Mill WiFi Socket Gen3

The Norweigian product Mill WiFi Socket Gen3 is a plugin module for controlling your wall mounted electric panel heaters via a schedule or then link them with your home automation and trigger it from there.

November 2023 i purchased my first one, shortly after the 2nd one and very shortly after that I replaced one panel heater with the Mill panel heater.

They all been doing very well lowering my electric bill while we are out and keeping us warm and cozy while we are home.

I really appreciate the mobile app and theyvare easy to integrate with e.g home assistant.

I have had one issue with one plug in module. It stopped heat one room and only the relay clicked on/ off. Reset did not help. They have a 5 year warranty so I got it replaced but then when trying to include the one I got from the store it only repeately ask me to upgrade the firmware.

I was not able to pass that step on my Samsung S24+. Until i tested with my previous phone the Samsung S22. There it worked. I assume this is a issue in their app that I hope they fix soon.

Until next time.

QNAP NAS ERROR CODE: 4

You would, could and should assume that a device created, assembled and soled by one manufacturer, think Tesla, Mac, KONE-elevators etc would be a piece of cake to update with latest firmware, if it's even have to be done manually 2021. 

But for the QNAP NAS Model TS-231P2 it turned out to be a tiny bit of challenge since at some point in time or to be more exact the 20190918 they had a small bug released in the first 4.4 build the 4.4.1.1064 build, but the day after they released a fix for it being the 4.3 version:

4.3.6.1070 build 20190919    2019-09-19

Unfortunately for me that was not clearly mentioned that the only firmware upgrade I could do was to the  4.3.6.1070 build and not any of the newer builds and there were a lot of them since I had patched last time!

After I had got the 4.3.6.1070 successfully installed I could go with the latest Firmware available. 

So there it was... Done for the moment!

Seems like they now support automatic patching and re-boot which I suggest you enable (can I turn of the sound somewhere that it makes when it boot? Please let me know in the comments)

NEXA PLUG-IN, ON/OFF Zwave AN-180

A basic plug-in module supporting z-wave plus standard. Easy to include to vera and very good build quality.

Aeotec LED Bulb 6

AEOTEC LED Bulb 6 was easy to add to vera. Just go to include devices and then turn on the light. 

You can select the dimmer strength etc after it has been included. 

The lights reacts slower than expected and seem to have a delay up to 10s before they react on the command sent. This make them not so use-full in connection with e.g a magnetic door contact. 

The light itself is comparable with other LED's I have.

Hank Scene Controller SKU: HKZW-SCN04

Hank Scene Controller a.k.a Szenschalter 1

SKU: HKZW-SCN04 Technisat

hmm.. not sure what I bought but the description said Remote Control with 4 buttons. The manual is in germany, but the site I bought it from had a link with better instructions:

http://manuals-backend.z-wave.info/make.php?lang=en&sku=HKZW-SCN04&cert=ZC10-16095219

Twist lock of the back side and the battery compartment was visible, the battery and a USB cable is include.

The included battery is of type LIR2450 3.6 volt and should apparently be rechargeable lithium ion and charge itself via the usb cable.  

Inclusion is of the old-style, press a button super fast many times and then it did pop-up in my Vera and see and behold it's very simple to assign already created scenes to it. It seems like only scenes can be controlled and not individual devices via the gateway, but write a comment if I'm wrong on that point.

2000 devices running 10 years on coin cell battery

When the team in Z-wave alliance takes the leap from home automation to IoT it seems pretty interesting. Like the news that the new long range devices can run 10 year on a coin cell battery.
Support for 200 devices with 4x the range.

Go have a look at the specs and do comment bellow if this is what you will enlighten your Christmas with.

 https://z-wavealliance.org/z-wave-alliance-announces-new-z-wave-long-range-specification/

 

Fibaro Smart Implant

https://www.fibaro.com/en/products/smart-implant/

Fibaro will release the Fibaro Smart Implant. What a name! All friends of cyber-anything must love such a name as Smart Implant!
What it basicly does is take your normally stupid device and turn it into something you can connect to your zwave gateway and controll from e.g. remote, with your voice or via a schedule.

Slow Samsung S8 Oreo. Solved!

Updated, since I found the issue.

Suddenly my Samsung S8 Android Oreo become un-responsive and very slow. 

Screen button was tactile but power button did not work, unless presses for very long time.. 

When it decided to unlock the screen it sometime paused or froze using the apps and browsing.

I installed a CPU monitor (Tinycore) and noticed that the cores 5,6,7,8 never got above 741Mhz. 

First I tried to start the phone in fail safe mode and it did help! So then we can rule out the phones own hardware. So the suggestion was to uninstall the app causing this. How can you find that out without a working CPU monitor / app in Oreo. Impossible, unless rooted.

I uninstalled a lot of apps to no help.

I wiped the cache partion and immediately after I wiped the cache partitions the second half of the cores could use all their power.

I did it twice, but it has not completely solved the issue.Just that when the phone gets slow it has more CPU capacity to not go totally slow.

Wipe cache partition

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys ('Installing system update' will show for about 30 - 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
5. Press the Power key to select.
6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Solution

Then I got to think that maybe it's the SD card. I checked the My Files -> and there it said SD card Not inserted.
So something has happened with the SD card (possible Max write cycles) so I opened the sim card / memory card holder and removed the SD card and since then it has been working perfectly again.

Plugging the SD card into my computer still shows the content on it so it might have been just bad contact also in this case.

Qubino, Flush On/Off Thermostat 10A

Well,
Home automation is not always unicorn and rainbows...

In the autumn I ordered, well in time for the colder weather to set in and a bit of needed time for me to install it, The Qubino Flush On/Off Thermostat 10A.

 

I especially selected the Qubino since it was mentioned on the Vera home page to be supported. Ding and Darn I was wrong... Vera does not have support in the Firmware to for the constantly heat function which is the function I wished for, since I have own thermostats in the heater and wanted to use this only to lower the room temperature when needed. E.g. when somebody is out for a longer period and the crib don't necessarily have the need to be fully heated.

As some forum posters on the Vera support site already have posted out that's not the case and now we have been waiting for a firmware that hopefully is coming (my unqualified guess) by summer when I'm not in need for a thermostat any longer...

Well, next* future winter I might be able to use it....

Lesson learned, always check on Vera support forum first...

*Noticed on the forum that issue is still not solved...

Domitech z-wave smart LED light bulb

This is a 60-watt z-wave enabled light with dimming function.

It was long time ago since I installed a z-wave plus device and it's so easy from the Mios.com Vera when you just need to drill down to the light in the list, instead of the early devices where you had to press a tiny button in the right moment, sometimes as fast as possible. 

The light is not larger than any normal LED light and the color is very nicely and warm. Build quality was as far as I could tell also OK.

Dimming function from the Vera worked very well. Just slide it. From the scenes you can set the percentage. The light is supposed to remember the setting when started next time.

So in perfect timing for the dark autumn evenings the porch is lit.

Uplay.exe - System Error libcef.dll is missing caused by Winzip.

Uplay.exe - System Error
The program can't start because libcef.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

Thats what faced me today :-(

Turn out that I had installed Winzip and it seems to destroy some dll links.

Fix it this way:
1) Uninstall winzip
2) Re-start
3) Re-install uplay
4) Game-on!
:-)

Telldus goes z-wave

In Sweden there is one provider that seems to be available in every store, that I visit :-)
http://www.telldus.se/
Telldus has a very price friendly approach with user friendly equipment so now when I noticed that they are going to launch a z-wave gateway and possible later some own z-wave plug in socket modules I got excited.
If you want to start shopping (probably Swedish only) right away, you'll find all you need here:
https://www.m.nu/telldus-znet-lite-forhandsbestallning-preliminar-leverans-september-p-2341.html
 

Z-wave DIN rail devices.

The lack of Z-wave DIN rail devices seem to constantly be something that pauses house builders to jump directly into the Z-wave home automation world. Luckily when there is a need there is also a solution, unfortunately it's not directly from the shelf, but if you can build a house I believe this is a piece of cake.

http://www.abavala.com/test-support-rail-din-pour-module-z-wave-fibaro/
http://www.vesternet.com/knowledgebase/technical/kb-17

Rasp Pi temp sensor is back!

For a long, long time my one wire temp sensor that is connected to my Raspberry Pi and integrated to my Vera has shown identical value.
I was pretty sure some upgrade of the Raspberry Pi had broken it some how and after some evening of googling I found a way to see the temperature again:

Disable the device tree:
$ sudo raspi-config
Goto 8) Advanced -> A5) Device Tree and choose no.
 
Install the updater firmware updater:
$ sudo apt-get install rpi-update

Then update (don't forget to take backup etc, etc.) and reboot:
$ sudo rpi-update
$ sudo ldconfig
$ sudo reboot
to update your Rpi firmware
WARNING: This update bumps to rpi-4.0.y linux tree
Be aware there could be compatibility issues with some drivers
Discussion here:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=113753

See and behold, the temperature is correct.

Invisible Door / windows sensor.

An invisible product might be the ultimate indiego campaign, but it's also something that we all has been whising when screwing the magnetic sensors tiny screws, that get stuck constantly in the magnet itself to the door or window post.
Here is now the product to hopefully on day in the future will solve this. Full Z-wave support seems to be promised and as long as you can live with the batteries that you likely not easily find in your closest hardware store, this sensor has all the signs will leave no sign to be a great product :-).

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/strips-the-invisible-window-and-door-sensor#/story

There is already reviwes available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ptE9qgS1_4&feature=youtu.be

New Smart Home Vera models presented on CES 2015

I suggest that you have a look at:
http://www.missingremote.com/news/2015-01-14/veracontrol-ces-2015
to receive a glimpse of what kind of smart home hubs that is coming from Vera in the future. The Vera Edge is something you can pick up already today.
On this link you can see the diffrences in the models:
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/10/ebbb9d3f93ea60006eaf9b03ad1e2dc9.jpg
I assume the Vera Pro is burried at this phase, but the future looks very bright :-)

Evida Z-Wave Touch Light Panel Switch

A touch switch for your light, that does not require a neutral wire*, will definitely speed up the z-wave roll-out in a post-modern house.


http://evida.com.sg/homeautomation/product/z-wave-triple-light-panel-switch/

Price is promised to be around 100 Singapore Dollar's when available in stores.

*If somebody could confirm this, since the link above is dead, it would be useful.

D-link goes Z-wave and Wifi.

One of the most noticed news from CES 2015, for myself, was the fact that D-link starts to provide us with sweet Z-wave gadgets from now on.


http://us.dlink.com/products/connected-home/z-wave-doorwindow-sensor/

If you prefer to be able to connect things directly to Wifi, then D-link is also starting to sell some Home Automation products, like DCH-S160 water sensor &  DCH-S220 siren later this year.

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