Z-Wave and Home Automation

Vera Lite Z-Wave Controller

This article was originally written for the Engadget forums. There are many good follow-up comments there if you're interested.

I thought I might write up a little primer on home automation using ZWave technology. I'd like to offer up my approach on home automation, so others who were interested in the subject could see one way of accomplishing it. Here I'll briefly explain my history with home automation, then talk about the advantages of ZWave and what you'll need in order to get started. I'll also talk about some of the cool things you can do with it. My apologies in advance for the TL;DR post and if I start to ramble a bit towards the end :)

I've been interested in home automation since 2000, when I was a freshman in college. Anyone using the internet at that time remembers X10, a company that seemed to be the sole advertiser on the entire web and dominated banner and popup ads. Even worse, X10 focused their ads on pervs who wanted to set up small cameras to spy on women (it was a weird time for the internet). These ads rarely focused on the neat home automation tech they sold, which let you turn on your lights (and dim them) with a remote control. I bought a kit and soon enough I had my dorm room lights on remote, able to turn on my string lights, desk lamp, and lava lamp without leaving my seat (yup, it was a clichéd dorm room).

Fast forward to around 2012. I'd been using X10 technology in every place I'd lived for 12 years, and it was getting to the point where the tech was outdated and frustrating to use. X10 was invented, after all, in 1975, and [primarily] sends command signals through your home's power lines to the various modules you've installed. This method is flawed, as power lines can be noisy so sometimes signals don't get through. There's better alternatives to X10 out there today, and that's when I tried out ZWave.

ZWave is a licensed standard, with modules and devices manufactured by a number of companies. Some you've heard of (Leviton, Shlage), others you probably haven't (Linear, Evolve, Intermatic). ZWave has several significant advantages over X10, primarily that it uses a wireless mesh network to get signals to all the devices. Most ZWave devices act as repeaters for the command signals, and communication is verified to make sure that all the devices respond. ZWave is far faster and much more reliable than X10.

The biggest downside to ZWave when compared to X10 is the cost. There are ebay stores where you can get X10 lamp modules for $5 each, whereas a ZWave Leviton light switch might set you back $80 to $120. There are affordable ZWave devices, though, and I'll outline them here. The reliability of ZWave completely justifies the cost of the hardware.

If you're interested in a ZWave network, here's what you need to get started:

• Controller - this is the device that creates your network. You pair it to your devices, and configure everything using the controller. I use the Vera Lite controller from a company called Mi Casa Verde (MCV). I recommend that or the Vera 3, but the Lite version should be all you need.
  
  Vera Lite
  Vera 3

• Devices - the most common ZWave device categories are light switches, lamp modules, thermostats, and door locks. Here are some examples:
  
  Linear light switch: (this one is the best value, IMO. It's the least expensive ZWave switch I've seen that has a neutral wire connection. This is for two way switches only, though, not 3-way).
  GE lamp module:  (I've been using these for years and they're great devices. This model can dim, and there's an on/off version you can use for fluorescent lights and appliances)
  Thermostat:  (I use this Trane model)
  Kwikset door lock:  (this is just a deadbolt model, but there are others with a lever)

All you really need in order to get started is the controller and a single device. Vera will ask you to create a free account that you can use to access your system remotely. Once that's done, all you do is take the Vera controller around to where you've installed your ZWave device(s) and pair them (usually by pressing one button on the device - that's it). This is done so the controller can get an idea of where all the devices are located and what the best routes are for the signals that get sent around your home. Once the device is paired with the controller, you're set to do whatever you like with it. Turn it on/off, set it to precise dim levels (0-100%), create scenes (to combine multiple devices), and create automation triggers for the lights and scenes (based on time, behavior of other devices, etc.).

From there you can do an incredible amount of things with any of the devices you add. Here are some examples of the types of things I do with my home automation setup:

• The following happens every day: My outside lights turn on at sunset, no matter what time of year it is. A little after sunset a few lamps (with LED bulbs to save energy) turn on as a security measure. When my wife and I go to sleep, I initiate a "Good Night" scene that turns out all the lights in my home, locks the front door, sets the thermostat to a comfortable level, and turns off the front porch light. Then at sunrise our garage light turns off.

• At 6 times during the day, my cat feeder dispenses food.

• I have 4 scenes I use most often. When I get home I tap the "Evening" scene, which turns on all the lights on our main floor for a nice, livable atmosphere. When we sit down for dinner at the TV or the table, I start a scene that lowers all the lights in our main living area to a pleasant dining atmosphere, and turns off lights in parts of the main floor where we aren't going to be for the rest of the evening (the front hallway, for example). I then have a scene for watching TV, which lowers the lights even further. Lastly, I have a "Movie" scene, which turns off most lights and lowers the others to minimum levels needed to get up and find the bathroom :)

• On a similar note, I have a scene set up for those 3am trips to the restroom. The "Sleepy" scene turns on the lights in the bathroom and the hallway to our bathroom to the 2-5% level, which is just enough to find your way but not enough to hurt your eyes. I also have a scene for early morning wakeup times that slowly ratchets up the brightness levels in our bathroom, giving our eyes time to adjust.

• A "Going Out" scene turns all the lights off, locks the front door, and sets the thermostat to heat at much lower temps and cool at much higher temps.

• When I put in the code for my front door, it unlocks and the lights in my front hallway turn on long enough for me to make my way into my house, then they turn off again.

• When we're out of town and I have someone coming to check on our pets, I give them a new, unique front door code that only works during the hours I set and sends me an email when they've come.

• I have NFC tags in various places around my house. I can tap my phone against these tags and initiate a scene command. I also have a tag in my car, so that when I'm headed home I can tap against it and let my house know that it should make the temperature comfortable again.

These are only some examples. There are plenty more things that are possible with ZWave. You can control your blinds to open during the day and close at night. There are ZWave water sensor modules that can sense when you have a burst pipe and shuts off a ZWave water supply valve. A window sensor can tell your thermostat to turn off if the windows are open. Lots of possibilities.

In the past, I've been negative towards products like Nest and Hue because they were proprietary devices that didn't interact with any other home automation products. As a user, I didn't want to go into separate apps to control my house, and I want all my devices to be able to talk to each other (without using 3rd party services like IFTTT). Fortunately, there's a fantastic community of people all figuring out ways to do cool things with their automation products, and several of them have found ways to control the Nest and Hue products from within Vera, which will give you that control I was missing. I'm still not a fan of Nest and Hue mostly due to their cost, but at least they will work with ZWave devices now. With some work, Vera can also work with X10 and Insteon devices.

Here are some other ZWave recommendations:

• Devices:
  
  Outdoor module: (I use these to turn my Christmas lights on and off)
  3-way dimmer switch: (made by GE, you can also get these at Lowes. The only problem with this inexpensive model is that it doesn't use a neutral wire, so you can't put LED bulbs in the fixtures)
  On/off switch: (use these for fluorescent lamps, appliances, bathroom fans, or switchable outlets. I use one of these to turn on/off a ceiling fan. Never use a dimmer switch for a switchable outlet)
  On/off module: (just for on/off and no dimming. I use this to turn my cat feeder on and off, or to control an air purifier).
  Water/freeze sensor: (great if you have a basement that floods - like mine!)
  Motion/temperature/humidity/light sensor: (this one is quirky to set up but does a lot!)

• Community:
  
  The Vera community has been invaluable to me as a resource. There are some really capable people there: forum.micasaverde.com/

• Android app:
  
  My absolute favorite mobile app for Vera is called "Authomation HD." You can find it on the Play Store here: http://goo.gl/ZMNF9I
  
  Sadly, the iOS apps are a little lacking, but I haven't played with some of the alternatives available. Vera has their own app on Android and iOS, but it's pretty basic.

I'm by no means an expert on ZWave or home automation, but I've been using it pretty extensively and I've been playing around with home automation for 14 years. I try to keep up on all the developments in the product categories. At the moment the two biggest obstacles to widespread adoption are:

• The difficulty of setup. The average consumer is not going to change their light switches, for example.

• The cost. The least expensive ZWave switch on the market sells on ebay for about $22 (I don't recommend it, but search ebay for Intermatic and you'll find some sales with six switches for around $130). My favorite switch is nearly $40, so just switching out ten switches in your home costs $400. The only reason I was able to start my system on a small budget was because Radio Shack ran a firesale on their ZWave stock in ~2012 and I could pick up a lamp module for $10.

If home automation is a hobby that you're willing to invest funds, time, and research into, you'll get a lot out of it. If you have questions about ZWave, please ask me or visit the forum I linked to here.

Favorite Devices: LG Tone

The 3TG product pages are full of the devices that I recommend most in each of their categories. Starting with this post, I'll occasionally be choosing one of these products and expanding on why I like them. Here we go!

I spend a large amount of time doing chores around the house. Washing dishes and loading/unloading the dishwasher, lawn care, laundry, cleaning up after our cats, etc. One thing that makes these chores enjoyable is listening to audio books, music, or podcasts while you do them. Personally, I'm always listening to podcasts in order to be entertained and informed.

When I first started listening to podcasts while doing chores, I simply grabbed an old pair of earbuds that came with an iPod or old CD player (I think everyone has a set of these in their home). But those headphones drove me crazy. I was tethered to my phone, I couldn't navigate through what I was listening to, and every time I walked too close to one of our kitchen cabinets, the wire would get caught and the buds would get ripped from my ears (this happened at least three dozen times).

The solution is wireless. I'd used bluetooth headphones before and not had great results, but the technology has come pretty far. I decided to give the LG Tone+ a try and I'm glad I did. These headphones rest around your neck, with the earbuds starting out tucked into the ends magnetically. You can take the earbuds out and stick one or both of them in your ear. Unlike wired or most wireless headphones, it's very easy and comfortable to only put one bud in your ear, which is important if you need to listen for things like a crying baby waking up from a nap!

The headphones connect to your phone quickly after being turned on, and even have a little voice that tells you the battery level and when the headset is connected. After that, you can play audio and it will come through  the earbuds. There are playback controls on the right-hand side that let you play/pause, skip forward, and skip back. When I'm listening to podcasts, I have my app set to skip 15 seconds ahead when I press the skip forward button, which lets me get through commercials.

On the left-hand side of the headset are the call and volume controls. You can answer or end a call with the phone button, and change the volume with the other two buttons. You can even initiate a call with the phone button by saying the name of the person you want to call.

The sound quality on these headphones is decent. It's absolutely as good as you'd need for podcasts. Music playback is OK, but don't expect to be blown away. The headset is comfortable to wear, and stays in place when running or doing chores. The only issue I've had is that they can tend to rotate around my neck a little, but not too badly, and it's mostly when I have one bud in.

The most impressive thing about these headphones is their battery life. They can last a few days in standby mode, and I've gotten over 10 hours of constant audio playback before. The other day I mowed the lawn, then cleaned out my garage for 5 hours, and I still got a couple hours of listening in the next day before the battery ran out. I've been really impressed with this battery life.

The Tone+ is the oldest currently available model of these headphones, but from what I've seen of the newer ones, it's the best buy right now. The ones I've linked to on the product page are the 730 model, and LG has released the 800 and 900 models. The 900 is very nice, has the best audio quality, and the earbuds retract into the ends, but the they're pricey at around $95-125 vs $70 for the Tone+ 730 model.

$70 may seem pricey too, but I use these headphones every day for at least a couple hours a day, sometimes up to 10, and if they broke I would gladly buy a new pair. These are highly recommended.

Computer Support Scams

In recent years, there's been a small cottage industry forming around scamming computer users via phone calls. These scammers are almost always after money, and use similar tactics to get it. This article is designed to inform computer users how to look out for these scams and what kinds of methods the scammers use. Before we go any further let me quickly say that if you ever have a technology question, I am here for you. If someone is trying to scare you or a friend or family member about a computer issue, please call me. Remember that I never charge for quick questions over the phone.

In the majority of cases, these scammers use fear to get what they want. They use the fear of viruses, hackers, and piracy to trick their targets into giving them what they want. They'll say things like "we've noticed that your computer is infected and trying to infect other people" or "we can see that your computer is under attack from hackers and we can help you" or "we've been informed that you are running a pirated copy of Microsoft Windows, so you should pay us for the license fee."

If my examples don't sound very convincing, I'll take that as a compliment! Perhaps that means there isn't a side to me that could be a con artist. These outfits are highly skilled in a practice called "social engineering," a skill that allows them to use real world methods and strategies to enter your digital world. They'll talk their way into convincing their mark that they should be trusted, and they can be extremely convincing.

Lets talk about how these scams usually work.

The first step is contact. The scammers will most likely call directly, using a list of public phone numbers or possibly a list obtained from hacked companies. They will do their best to make it seem like they know exactly why they're calling, but in fact they're just assuming that the person they're calling has a Windows computer because most homes do. [side note: this doesn't mean Windows computers are less secure, it just means they're more common so the caller can assume what computer you own]

The second step is to instill fear. They'll say you have viruses or you've been hacked or your Windows isn't legitimate. They'll do their best to convince you to let them connect to your computer remotely and look around, and this is the point of no return. Once they've gotten onto the system all bets are off and they have total control to do as little or as much harm as they want. From here, the most common way the scammer will scare the computer user into thinking there is a problem will be to misrepresent the Windows Event Log. The Event Log is a running list of things happening behind the scenes on the computer. This list is constantly adding things all the times. Most of the time these entries are innocuous reports of things that happened. Other times they're warnings or even errors. The scammer will filter out this list to show only the warnings and errors, making it look like there are lots of things wrong with the system. What they neglect to mention is that these warnings and errors are on everyone's computers. Here is a screenshot of one of my own computers with everything but the errors and warnings filtered out:

Yes, it would be nice of computers ran error-free, but these things happen and unless you're noticing problems on your computer, they usually aren't a concern. Regardless, these scammers don't want to help you with these things, but they look scary, and that's all that matters.

The last step is payment or ransom. If you're lucky, they'll ask for a fee to scan or clean your computer and that'll be it. In other cases, however, they'll lock your computer, sometimes claiming that they have to do it because you're using pirated software and they want you to pay some sort of license fee. This can occasionally be the worst case scenario, because frequently the method they use to lock down the system cannot be circumvented. In some cases, the only choice is to either pay or hope your data is backed up (and we know how important that is, right?).

Please inform your friends and family of this kind of scam. It's very common and can be very effective. I welcome a phone call from anyone who has questions about a call or warning they've received. I never charge for a quick phone call to ask if something is legitimate or not. Please feel free to contact me if you have concerns, and stay safe out there.

The Most Common Hack

There are endless ways that hackers gain access to systems and computers. They'll use a mixture of real world and technological tools to get what they want. There are also dozens of reasons why a hacker does what they do, whether it's for fun, profit, or to make a statement.

Good news: most hackers don't care about you! At least not individually. It's rare that someone with the know-how is going to park outside your home, hack into your network, gain access to your computer, and see what they can do. In general, it's not worth the effort. For that reason, most hackers will make things easier on themselves by going after dozens to thousands of targets at once. The most common hack that affects end-users is one that involves lists and robots - scripts that use a known database of information to try and gain access to various services.

Lets look at an example: several years ago, a company named Gawker Media was hacked. Gawker runs a dozen blogs on various subjects, and they let users create accounts on their sites so they could comment on the articles that were posted. A group hacked Gawker's site and stole their database of user accounts and passwords, then put that online for anyone to download. Nefarious groups will take lists like these and feed them to their robots, pointing them at other websites to see if the same username and password can be used to log into anywhere else. Usually they get a very small percentage of hits, but when you get lists with hundreds of thousands of users on it, you don't need many, particularly if you're letting a script do the work.

It's not the end of the world if your user commenting account on Gawker was compromised, because you could just change your password and your account didn't have anything important in it anyway. But what if you used the same email address and password on another, more important site, like Amazon or PayPal?

Now we get to the moral of the story: password variation. Everyone needs to use unique passwords on all their sites. It's not enough to use one complex password, because as I've explained that password could end up in a text file on the web if it's used at a website that gets hacked at some point. Please read this post on my favorite password management service.

LastPass, however, still needs you to choose a single secure password to connect to just that service. My best advice for choosing a secure password is to read this web comic, then use this service.