What is going on at Lowe's?

Community Playground General Discussions
21

Soooooooo…
On my way back from work I decided to stop by at Lowes to get some sensors of their new IRIS home automation system. I asked the sales people if the sensors used Z-Wave or Zigbee however they did not know the difference. Anyways, I was told that currently only two stores in the US carry the IRIS devices and luckily one is only 5 miles away from me ;D

I just bought the following:

  • Smart Plug
  • Window Door Sensor
  • Motion sensor

As mentioned before, all GE switches and dimmers are Z-wave based. They are just re-labeled, however on the front it still says “speaks Z-Wave”.
Anyways, besides the GE stuff which is Z-Wave, all their sensors etc come in a white blue purple plastic wrapper. Apparently the company that makes or distributes those sensors as well as the smart plug is AlertMe.com.

Unfortunately I have to say that I was unable to pair any of the devices with Vera. The devices do not come with any instruction but I tried everything. I did not try the Motion Sensor but I am almost 100% certain that it will not work - I did try to include the Smart Plug and Window Door Sensor.

At first I was not sure if I did anything wrong. If you open up the Window/Door Sensor to put in the battery you can however take the “insides” out very easy (see pictures attached).

I did not see anything Z-Wave related, the main chip is labelled “EM250” which is in fact…Zigbee…
http://www.silabs.com/products/wireless/zigbee/Pages/zigbee-chips-em250.aspx

To sum it up…
If you need Z-Wave devices, the GE stuff should work, if you need Zigbee, go with Lowes sensors and smart plug…

Hope I was able to shine some light into this…
Flo

22

@frihcter09,
Thanks for taking the plunge and reporting back. Definitely interesting to see the hybrid system.

23

Flo,
thanks for doing the leg work and saving me the money & hassle (and probably others, too). Rather a disappointment, but there was always the chance, given that AlertMe is more concerned with Zigbee.

I know the issues of Zigbee support on Vera have been discussed here before but maybe cheaper devices readily available at a brick and mortar store and the competition from the Iris system is the business case for MCV to get their foot in the door with Zigbee? At least on whatever stack Iris has chosen; that would bring in numerous devices without necessarily supporting multiple flavors of Zigbee.

Will

24

Anybody think the naming “Iris” is deliberately similar to another old fashioned type of name like “Vera”

I’m Just waiting for Home Depot to now launch a range called “Edna” , or ACE with “Nora” :slight_smile:

25

Thanks everyone…
Glad I was able to help…

Flo

26

Anyone know if you can use their Iris controller with MiOS, or is it linked only to their system?

27

There is no integration with Iris and mios. Not until an api is available for Iris. Also the fact that Iris is brand new and not much info is available on the system.

  • Garrett
28

That’s too bad. Their starter kits are aggressively priced, and their door sensor is only $20, which is much cheaper than anything I’ve seen on Vera. The monthly service fee would eat up the savings in no time though. I guess I’ll just order the Vera Lite as planned.

29

I also would bet that Lowes will not open up the system for 3rd party integration.

  • Garrett
30

they are aggressively priced on the basis that you’ll eventually need the premium subscription of $9.99/month to do anything advanced with them… :-\

31

Anyone been able to figure out if the IRIS components are compatible with VERA, like the door/window sensors, keypads, thermostats, etc…?

32

Please read a few post back. This has already been answered. The conclusion is that they will not work.

  • Garrett
33

just got back and my lowes had most of the z-wave on clearance. The locks had no price but the cameras and thermostats were on sale

34

How much was everything?

35

Nothing on sale at my Lowe’s. A GE 45614 (3-way relay) is still $59.97! >:(

36

Hey all! Just to confirm, the GE switches DO seem to work with the vera. I was able to pair the switch and turn it on and off a few times.

I am getting the occasional error, but I think that is something on my end as I’m new to all this.

I bought the thermostat as well, but I haven’t tried it yet.

37

What department is the Z-wave stuff in? I have never seen it in my local Lowes. Is it separate from the normal electrical supplies and thermostats or mixed in with them?

38

Mine is near the automated timers, motion sensor lights, etc. It’s the same location as their limited alarm supplied as well.

39

I’m involved with this project through my day job. It was just assigned to me. I will see what I can report.

40

Yes, it supports all three - Zwave on 908.42, Zigbee on the 2.4 GHz band, and Wi-Fi.

The thermostat and the GE switches and dimmers are Zwave. The Zwave compatible items have the official logo on them. It’s the same Schlage-link stuff in the red packages but in a blue package.
The door/window/cabinet sensor, smart plug, keyfob, the button and the motion sensor are Zigbee.
The black and white IP camera and motion sensor is Wi-Fi.
I have not looked at the keypad or the range extender yet. And, I have not seen the meter reader yet.

I might be compelled to build an Arduino that interfaces Zigbee to Ethernet so that it could be used with Vera so that all of the Zigbee toys become accessible without a montly fee.