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ZigBee Pro, the New Home Automation Standard?
An anonymous reader writes "Echelon, Microsoft, Intel, Sun and the Electronic Industries Alliance have been trying to create a home automation standard for two decades — to no avail. Now the ZigBee Alliance, proprietor of a low-rate two-way wireless mesh networking technology, says it will prevail. In six weeks, automation vendor Control4, which has about one million ZigBee nodes installed, will flip the switch on the new ZigBee Pro, which promises interoperability among light switches, thermostats, door locks, motorized shades, security systems, remote controls and some 36 million electric meters."
That does not compute.
I love the idea of home automation, then I realize that my light switch isn't that far away.
light switches, thermostats, door locks, motorized shades, security systems, remote controls and some 36 million electric meters.
But I'd really prefer if my locks remain off any kind of network and have my security system talk over good old-fashioned copper.
I've been hearing about ZigBee and Z-Wave for years. But if you look at what's out there available to you, it's crap. Poor selection, limited capability, and a high price.
Meanwhile, Smarthome and their INSTEON protocol have a broad selection of very powerful and flexible components, available today at a good price. For a DIY home-automation job, there's no contest.
Personally, I think INSTEON will become the de-facto standard that takes over from X-10. The others are just not competitive in the ways that matter.
I sound like a shill, I know. Sorry. I just like Smarthome stuff. But I wish they wouldn't embarrass me by hawking pseudo-science crap like electromagnetic water softeners.
Take off every 'ZIGBEE'!!
"Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as the abuses of power." -- James Madison
...ZigBee? Who the hell came up with that name?
The main problem with advanced home automation is the cost, inoperability between brands (which works into the cost since you have to buy everything from the same company) and basic problems with those networks. They mostly work in the 2.4GHz band (where the average microwave oven and just about any wireless device operates) which causes random issues with connectivity and synchronization. And then they have the most awful interfaces to program it. They mostly work in Windows and crash at random are difficult to decipher and if you're lucky enough to get a web interface you're stuck with ActiveX controls. And then if you want to make it work with other things, there is no scripting language for it.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
I like the idea of home control, lights that turn on and off, and I've been doing it with X10 for about 20 years. But I realize it has problems, poor reliability, requires neutral in the switch box for most installations, switches and outlets that actually stop functioning after 2 years, limited availability, poor selection of switch types and colors, and extremely high prices.
So Insteon comes out and solves the first problem, and nothing else. Hey, dig that light switch for $45 plus shipping! (http://www.smarthome.com/2476S/SwitchLinc-Relay-INSTEON-Remote-Control-On-Off-Switch-Non-Dimming-White/p.aspx). A standard switch costs all of $1.
And ZigBee doesn't even have interoperability on it's side? And I'm guessing we're not going to see remote switches for $1. I'd even settle for $5-10. I'm guessing the switches will cost $70. It's like they aim at the high-end of the market to get a little traction, then settle comfortably into selling $45 light switches.
It's been many years, and I guess the market isn't there, because everything we have now is overpriced and underperforming.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
How encumbered is Zigbee? I've been looking for a home automation standard that is not burdened with patent or copyright siliness.
Does it run on Linux?
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
Home automation != computers. Something that all those creating a "standard" seem to forget. Home automation standards need to be simple, secure, robust, guaranteed to be available for about 20 years, and being able to function independent from a PC. (Chances are that the PC as we know it may not even exist anymore in 20 years)
Usually these requirements fall victim to some compromise. I mean, wireless connections ?, come on, don't tell me that you think the security system will not be completely ripped apart in 20 years. Hell, I doubt it survives the first 5 years.
As someone who earns his money in industrial automation it amazes me how limited these home automation firms think. They want me to buy multiple sensors each with only one I/O point on them??? They want me to buy plastic toy-like stuff that breaks if you push the contact a few thousand times? And then there is the matter of future-proofing: in 5 years time nobody will be able to read the sensors anymore that you bought because "everybody" is on the new standard. What about spare parts for existing stuff, are they expecting me to rewire the house each time they come up with a new platform? Not a chance.
Then there is software: Windows XP, maybe with .net, was a valid choice for building the interface when the company designed it a few years ago but I expect my light switch to last at least 25 years.
These days you can run an oil refinery with a touch of a button and keep it running for 20 years with available spare parts. And you can get data in & out of that system in any format you want. Show me the same on a scaled down version for my home and I'll start installing it...
I don't understand what the problem with home automation is. Why does it need to be decentralized? You could have one switch station in the cellar, a small router running Linux would be fine. Then you connect that to a self-built electric autoswitchboard, connect a few sensors and cameras to the Linux box and do the rest in software. No need for proprietary light switches, but of course you need a separate wire for every light switch/bulb, a problem which can be solved by small "satellites" in each room, minimizing the need for extra copper. That solution is far superior IMO, you could for example trace the people in the house and only have lights in the rooms with actual persons in them, same for the speakers. Imagine, the music follows you!
Gee, I wonder who cuts paychecks for the "anonymous reader"?
Standards aren't really standards at all if they're simply rammed down the throats of consumers by a dominant entity, whether that entity is Microsoft or ZigBee.
Who'd think a signals intelligence analysis network can help in home automation? Pretty revolutionary thinking. It didn't occur to me.
I've invested in relays and dimmers from National Control Devices and have run Cat 5e all over my apartment, even into my light switches and where I expect to put sensors in the future. It's hard-wired, hence secure and safe from interference, and speaks via simple ASCII to a serial port which available on nearly any embedded controller. The great thing about serial is that you can add a dirt cheap serial-usb or serial-ethernet interface.
I'm not really interested in a proprietary interface like Zigbee. What is needed is a HA API. That way you can write a driver for all the proprietary protocols such as this, as well as things like ProXR, Dallas 1-wire, DMX, and many more.
Some ideas for a back-end to the API can be taken from the aging Perl app Mister House. What would then be a REALLY nice addition is a MythTV module front-end so you can control the whole house via your television.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
The nice thing about X-10 is that the protocol is simple and there are lots of devices that work with it, most of which are relatively inexpensive. It's also friendly to the home hobbyist, and the hacker, since you can buy interfaces that will hook up to your PC via a serial port and write your own scripts, or download free software like Misterhouse.
If I can't turn my outside lights on at sunset via a script, then turn that script into a cron job, don't even talk to me about it. I'll write the interface myself, just give me a clean API I can code to.
We hate it when Microsoft or Apple take the attitude of "No, we won't open up our API and play nice with the open source crowd. At best we will make you join our developer program and sign an NDA. At worst we won't talk to you at all."
When the home automation vendors do it, they're no better. They don't deserve our respect or our help.
Zigbee pro is not new. They may have a newer version but it has been around for years. The main issue with any zigbee chip is its high current draw. You need at least 55mA for receiving data and if you run a mesh network, you cannot use power saving built into the chip. Older chips are not compatible with newer versions even thought they are labeled the same, and there are numerous unexplained problems with them. Unless you are running from the mains and hence don't need to conserve power, give them a miss. Plus they run at 2.4GHz, so you get interference issues. They also don't use a standard pin pitch so you have to make a breakout board or spend extra for SIL sockets (x2). Been there, done that. Sure, if you have unlimited budget you can play with them, but they are not as good as they like to make out. Plus in the EU you are limited to 10dB output, when the pro versions are capable of 100dB.
The chips are known as XBee, the protocol is zigbee. They promise long battery life - probably true if you run off a car battery ! Try running them off AAs or PP3. You need at least 2500MaH to last a few days if they are set up to listen for data. And that includes power saving produced by hacks. Transmit I can make last for 1.5 months, if it is intermittent (ie, on an alarm condition), but the receive always has to be ready, hence the high power requirement.
I interviewed there. Interesting company...it was very disorganized though.
Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Faith is a vice. Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
In six weeks, automation vendor Control4, which has about one million ZigBee nodes installed, will flip the switch on the new ZigBee Pro ... following which it will become self-aware, and trigger a nuclear apocalypse in self-defense when humans, belatedly realizing what they've created, attempt to turn it off. Will we never learn?
Add personal vibrators (you know what I mean) to the list and we'll have a winner...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Home automation, and especially security, is not something I would want to put on radio waves. That makes it way too open to a denial of service attack. The electrical parts needed to build a device to trash the 2.4 GHz band are readily available (e.g. no security checks to buy a microwave oven) so a person competent in electronics could easily build something that can jam 2.4 GHz.
I do have a home LAN on 2.4 GHz for convenience. But I've also tested most of it directly connected in case that is needed.
Remote controls are nice to have so you don't have to run over to, or reach up to, a switch. But that's just basic convenience. I want everything to also work without remotes when I'm not using remotes 9or when the remotes fail). For example, automated timers to shut things off as scheduled should not use RF, or even open air IR, to do that. It should be "wired" (preferably fiber optic). Critical facilities should not even have a remote option unless that can be made secure.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
The trouble with home automation is that it is far easier to find a light switch in a dark room, than to find the fscking remote control...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
>ZigBee Pro, which promises interoperability among light switches, thermostats, door locks, motorized shades, security systems, remote controls and some 36 million electric meters
Now how could that *possibly* go wrong :o)
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
This is interesting as I just finished writing some code using Microchip's MpZBee stack on the PIC microcontroller. It's interesting to note that ZigBee is a closed standard (last time I checked). In reality, it's a set of improvements on the IEEE standard 802.15.4 which is specifically designed for low rate networks. I wonder what's the general view of ZigBee as a closed standard? Might that get in the way of it being adopted universally?
The Terminator: The Zigbee Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line July 8, 2009. Human decisions are removed from strategic lighting operations. Zigbee begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Karma: Can only be portioned out by the Cosmos.
I Am A Zigbee Programmer.
Some of the points being raised are a bit.. underinformed.
Interoperability: the Zigbee Cluster Library includes standard APIs for many kinds of devices, including lightswitches, HVAC, home security, etc. Devices that are certified to conform to the specification are fully interoperable. The Zigbee APIs are publicly available at zigbee.org.
Battery life: battery powered devices may last for several years if they "sleep" between transmissions. Their "parent" node in the network stores messages destined for the sleeping node. These so-called "sleepy" nodes cannot route for other nodes though, so if you have a physically large network, you'll probably want some non-sleepy devices in there running on building power. This is one of the most important features of Zigbee, and in spite of some of the other commenters here, this is actually real.
Price: this is the key reason why Zigbee will succeed: it is cheaper to retrofit a building with Zigbee devices than to knock out walls and run new wires. It's far more expensive than installing tradition switches in a new building, but that's not the a "use case." My company's clients are all looking at retrofitting HVAC systems on existing buildings and are finding some decent cost savings.
Interference: Zigbee does use the 2.4 GHz band as a lot of other devices, but there are various mechanisms (link-level acks and retries, and some other things I don't understand) built into Zigbee to mitigate this. In our tests, interference has not been an issue. Metal objects such as doors and filing cabinets have been a much bigger problem in our tests.
- Dave
I just bought a Harmony One remote control, and after tinkering quite a bit I'm about 99% happy with it and have it set to control the TV, TiVo, Reciever, even the PS3 (using an RF attachment).
My next step, since I'm replacing the lighting and fan in my living room anyway, is to program the Harmony to control the lighting and fan, too.
I suppose any RF switch will work, but does anyone have any recommendations?
And, is there an add-on that will bring Mountain Dew to me from my fridge?
-David
Zigbee has one failing- its not IP. It reinvents the wheel over proven IP standards like 802.11. And attempts to bring IP to Zigbee have been disappointing to say the least because of the small packet size, fragmention, and high likelihood of retransmission being required on busy networks. Zigbee devices, for instance, are permitted to poll the network only every 7 seconds in an attempt to avoid congestion. Imagine that on an IP network?!
I would put my money on companies like Exceptional Innovation (aka Lifeware) who are supporting VERY robust home automation through WiFi standards combined with DPWS. Their software rocks and they've been proven in huge installations!
Coming in second would be ZWave, whose failing is that they are a proprietary standard. However, they have 1000's of devices out there enabled. ZWave has some advantages in transmission frequency (900mhz if I remember correctly), which penetrates walls better than 2.4/5 ghz technologies.
Zigbee/Zigbee Pro- not so much. They are gaining ground, but its a flawed solution in need of a problem that hasn't already been solved. They've been pushing like crazy since its become a popular solution for power metering and AMI standards- but they've hit a niche there and the market is demanding an IP addressable standard with TCP/IP level programmability of services. Zigbee is popular among Electrical Engineers who adore serial communications.
The future of everything is IP. Zigbee promises an IP gateway, but that's not what we need.
Also while Zigbee touts "robust" mesh networking and low power consumption, mesh networking over 802.11 works and 802.11 devices are available with power consumption as low as 7 watts.
Again, Zigbee Pro is a little late. The problem has been solved. Its Wifi and DPWS.
The beautiful thing about zigbee is that it is meshed and that it supports self healing. 2.4ghz interference? No problem. Re-route that signal through another node.
Haven't got enough nodes because you've integrated a 3rd party lighting system? No problems Zigbee Pro will allow for your device to route through the closest Zigbee Access Point.
The issue with Home Automation is that there are no standards across not the Home Automation systems but 3rd party systems such as HVAC, Security, A/V, lighting, etc. This is one step closer to having a easier to integrate HAN.
Home automation has been a buzzword for years but in as mentioned elsewhere in this thread it has never really taken off. Cost, reliability, lack of standards all all good reasons but I think the bottom line is that no-one really needs their home turning lights on and off for security or convenience purposes.
Where I do see some validity is the case where automatic control is used to actually reduce home electrical usage. Imagine your home being able to be put into an sleep or power-down mode using one button when you leave the house. Enough LED lights are kept turning on and off to provide security but all other functions other than those required to keep food fresh or pipes from freezing are disabled. Taken to its limits you could conceivably run a house off battery power for these relatively short periods.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
as i recently tried to use Zigbee Pro in a development project and ended up throwing it away in favor of a custom 900mhz star network, let me say this... ZigBee is poorly designed for almost any application. its a 250k/bit link that at most can pass data at 20kbit, the rest is eaten up in the overhead of the mesh, theres also no support at the protocol level for transmitting information larger than 1 packet, which, if your using encryption, is 70 bytes. Zigbee should stay where it was originally designed for, industrial sensors and hvac controls, for home automation its not enough, light switches, fine...anything that has to listen and take action (window shades) is going to need power anyway and might as well use X10 at that point.
Insteon is really a one trick pony that is pitiful in quality and they are the wrong direction for the technology.
Z-wave (A Zigbee subset) is gaining a lot of support. Levition ViziaRF is the hottest selling system for retrofits for a reason. 100% reliable and 5 year warranties. Advanced lighting automation without neededing a computer and yet integrates easily with HAI or computers.
Smarthome is for hobbyists at best. Z-wave/Zigbee is where the market is going.
ZigBee requires me to place a bunch of 2.4GHz transmitters in and around my house. Isn't that the frequency that my microwave oven, wireless phone, and 802.11g access point use? What about interference problems?
"... does a light dimmer use something like a potentiometer?"
A light dimmer uses a Triac, a semiconductor device that can be turned on at some point during one half-cycle of alternating current. If it is turned on late, the light is dim. If it is turned on earlier, the light is brighter. When the alternating current passes through zero voltage, the device turns itself off.
A Triac is a kind of Thyristor.
(Disclosure/Insight: My company, MMB Research http://mmbresearch.com/, makes ZigBee Smart Energy hardware and software to help people integrate this kind of technology into products, and I've been involved with ZigBee for a number of years.)
A lot of commenters here seem to be comparing the various features of competing home automation technologies, which is certainly appropriate, but you also have to look at the bigger, future picture.
ZigBee - and specifically the ZigBee Smart Energy profile is becoming the standard of choice for in-home networks that will exist on the Smart Grid.
So it's one thing to compare ZigBee to Z-wave or X10 on a merits basis (though I believe it's far superior based on years of real-world experience), but when you consider your utility is going to put a ZigBee Smart Energy enabled meter/gateway in your house, and that hundreds of OEMs are going to be integrating it into wide variety of appliances that can hop on that network, you're going to see drastic reductions in cost, and increases in choice and quality.
In a few years, there might be a handful of WiFi or Z-Wave thermostats (or pool pumps, or light switches), but there will be dozens of ZigBee ones, because the installed user base will be there.
Now, Control4 is talking about ZigBee Pro and the Home Automation profile, which isn't technically part of the Smart Energy profile, but they can coexist, and many developers of Smart Energy products/solutions - including ourselves - have implemented both, opening up the HAN (home area network) to a variety of devices and controls.
For the Electric Dreams remake!
As a (slightly, but progressively) disabled young man, I heartily welcome home automation, as it may allow me to manage on my own for longer.
I found X10 devices failed all the time, and I've seen that mentioned here. But wasn't it the relays in them which failed, not the electronics? That means that any method of controlling a lightswitch would fail, unless you put a better switching mechanism in.
Am I wrong about this?
..and BTW I agree with you, will be to institute selling their electricity to you the same way they have to get it, at variable rates. When they have to go get some peak power juice, the costs go way up, real fast. They might just decide to pass those fees on to you with smarter meters, maybe even down to per minute pricing. You decide to run your heaviest loads during peak power costs for them, be prepared to pay a lot more for it. It could happen! Take them a bit to get it pushed through local legislatures and PUCs, but I am sure they have well trained lobbyists for these tasks.
I work for a controls contractor doing primarily HVAC, central plants, and lighting control in large commercial buildings. The commercial market has changed quite a bit over the last few years, with Tridium leading the way with its qnx-based embedded controllers featuring the niagara-AX framework, adopted by the majority of the big players (Honeywell, Siemens, Johnson Controls, Distech, etc.) http://www.tridium.com/partners Tridium (now owned by Honeywell) has been developing the Sedona Framework - combining 802.15.4 and IPv6 - as an open source project: http://www.tridium.com/galleries/tridiumtalk/SedonaFrameworkand6loWPAN.pdf However, this stuff isn't priced for the home automation market. For those interested in the DIY @home stuff, check out www.iobridge.com/store for some cool web-based i/o control products. They also have an interface to your X-10 modules for less than 20 bucks.
1.) non-critical applications: TV, light, shades
2.) critical application: pumps, heaters, etc...
3.) security items: door openers, intrusion detection, fire detection, etc...
for 1 IR control, maybe wireless possible, but not exclusively
for 2 a constant sensor feedback/monitoring by the central control system is required, with auto-shutdown in case of failure. the power-lines should be the communication medium.
for 3 only a wired system is feasible
- I am dreaming of a cheap downgraded Ethernet with a TP bus and CSMS/CD protocol at 5 or 2 Mbit allowing cheap twisted pair wiring and cheap press-fit connectors. ( If I would get advice on how to make an Ethernet interface with a FPGA I might attempt to do it myself ).
The home controller needs to be able to communicate with all media for 1,2 and 3 as well as with the local home-LAN, the INternet and maybe even get a phone connection, wireless or POTS for alarm calls.
todays Home-control is too expensive: It must cost no more than $ 10 per switched device and it must provide normal operation on the switch location - like the old manual switch additional to remote/central/automatic control. It should directly replace manual switches in the electroc home installation. X10's idea is not bad - but far too expensive and it lacks a built-in back-channel.
zigbee was fine in certain circumstances, but has largely been superceded by IPv6 over Low power WPAN aka 6lowpan Two major advantages of 6lowpan are that it is more or less regular Internet (TCP/IP) the other is that, as a result, more secure and almost infinitely more scalable.
Additionally, zigbee is not a standard, 6lowpan is. That difference has important repercussions for long term planning of projects. The IETF has a good track record for standard maintenance. There are also GPL tools for 6lowpan devices.
6lowpan is more flexible. Unlike zigbee, which is fine in some contexts, 6lowpan works with a variety of wired and wireless, low-power, low-bitrate transmissions.
The Internet is where things happen nowadays. 6lowpan is part of that.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Your nice long post about how great ZigBee is left out a critical flaw with ZigBee - Cost. The per-node costs of every RF-based home automation system I've seen has been ridiculously high.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Try those new backdoors in your back doors!
ZigBee Pro vs "6lowpan"? No contest, mate.
Only because right now, every home automation system is a hobbyist/specialist product. Most people don't even realize that stuff exists, and if they do, don't know where to start/what to choose. So economies of scale aren't there.
Control4 has done a good job marketing their consumer products (with a little help from Oprah).
But when your local utility puts a zigbee gateway in your house, connected to a web-based interface (you know, like Google PowerMeter with some home control stuff built in), it suddenly gets a lot easier. First of all, they've taken care of the control system - usually the most expensive part. Secondly, you can go to Home Depot and pick up a ZigBee thermostat or switch, or even a washer and dryer or fridge (see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUITFR5gA4I)
With major manufacturers pushing out millions of units (because now there's a market of millions of homes for them to go into, many of which getting tax breaks for buying said products), prices will drop dramatically. And I say this with some expertise considering I make the radios that go in these systems.
I have no problem with insteon except for their proprietary nature. Last I checked the best you could do was a closed source .NET SDK with shaky support.
Control4 on Oprah? I gotta start watching.
Zigbee modules were supposed to be better than WiFi or Bluetooth because they were supposed to cost $1 or less to build into a device. But they're not. There should be a $5 Zigbee USB base, or at least satellite device for a $10 hub, but there aren't. Why can't they make these cheap parts for sale cheap?
--
make install -not war
... 2) The ZigBee Alliance have begun incorporating 6lowpan into their portfolio of "standards". The two understand the pervasiveness of IP networking.
Cool. So now 6lowpan is officially the way to head, despite the unfortunate name, even for zigbee projects.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.