HomeTroller Zee right for Mee?

[expo]

Hello

I am interested in setting up a small home automation network and wonder if the "Zee" would be a good fit.

I want to start small, and build up from there. The first thing I want to do is to setup an outdoor motion sensor that will trigger a switch which in turn will turn on a porch light. Pretty basic stuff, no?

My concern is that there aren't many outdoor z-wave motion sensors, and the few that are available seem to have some false detection problems. With that in mind, would the Zee be suited for integrating a NON-Z-WAVE PIR motion sensor? If so, how would be done? I see that the Zee will not support webcams, so I suppose going that route is not feasible.

Thanks in advance
Andy

[macromark]

Andy - The most reliable outdoor motion sensor we carry is made by Dakota Alert and it is not Z-Wave compatible.

However...

You can attach a FortrezZ MIMO Lite to the Dakota Alert receiver and that would transmit status to the Zee every time the Dakota Alert sensor is tripped. That should work nicely.

You'll need

HomeTroller Zee (Ships Oct 1st)
Dakota Alert DCMA-2600 kit (we sell these now)
FortrezZ MIMO LITE (will be in our store next week)

[expo]

Thanks for the solution!!

So even though the Zee doesn't support the Dakota Intrusion alarms, it will instead send a signal to the FortrezZ MIMO Lite which will in turn send a Z-wave signal to the Zee which can be used to trigger the lights, correct?

Andy

[Rick Tinker]

It is more like this:

The Zee does Z-Wave only, which is why it does not support the Dakota directly. The MIMO Lite however is a small device that supports a digital input and a relay output, and it communicates via Z-Wave.

Thus, the Dakota's contact closure output connected to the MIMO input will, when motion is detected, cause the MIMO to send a signal via Z-Wave. That signal can either directly control the light because it is Z-Wave, or if you want to have intelligence (e.g. do not turn on the light during the day) then you can have HomeSeer (the Zee) receive that signal and in turn operate the light.

[macromark]

Thanks for the solution!!

So even though the Zee doesn't support the Dakota Intrusion alarms, it will instead send a signal to the FortrezZ MIMO Lite which will in turn send a Z-wave signal to the Zee which can be used to trigger the lights, correct?

Andy

Yup, Rick Tinker's explanation is more precise, but you get the idea.

ALSO, I forgot to mention one other option. Instead of using the MIMO, you can simply use an Everspring door sensor to convert the Dakota Alert contact closure to a Z-Wave command. There's a wiring diagram in this post that shows how to do it: http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=153851

In the diagram, it's the first option.

[danielbo]

Plug ins

I am still wanting to know will there be plugins that can be installed on the Zee? Will it be like using a computer, and the program that the zee uses, is it HS3? Will it at some time have HS3 phone on it.
All I am noticing now that it does, and might be all it will do, is turn light and appliances on and off the way you program them to.
That would be programming an on time and a off time, or by motion. Is that really the main idea of the Zee.
It has a speaker out put on it, but what is it going to be speaking, what ever you create it to speak, or will it speaking CID?
Last, what about the speaking, some of us use different voices, will we be able to do this, or are you just stuck with the monotone computer voice?

[macromark]

I am still wanting to know will there be plugins that can be installed on the Zee? Will it be like using a computer, and the program that the zee uses, is it HS3? Will it at some time have HS3 phone on it.
All I am noticing now that it does, and might be all it will do, is turn light and appliances on and off the way you program them to.
That would be programming an on time and a off time, or by motion. Is that really the main idea of the Zee.
It has a speaker out put on it, but what is it going to be speaking, what ever you create it to speak, or will it speaking CID?
Last, what about the speaking, some of us use different voices, will we be able to do this, or are you just stuck with the monotone computer voice?

check the FAQ http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=146279

If you need support for all plug-ins, HSPhone, etc... you'll need to choose one of the other control options.