5/6/2023 0 Comments Zwave shade controlSomfy has something in the works, ESI has something in the works, everyone has something in the works for Zigbee, but Z-Wave is here and working beautifully. If you are referring to Lutron coming out with a C4 Zigbee solution, that doesn't address the mid-range market (which is huge) that can't afford Lutron shades. You can't poll the shade for position with their solution and Mechoshade's motors aren't the level of quality that we need for our customers. My problem is that the Mechoshade solution is built off of the existing CardAccess dry contact controller which doesn't give any feedback or confirmation back to the C4 system. I could name a ton of other Z-Wave things that aren't Zigbee yet too, but I need a C4 compatibile solution for wireless, bi-directional, mesh network shade motor control. Zigbee may be growing, but they don't have any shade controllers. People are outfitting their homes and businesses with Z-Wave devices everyday, Control4 would be missing out on a large market by not supporting something that is relatively easy for them to add external support for. I don't want to get started in a discussion on who will prevail or if both will. There is currently a market for both, Z-Wave devices tend to be less expensive and still give you the same functionality. Everybody else is providing their products in both flavors Kwikset, Yale, etc. Even if they support limited device classes, like at the very least lighting. If the market merges and Zigbee is left standing that is fine too, but Control4 as a control company should support both. I think there may be a place for both technologies which operate very similarly. The facts are that Z-Wave works and it works very well and with a huge head start on Zigbee still this year (I was at CEDIA, were we at the same show ). If Z-Wave become the next X-10 that would be great for me personally because then I could just buy all of the devices I want for $12 a piece, but it won't because it doesn't fail like X10. My nephew could write a driver in a weekend if he had a C4 system and proper training, why hasn't C4 added support for one of the 30 USB to Z-Wave dongles out there or the many RS232 to Z-Wave interfaces? I thought "control" was the goal here, its in the name. They are demanding bi-directional communication, confirmation of movement and shade position. I know one of our suppliers is working on a motor with embedded Zigbee for C4, but that is way off and we need solutions now for a major, major client (1000s of motors). How can C4 drop the ball like this? The Z-Wave shading controllers are very simple to integrate, they operate using the Multi-Level (dimming) Switch Class, so if a current customer has Leviton Z-Wave lighting switches in their home and they want to add Control4 then they aren't able to have control of their lights? Unacceptable.Ĭurrent Zigbee shade motor controller options are very limited and only a single ended communication with no confirmation of movement. There are 5-7 different flavors and brands, but no way to interface with Control4?!?!?! Currently the only way to get wireless, bi-directional, mesh network, communication to motorized shades is through Z-Wave motor controllers.
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