output 2
Therefore add these as monitored device options
If they are not zero then change from monitor to 1 byte dec and set as 0

Foscam FI9805W and Micasa Vera

Purchased the Foscam FI9805W for 158€ online, no shipping cost, since I needed a good outdoor camera with IR.
It was a bit tricky to add to the Vera so I have documented it here.

First download the firmware and upgrade your cam, registration is needed.
This tutorial is based on:
System Firmware 1.4.1.9
Application Firmware 2.14.2.8
Plug-In Version 2.0.2.10

Under Port settings I changed HTTP port to 80. Seems to require a restart.
Remeber other basic stuff as changing user name, password, Camera time etc.

In Vera I had already a PTZ cam from foscam but I went ahead and installed a newer foscam app from the app store. Foscam IP Camera 2.6

The I installed the camera the "normal" way. Selecting add IP camera, select Foscam from dropbox. In the picture box I added:
/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=snapPicture2&usr=YOURUSERNAME&pwd=YOURPASSWORD&
(don't forget the last & after the password!)

Username and Password must also be filled in into each own boxes.

When the camera is added I added also the MAC, changed timeout to 10.
impl_file I_FoscamPTZ.xml
device_file D_DigitalSecurityCamera2.xml

And there it is. Visible in Vera!
The preview icon did not work at the beginning but without actions it's now working ok, one day after. 

Vera U17 Beta program is open

You can sign up on:
http://getvera.com/beta/

New Vera Model, U16 and new App to control the goodies.

Sometimes you find the latest news in your twitter feed:

 

·   @jacksonj04  Vera Mobile ( http://t.co/cKtJeVIWhA ) is compatible with UI5, where MMS Vera ( http://t.co/HgtP48brmi ) is designed to work w/ UI6. 4 days ago 

 

 Vera Mobile is the new client for your iPhone, Ipad or Android. It works very well and has suberb respons. Anything new for Windows Phone, nah...

 

·   @docduv  VeraLite G ( http://t.co/EFbfiF6cjL ) has the all the same features and performance, just in a slightly more compact chassis.

 

VeraLite G is even smaller than Vera Lite and connects straight to the brand new U16 user interface, something that the 100.000 rest of us just have to wait for... 

 

Arduino and Vera

Here is a link to a very good and easy to understand web page http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_arduino-sensor/wiki that describes more or less exactly step by step how to build the following devices for your MiCasa Verde Z-wave Home automation system togheter with Arduino. So if you are into Vera and Z-wave but still need some help with Arduino this the place to start. Winter is still long and cold and there is time for more projects!

By combining the Micaseverde Vera an Arduion Gateway and sensors you can add each sensor for somewhere between 10-20$, A lot cheaper than the price for similar Z-wave devices and you also get the great feeling of building something yourself thanks to Mr Ekblad's excellent descriptions!

Sensors

Temperature Sensor
Distance Sensor
Humidity Sensor (DHT22)
Light Sensor

Energy Meter - Pulse Sensor
Water Meter - Pulse Sensor
Motion Sensor
Pressure/Temperature/Weather forecast sensor (BMP085)
Soil Moisture Sensor
Relay Actuator

Relay Actuator with a button
IR Sender and Receiver
Servo Actuator For your DIY cheap blind controller project !

Another Bright Morning

Sometimes Z-wave might be not be the ultimate solution for every issue. A simple IR-enabled light that will trigger on motions would just do it. Altought there is (LED)light bulb's with this functionlity they are not easy to stumble over at your local LED dealer. I have no clue why they are so hard to find!
By a co-incident I stumbled over the out-door light products with IR-sensor from www.steinel.de
"Für Heimwerker und Privatanwender", but they do have a english site also.
I directly bought one of their lights and replaced the one I had and now I have hands free light where I need it.

SmartLight

This evenig light project was to link my lights to the door switch. Easy trick that I use frequently with Z-wave Module like this in the picture from e.g. Fibaro and a magnet switch by the door.

As soon the door is opened you have the light started. No need to walk cross the room or fiddle in the dark for the light switch. Program a scene and the light come of when you decide.
This time I hide the Fibaro "puck" inside the lamp.
Additional feature with the Z-wave controlled lighting is that it let me turn on the light automaticaly when watching the place over the IP-Camera.

Z-wave Fibaro Door Sensor with temp and button.

I have seen a lot of diffrent door sensors and also noticed Fibaro's own. It turn out that I had not looked good enough... There is a block where you can attach an temperature sensor and a switch. Pretty neat trick to make more use of your investment!


Check all of it out at http://www.fibaro.com/de/das-system-fibaro/door-window-sensor

Android phone or Tablet as camera & Firmware 2.2.1 Renesas Haipad

If you already have a tablet or a android phone and might be looking for another cam, look no further, you can install something like:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acontech.android.SmartWebCam

and then you suddenly have another network available IP cam. For nothing!

But as always it seems to be a lot what type of Android you have. So far I have not been able to get any versions working on my Haipad http://868mhz.blogspot.com/2011/10/haipad-m9-jextab-a9-time2touch-hc701a.html

I tried to go one step up with the firmware from the Renesas 2.2 to 2.3 but it seems like that comes with some nasty bugs. One of them is that some WLAN access points does not work. So it was a no go after several attempts.And then findin out to the Firmware I had previously installed and blogged about here http://868mhz.blogspot.fi/2012/07/android-tablet-haipad-m9-firmware-update.html
was not anymore available. Seems like the company behind this pad is no more. But look and behold and after the long weekend of attempts I stumbled upon this link:
http://www.bergfiles.com/i/bf45106ec5h32i0
And listing the firmware:

RENA3-FW-0616-Modded-FullMarket.zip
The installation was clearly different from the other that I tested but all side buttons work and I can select to root it if needed (still don't really know the exact reason, right now)

Still no IP cam of my Haipad :-(