It sees like consumer electronics manufacturers are taking another run at home automation with a wave of new products...here's the Belkin WeMo Home Automation Switch, which are modules that communicate via WiFi and don't require a central controller.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089WFPRY/ -Turn Electronics on/off from Anywhere -Motion Control your Lamp, never walk into a dark room again -Get SMS or Email Notifications when movement is detected at home (powered by IFTTT.com) -You've already got everything you need: WeMo works with your existing Wi-Fi router and any Apple iPod touch, iPhone, iPad - iOS v5 or higher -Modular system. You can add additional WeMo Switches and WeMo Motion sensors easily, any time. Control as much or as little of your house as you want to -Operates over Wi-Fi and mobile internet, at home and away A "Before you Buy" review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD_MbTB4NqY Currently selling for $72 for a lamp module and a motion sensor. $47 for just the lamp module. (The bundle is in the same ballpark as what you'd pay for Z-Wave modules, as motion detectors typically run $50+, but lamp modules can be found for as little as $20.) Clearly if you want to outfit a whole house with automation, this isn't the way to go as Belkin has a very limited selection of devices (just the two, I think; I also see a baby monitor that may or may not interact with these devices). But it could be a good fit if you only need to control a few plug-in devices and don't want the bother of a central controller. It can be controlled from mobile devices. It was iOS only when released, but Amazon comments say there is limited support for Android app (in beta). I'm guessing the device makes an outbound connection to a Belkin web site, and that's how they facilitate it being controlled by the IFTTT.com cloud service (where you can create rules to turn things on/off in response to motion sensor input or other info gathered from the Internet; see http://www.amazon.com/review/RMGPVPT1LXOZH/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_1 ). http://www.amazon.com/review/R32HEKEUJQTV6N/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_3 Pretty cool device since it is able to talk over the internet with no router port forwards, static ip address configuration or any networking knowledge. It just does it all itself, you don't even have to register an account. The scary part about that automatic config is that it must be talking to one of belkin's servers to perform this remote trick, which means if Belkin decides to kill the product and turn the servers off you basically have a paperweight. I get the impression that the lamp module has a built-in scheduler, but it sounds like they didn't bother to put a web UI on it - only manageable via a proprietary app. It sounds like if you are not making use of IFTTT.com, it doesn't depend on a WAN link, and will continue operating if your Internet is down. Obviously if you do use IFTTT.com, all bets are off when your WAN is down. Several reviewers noted the use of "open standard" WiFi as a benefit to this device, but if it uses a proprietary interface and depends on the manufacturer's servers, it's hardly open. I'd rather used a licensed protocol like Z-Wave, which can be managed with open source software, and easily integrated into larger projects without relying on the vendors servers. Apparently they also tend to crash "...on the order of once every 2 to 3 weeks." -Tom _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
