I’d like to use a key fob to control front garden lighting when I enter my house. The lighting will be wired in to a z-wave dimmer. Is there a simple z-wave key fob which will allow me to do this? I don’t want to use a key fob with lots of buttons and functionality - just something with one or two buttons will be fine…
The only ones I know of are not really available:
http://qees.eu/en/products/product-catalogue/remoteseries/category/5/22/QEES-RemoteSeries
Alternatives are something like the Aeon minimote:
http://www.smarthomeusa.com/ShopByManufacturer/aeon-labs/Item/DSA03202W-ZWUS
Or the a Wayne Dalton homelink gateway and keyfob:
http://www.amazon.com/Wayne-Dalton-WDHA-12R-HomeSettings-Wireless-Gateway/dp/tags-on-product/B001HL3CS8
http://www.amazon.com/Wayne-Dalton-3973CR-3-Button-Transmitter/dp/B001RMRR74/ref=dp_cp_ob_hi_title_0
The latter is probably your better option, but you need both of these, as the keyfobs are not Zwave and have to be bridged via the gateway which has a dual radio and acts as a scene controller.
If it’s when you enter the house, why not add a scene controller on the wall instead? More control that way anyhow.
It’s surprising there’s no Z-wave key fob on the market yet. The Qees remote seems rather bulky (though it’s hard to see from the pictures), and in any case it remains to be seen if that thing ever sees the light of day 
Qees did make a reasonable sized fob (the Ring), but for some bizarre reason that product has been discontinued.
As an alternative, you can use the ping sensor plugin in Vera to look for your smart phone on your WiFi LAN, and switch on the lights when it is found (set up the DHCP server in your WiFi router to always give your phone the same IP address using its MAC address). I run the ping sensor with a fairly low interval (5 seconds) to get a quick response.
Since most smartphones do not leave WiFi on all the time, you’ll want your scene to only trigger when the ping sensor is armed, then disarm the sensor. Arm it again (with a 5 min delay) when you leave the house.
This works nicely for me. When I come home, I hit the button on my iPhone so it’ll connect to WiFi, and a few moments later the lights come on.
@jonathanlewis, how about RFID? You could mount an active one in your car so it knows when you get home.
http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_activerfid/
Another possibility is X10 Keyfobs (X10 KR32A) with the mochad plugin; but you would probably need to do an antenna mod on the X10 receiver to get desent range. Might be more trouble than it is worth.
Aeon Labs (or Aeotech now) has a key fob that I think is basically a minimote in key fob form. I don’t see it on their site, but they have been showing it at the last 3 trade shows.
It looks something like this:
http://www.aeotec.com
maybe you can contact them to see if anyone is selling it yet
Why don’t you just use your smartphone??
As convenient as a smartphone is (presuming the OP has one), it would be nice to have a small keyfob with four or so scenes on, for those times when you cant be bothered to carry a smartphone.
Anyways I think the Wayne Dalton gateway and the keyfobs are the best solution if you want a “keyfob”
How about this one:
[url=http://www.ctc-chromagic.com/?q=zwave/HSR02]http://www.ctc-chromagic.com/?q=zwave/HSR02[/url]
looks nice
[quote=“otterlo, post:9, topic:170523”]How about this one:
[url=http://www.ctc-chromagic.com/?q=zwave/HSR02]http://www.ctc-chromagic.com/?q=zwave/HSR02[/url]
looks nice[/quote]
Yeah, a lot of stuff there looks pretty nice. None of it is available though, huh?
[quote=“strangely, post:2, topic:170523”]The only ones I know of are not really available:
http://qees.eu/en/products/product-catalogue/remoteseries/category/5/22/QEES-RemoteSeries
Alternatives are something like the Aeon minimote:
http://www.smarthomeusa.com/ShopByManufacturer/aeon-labs/Item/DSA03202W-ZWUS
Or the a Wayne Dalton homelink gateway and keyfob:
http://www.amazon.com/Wayne-Dalton-WDHA-12R-HomeSettings-Wireless-Gateway/dp/tags-on-product/B001HL3CS8
http://www.amazon.com/Wayne-Dalton-3973CR-3-Button-Transmitter/dp/B001RMRR74/ref=dp_cp_ob_hi_title_0
The latter is probably your better option, but you need both of these, as the keyfobs are not Zwave and have to be bridged via the gateway which has a dual radio and acts as a scene controller.[/quote]
Will this remote work directly with Vera? [url=http://bit.ly/JPQriC]http://bit.ly/JPQriC[/url] - or do I need a receiver of some sort? It says that it is the z-wave version.
Nope, looks like its a 345MHz device and you’ll need a 2GIG alarm system with Zwave to make use of it. Even with that, I’m doubt it would be able to trigger anything on Vera.
Why not an inexpensive X10 / radio based FOB? If you buy a reliable transceiver it should be quite reliable no?
But then you would need to buy an RFXtrx or something to interface it with!
The cheapest solution is either a Minimote or a Wayne Dalton gateway and key-fob as listed near the top of this thread. If it was me, then I would interface a real alarm panel… start with the basics and work up, it can then be used for any number of sensor inputs as triggers for pretty much anything!
Does this one works with vera? Has anybody tried?
I will not spend another $0.50 on any x10 product.
[quote=“chris66, post:15, topic:170523”]Does this one works with vera? Has anybody tried?
http://www.ctc-chromagic.com/?q=zwave/HSR02[/quote]
Looks like Vapoware!
strangely, yes! but I like the color, like a Commodore 64 ;D
@chris66 have you contacted Aeon Labs? (Aeotech now). They had been showing a key fob at the past few trade shows and if it isn’t available yet, I’d just put a key ring on one of their Minimote’s, they’re essentially small enough.
Ah fond memories… that an my couple of Amigas that I also owned!