Internet of Things Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for builders and users of networked sensors and control devices in the contexts of smart homes, industry automation, or environmental sensors. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Are there any custom IoT wall switches designed using ZigBee, weave, Thread, etc. which have the ability to customize its use without forcefully imposing the use of a proprietary gateway or app?
I was thinking of using a RPI/Arduino solution to manage them instead. To turn them on and off yeah. Either via Google home/onhub or thru the custom RPI/Arduino.
The lightwaveRF lighting protocol is simple OOK at 433 Mhz, I think. It's documented, so you could use them. Maybe a little bit more expensive than other options though.
Here is an Arduino/Raspberry Pi library.
This is of course a solution with zero authentication or encryption, which ought to make it less attractive.
There also seem to be some WiFi switches coming out now, for example this WeMo one
Z-Wave is a mesh networking technology commonly used for home automation that allows many different brands of products to interoperate with each other very easily. However, it is a patented proprietary protocol that requires a licensed Z-Wave chip, which are not generally available to the hobbyist at affordable rates.
To communicate, Z-Wave devices must be joined to the same Z-Wave mesh network. That means you need to have a primary controller somewhere, at least for the purpose of pairing. The primary controller does not have to be present when the scene executes; and the primary controller does not necessarily have to be connected to the Internet (but that's not very IoT.)
Some commercial Z-Wave switches are "scene capable", meaning you can install and use them as a typical wall switch, and they can trigger behavior directly in other Z-wave devices without needing to send a message to the primary controller. Usually this is fairly primitive, meaning you can have one light switch turn on several other light switches, but nothing more sophisticated.
