USB Support

Ezlo Plugins
1

Hi everyone,

We are considering to add USB support to the hub as we had in Vera formerly. First motivation is to add support to use the USB RFXtrx Transceiver and create a plugin for it.

What other use cases would you like us to consider for the USB support.
We would like to hear your feedback on it.

Thanks.

2 Likes
2

Support for USB/Serial (RS232) devices so that plugins can be made for serial devices, e.g. smart energy metering using the (dutch) p1 port, alarm systems using serial (powermax is still linked to my vera) etc.

3
  • ECS-467 - Option to add a RTC via USB dongle (in case the internet goes down and the controller reboots)
  • USB HUB to add more devices at the same time
  • Mass storage support (to be able to store larger data such as images, videos, backups, larger data logs, etc.)
  • USB Cams
  • Extensions for other radio standards or more powerful external Z-Wave antenna
  • external analogue/digital interfaces
4

The only thing I use the USB port for on my Vera Plus hub is for serial Comms to a CurrentCost Envir Energy Monitor and there was an old plugin for it For More Info.

This gives me the total Watts usage data for my entire house.

However I wouldn’t expect Ezlo to re-create this setup as I doubt many people are still using it?

5

I use an AD2USB interface on my Vera which in turn connects to my home alarm system and I use the Ademco plug in. Not having this on Ezlo (Ademco plug in and i/f AD2USB support) is stalling my cut-over on my primary home to Ezlo.

I don’t need a plug in that does all the minutia of the Vera Ademco Plug-in does (partitioning, nulling out sensors, …) I just want to read the status from the panel, arm and disarm the system. Very basic stuff.

Might be nice to have a USB memory stick in a USB hub for overflow storage (video, pictures and audio from IP Cameras, verbose log files, …). They are very inexpensive storage now (1TB $23.00 USD) and quite dense.

If you support memory then you could add some data logging capabilities to Ezlo. For instance poll a temperature sensor every x minutes and write the reading to a CSV file in a flash stick for later analysis in Excel on a PC. Voltage readings, water level, pressure, …

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6

I use the USB interface on my Vera for a serial port connection to an X10 controller. I still have a few X10 light switches and a whole box full of plug in remotes for the Christmas lights.

7

I also use an AD2USB to control my alarm panel similar to @curiousB. This has been a non-starter for me to move to Ezlo as well.

8

The RFXCOM RFXtrx transceivers use the FTDI USB chip: https://ftdichip.com/drivers/vcp-drivers/
The newer RFXusb has the CP2102N chip: CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers - Silicon Labs

9

It is required for a Smart Meter Plugin equivalent .