Re: Fuller UK Z-Wave Range on the way

[Mal Lansell <mal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

One other interesting development is a ZWave SDK from
www.controlthink.com, which is to accompany their Intermatic ZWave USB
interface.  They have decided to produce a European version as well as
the US version.  Both are under development at the moment, but the beta
SDK can be obtained by preordering the interface.  The SDK also works
with the existing ZWave USB interfaces (one which you can get from
www.letsautomate.com), so if you want to do some development, you can.

The plan is to make the SDK license key available for a small fee
without the hardware, so apps can be written that support any of the USB
interfaces, with the user only required to enter their key to activate it.

The UK ZWave plug-in dimmer and switch modules are around £35, which
although more than X10 at around £20 is not bad when compared to the
likes of Cbus etc, and being RF also have the advantage of not requiring
a rewire job.  The devices also report status, and messages are
confirmed, so there's none of that dodgy press and pray nonsense of
X10.  There's also none of the lag.

Using the SDK, I've already got ZWave working with xPL.  I just have to
wait for the final version of the SDK along with the licensing scheme
before I can release the application.

Mal



Mark McCall wrote:

>We've just received an update from ZenSys on the availability of new UK
>Z-Wave products. The bad news is there's not much firm information yet.
The
>good news is they are working on full range of products for the British
>market...
>
>"Unfortunately I do not have a lot of news for you, since most of
what I
>know from our Z-Wave Partners about their product plans is covered by
the
>mutual NDAs that we normally sign. But you can be sure that we work
>diligently on getting a fuller range of Z-Wave enabled products for the
UK
>market. I know it is frustrating for your readers and Home Automation
>enthusiast, that so few products are available, but it takes quite a
long
>time to develop a new product line and as they say - Rome wasn't build
in a
>day.
>
>The problem we face in Europe is of course the many different regional
or
>even country specific standards, which makes it harder for the various
>market players to put together a business plan, since the customer base
they
>can address is of course much smaller than in the US, where more than a
>hundred different products are available now, and twice that many will
be
>available by summer of next year...
>
>As soon as we have more news I will let you know immediately, and I
would
>like to take this opportunity to thank both you and the Automated Home
users
>for your continuing support of Z-Wave, and for the many test and
evaluations
>your users have made, and for the valuable feedback our Z-Wave Partners
gets
>from "Super Users" like yourself.
>
>http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/article1639.html
>
>
>