Cheap Wireless Sensors by Cao Gadgets

[Jingoro]

Saw these on Engadget...

http://wirelesstag.net/index.html

Only $15 a tag, and comes with motion and temperature sensors. "Ultra low power" too. Gateway costs $50 though.

I wonder if these can work with Homeseer? I can see a multitude of uses with these!

[Rupp]

These look very interesting and seems to have been designed to over come some of the RFID drop outs we commonly see. If they had an SDK then this would be icing on the cake.

[GatorEye]

They look fantastic, but I don't see an SDK and I'm not thrilled that everything goes back to their servers. If you could have a way to keep all the information on a local server without hitting their cloud the possibilities would be endless. Plus the ability to make my own web/mobile app to interact with it would be perfect.

[TechHA]

Very interesting product with a lot of potential. Looks like they are already out of stock and have raised the price of the tag manager to $69. If they made this without the need to be in the cloud I would be all over it. The cloud should be an option, not a requirement. What happens if they go belly up in a year from now, all these devices just become paper weights.

[Rotech]

I emailed them to ask if this can be used within the network and if it was possible to integrate to HA software, let's see what happens.

[heatvent]

If you look at the about page they talk about a usb stick and PC app for the first generation that they abandoned in favor of the hub and tablet app.

Information on first generation here

http://www.caogadgets.com/

[Jingoro]

The first generation has a range of 100ft, while the new one has a range double of that.

I had emailed them about API availability as well, but have not heard anything yet. They seemed kinda swamped and unprepared after the Engadget article.

Sucks that they jacked the price up by $19. Hopefully the popularity will allow them to sell it at a lower price!

[Steve Q]

Very interesting! I think they have made the correct decision by making it cloud based. Using cloud technology simplifies everything and creates an environment where anybody with a smart phone can use this technology. (is the number a billion now?). Existing Home automation systems are a drop in the bucket.

I'm sure there will be lots of ways that we will be able to use this with Homeseer. If it flies, I think this could have a huge positive impact on home automation.

Steve Q

[GatorEye]

I asked them the same questions and heard back. He said once they catch up on filling all the back orders in a month or so, they will release a web service API and the source of the mobile apps that people can use to develop their own apps.

Looks promising!

[Jingoro]

They updated their FAQ with a lot of answers to these questions (and more)...

http://wirelesstags.myshopify.com/pa...sues-solutions

This one was particularly interesting...

Can I use this product with my own server?
There are very complicated steps to run the mytaglist.com server-side software on your own server. You need to set up a MSSQL database and release your own version of the iOS/android app also. (these apps' source code we will include in a SDK as examples to help people develop apps that uses mytaglist.com web-service) You need iOS developer program ($100/year). If there is popular demand like this, we will develop a special home server version of tag manager, which would allow people to connect to the tag manager hardware to configure which server it should connect to. A special server-side software supporting limited numbers of tag manager will be released in binary form. Send an email to homeserver@wirelesstag.net to vote for/against this version, and how much the price should be, to help us decide if to release this version.

and this..

Will we charge for usage of mytaglist.com and associated Web service?
We will not charge anything for the online service as long as we are in business. It costs us very little to run the servers. We will soon set up a mytaglist.com server clone (mytaglist.net) at UK and European orders will connect to this server for faster response time.
One reason our product is set up this way, is to prevent competitors from copying our product. Our hardware will be easy to replicate, especially by large companies specializing in consumer electronics. However, years of hard work has gone into the firmware and server side software development. By providing server side software in the form of web-service, we can prevent competitors from quickly developing similar products.

[Moskus]

That's good and all, but without an API it can't really do anything special other than notify your phone about something...

If an API is in the works, it would be great.

[Rotech]

Hey guys, they released the API for the sensors here:

http://wirelesstags.myshopify.com/blogs/news

Hope someone can make it happen."..

[TechHA]

The release of an API is a great step. I also noticed this in the blog:

"Current sensor tags is under development and will be released by end of this year. This interests us immensely, imagine knowing how much electricity each appliance used each day, each month, and knowing at a glance, anywhere with Internet access, if each machine/equipment is on or off and how much electricity it is using. This tag will have a unique, custom designed transformer based 50/60Hz AC current sensor which attaches to a power outlet without physical contact (this will not be a series resistor type sensor which introduces power loss and reliability/safety concerns). No tools will be required for installation/removal."

Great news!

[mbdirtfarmer]

Id put this **** on everything!

noticed this in the "About", 433Mhz, hmmm, RFXComm???

"After evaluating different wireless technology from 13MHz band used by RFID tags to 2.4GHz band used by Zigbee and Bluetooth, we decided on 433MHz band since it had the longest range at given power consumption."

[reidfo]

Wow, this looks great! I'm going to email them for more information regarding using this with HA. Their comment in the FAQ about running your own server is intriguing and makes me think that developing a HomeSeer plugin wouldn't be that difficult. If I get a good response back from them I will purchase a few tags and a hub and start work on a plugin. I have been looking for an RFID-type solution to detect when our cars are in the driveway, and this is just about perfect for that and lot more.