Of Linux, protocols and interfaces.

It's been an interesting week. Misterhouse now has support for basic Insteon control (equivalent to that of X10) and it's had UPB support for a while. Jason Sharpee (author of the UPB and Insteon_PLM modules, thank you Jason) also found a Z-Wave interface that uses the serial port (no special drivers) and the documentation to communicate with it! Leviton has a RS232 Z-Wave interface called Leviton RZC0P-1LW - Vizia-RF Plug-In RS-232 Interface for PC's/Automation Controllers (careful it's a store, it's the only picture I could find). Now while X10's products product have a bad reputation for their quality, Leviton does not. I did a quick search of the Leviton site and they have a number of Vizia (their Z-Wave line of products) for lights, appliances, and fans (yes motor speed control). So it looks like HA is really starting to take off. With all the information available it's only a matter of time before Linux can support them. I'm especially happy to see Linux not being left out of access to Z-Wave products. I'm also happy to see plenty of alternatives to X10. No more almost working most of the time (that has a very low SAF).