Re: A mentor / Advisor ?

["Dean Roddey" <droddey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The old modules should continue to work. I agree that 6 modules isn't any
sort of real test. Some folks have larger systems than that of course. Newer
modules can send async change notifications, using a sort of trick that gets
around the (stupid) Lutron patent, as discussed in the previously linked
thread.

RadioRA is two way, though only on/off status is returned, not dimmer level,
which is the biggest limitation of RA really, well that and it's limited to
32 loads for a single unit, max of 64 with two linked units. But that's not
a huge limitation for most people.

I think that for one way control, you can have a Z-Wave module at a pretty
good distance from its nearest neighbor. Not sure about good two way control
though. I've not ever tried it. A guy in the linked thread took one out to
the end of the driveway and said he had no problems controlling it from
inside the house. Not sure if that would remain so over time, or how it
would do if it had to be polled, or how reliable async change notifications
would be seen.

---------------------
Dean Roddey
Chairman/CTO, Charmed Quark Systems, Ltd
www.charmedquark.com
> So what do early adopters now do with their first generation hardware? Can
> they co-exist with the "maybe better" later things?
>
> Not to denigrate your hands-on experience but six modules in a small
> apartment is probably not a good predictor for dozens of modules in a
> large
> residence (e.g. Bruce Robin's Insteon installation). Lutron suggests RF
> repeaters within 26 feet of each other for RadioRA (and I believe that is
> just one-way). I would expect Z-Wave to need similar density for
> reliability. And, unless one of the changes is an increase in max_hops,
> the
> size of an installation is inherently limited so your apartment may not be
> atypical in terms of size.
>
> Unfortunately, unless you are building a new house and can hardwire it
> during the construction phase, you are pretty much limited to wireless
> and/or PLC so the question for most people is which less-than-optimal,
> non-hardwire solution is best.
>
> Insteon is two-way with (reasonably fast) automatic ACKs so there's no
> necessity to poll.