Hawking and Z-Wave let you automate your home remotely
So I've been working on a review of Hawking's HomeRemote wireless home automation system, but I'm stuck right now, waiting for a firmware upgrade. But I thought I'd give you a preview of what I've seen so far, because it's pretty interesting stuff. We first got wind of this Home Automation System at CES 2007, in the Z-Wave Alliance booth. The Z-Wave Alliance is a consortium of companies committed to making interoperable, wireless home automation products that are based on Z-Wave, a wireless remote control standard. Z-Wave-based products use a low-frequency radio signals to create a mesh network in your home. What this means for you is that you can link various appliances in your home to a central network, that you can then control both in the home and remotely.
High-end home automation systems tend to be expensive and require professional installation, but the kit Hawking sent to us is meant for people like you and me--regular consumers who'd rather save money on installation and maintenance. We received Hawking's HomeRemote Wireless Automation Gateway, Hawking's HomeRemote Wireless Video Camera, an LG data-enabled cell phone, and several lamp and appliance modules from Home Settings, one of Hawking's partners.
Setup was surprisingly easy, though it does take some time. I hooked up the Hawking gateway to my home's wireless router and powered it on, then ran the installation CD on my PC. After the initial network verification and software updates, I customized the Hawking Web interface to match my house: you input the names of the rooms (living room, master bedroom, garage, etc.) and which floor they're on. I ran around the house, plugging my lamps and appliances (in my case, a stereo and a TV) into the provided adapters, which in turn plug into power outlets. Using the included remote, I added each appliance to my HomeRemote network and then sent that information to the gateway. The setup CD even has helpful videos to demonstrate the involved button routine the process requires. Then you name your modules and tell the interface which room each appliance lives in.
The Home Status panel gives you an overview of your home.
When you're done with the setup, you can turn lights and appliance on and off, while sitting at your computer. The interface is cleanly laid out and simple to use. You're not limited to turning individual appliances on and off, either. Hawking lets you set "scenes" that include various appliances. For example, I set a Coming Home from Work scene to trigger at 6:30 p.m. Several lights turn on, so I don't have to come home to a dark house. If you have one of the climate control modules, you can set the thermostat to kick on the heat or A/C just before you get home, too. You can set any number of scenes to suit your needs. In addition to the Coming Home scene, I set Weekday Wake Up and Weekday Going to Bed scenes. The latter shut off lights and the TV at 11 p.m., so I'm reminded not to stay up all night watching bad '80s movies.
The Scene Management page allows you to create and manage scenes that include various devices in your home.
The really cool thing about this system is the remote access aspect. During the initial setup, you can download a service called CellLink to an approved cell phone, which I did using the provided LG MM-535. Using the cell phone, I was able to trigger scenes and check on the status of appliances, as well as turn them on and off. This is great if you're out unexpectedly late, for example, but you want to make it look like someone's home. You can ask the system to send you alerts and notifications if specific things happen, such as a TV being turned on (great for when you're wondering whether your kids are actually doing their homework like they say they are!). The notifications can go to an email address or a cell phone (SMS).
You can create Alerts and Notifications that let you know when a particular action occurs, such as a door opening or a light turning on.
You can also access the control panel remotely using a Web browser, because during setup, you create a custom Web address. It should operate just as the control panel does from within your own network. I say "should" because I wasn't able to get it to load. A Hawking representative says that this is a known issue (the gateway sends out packets that are too large for a DSL line to handle) and that their techs are working on a firmware fix. Likewise, I couldn't get the alerts and notifications feature to work, but again, that's supposedly covered by the new firmware.
You can set up the camera to keep an eye on whatever you want. It turns out that cats are kind of boring to watch.
Finally, I hooked up the provided video camera and was able to watch a video feed from the HomeRemote control panel. I live in a third-floor flat in a building with security gates, so I wasn't too concerned about intruders. So I set up the camera to watch my cats instead. As it turns out, cats sleep pretty much all day, so that was kind of boring. But you can put the camera to better use by training it on your front porch so you can pretend you're not home when solicitors knock. You can even check the video feed on the cell phone.
Hawking has teamed with a bunch of Z-Wave Alliance members that provide all kinds of devices, from window shades to home security systems to outdoor appliances. You can pretty much have your entire home connected, because the system supports a lot of devices. Like I said, the full review of the Hawking gateway is still brewing (pending the firmware upgrade), but otherwise, it works as advertised and it seems like a nifty way to automate your home and keep an eye on it when you're out.
1. the video camera has numerous freezing issues. if you try to access it remotely on the cell phone and web page at the same time it will hang after a couple of minutes. 640 resolution is only 10fps, 320 is 30fps. i find it hangs fast at 640. i use either a cable connection of cingular cellular network to connect remotely. i only used the camera hard lined as the wireless constantly hangs for me. i had to hook up an appliance module just to be able to reboot the camera on my cell phone or hard reboot if the web page freezes. there should be a button in the cell phone program to reboot the video camera and gateway.
2. no ssl. the gateway is a web server which does NOT support ssl nor can i get a response from the manufacturer that this is in the works. forget remote security for now.
3. they try to force you to use a pay subscription service (TZO) for dns. you can opt out and just use a free dns like dyndns. one thing to note is that they video camera link uses tzo to update it's link dynamically so if you don't use tzo and have a video camera then just setup a seperate direct link to the camera ip:port with dyndns. this is the workaround for now.
4. the unit only supports simple macros for now, i.e. 'if A becomes ON then turn B ON' type of stuff. It will also run basic timed scenes. No variables for now.
5. you cannot integrate any other camera into their system other than the one on their website.
6. currently vizia-rf status messages and PIR's are NOT supported. vizia's can be polled for status and PIR's show up in the gateway as a 'binary sensor' but there are no options for it. it's just a tease right now.
7. i hooked up a RCS tz40 thermostat and had some issues initially with the gateway controlling it but i have been able to correct most of the issues and am able to control the thermostat via the web interface and cell phone. i have not been able to control it on the basic handy remote that comes with the gateway.
8. the wayne dalton garage door opener does not add into the gateway. it is not a module but a secondary controller. you will NOT be able to control the garage door opener outside of the remote control. this works for typically 100 feet +. the unit has an IR piece to control the garage door and it's own controller to setup modules/scenes on. you can add it as a secondary controller on your network however it will take the 1st 3 scenes from the master remote automatically, otherwise just copy the modules over and manually program your scenes into the wayne dalton controller. the kit was very easy to install. i will give them a big + for this.
9. vizi-rf 4 zone/scene controllers are NOT supported by the hawking remote. you will need a leviton or homeseer troller remote to add in scenes on these in wall controllers.
10. there is a seperate login for the video camera web page. there is no pass through credentialing. also, there is no time-out on the web interface as far as i can tell although there is one on the video web page.
11. the options on the camera are typically frame size (3 sizes starting at 640x480), htz rate (50 or 60), zoom, rotate picture, & time/date stamp
12. if you have problems adding a module to the network try deleting it even though you have not added it yet. sometimes the module was used previously (testing/Q&A/returned product) and is already added into a different network.
ALL IN ALL, A GOOD BASE PRODUCT AT AN AFFORDABLE COST. MY HATS OFF TO HAWKING FOR THIS RELEASE.
some suggestions and wish list
1. ssl
2. open interface for 3rd party plugins. make a certification process so you know that the plugin works properly on your system.
3. ability to use other video cameras. the current camera is ok but definitely needs improvement. sound would be nice, 30fps at 640, pan/tilt, etc. other cameras are already on the market that are supported by the cell link company.
4. more advanced macro capability
5. AUDIO/VIDEO/SECURITY control - i.e. IR control, security alarm control FROM z-wave/gateway, phone/microphone control, PIR control, Serial components control
6. forum on their website for the hawking product
7. revision change list - would like to know exactly what the firmware updates changed...
8. soft reboot button for the gateway. reboot button on the cell link program for the gateway and video camera.
9. proper icons on the cell link program. my in lamp modules and wall lamp modules show up as receptacles instead of light bulbs. it is hard to read if a receptacle is on/off as opposed to the big yellow light bulb for lighting.
10. troubleshooting software - some z-wave network sniffer program would be nice to troubleshoot connection issues.