Z-Wave

The Z-Wave technology is oriented for the residential control and automation market, and its main goal is to minimize the power consumption because almost all Z-Wave devices work on battery. However, despite this fact, Z-Wave provides reliable and low-latency transmission of small data packets at data rates up to 100 kbit/s!

The Z-Wave communication protocol allows us, using a proper controller, to manage several home automation sensors and actuators in a wireless manner, so we don't need to modify our pre-existent plant. Also, we can easily add a power consumption measuring system or several environment sensors with a minor impact to the actual home layout.

Note

For more information on Z-Wave, a good starting point is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Wave .

Z-Wave controllers

There are several kinds of Z-Wave controllers. However, the most widely used are the ones on a USB dongle, such as the one shown in the following image:

Note

The device can be purchased at http://www.cosino...