I am just starting to play with openhab and some devices zwave and rfxcom.
The fact is, I am a real noob and I walk step by step in this new world.
I bought a rfxcom, with a dream of controlling my ac plugs.
2 years ago I acquired 3 plugs Lunvon (description here : http://www.lunvon.com/index.php?m=Home&c=Products&a=detail&id=57).
Naively, I though that rf (433,92Mhz) were kind of standard things and that I should just have to scan with my rfxcom and add the plugs into paper UI.
The fact is, now, I think that my plugs are not compatibles and will never be.
But I want to try, is it possible to manually add devices ? To try to discover them by another way that the web ui ?
Never the less, now that I have a rfxcom what should you advice for ac plugs ?
Most 433MHz devices only supports one-way communication. That means only sensors can be discovered by OH, since they are the only ones that sends any data. Actuators just listen for signals, and doesn’t send anything, so OH have no way of discovering them. What you need to do is to find out what protocol they use, Rfxcom has a list of compatible devices in the manual for the transceiver: http://www.rfxcom.com/epages/78165469.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/78165469/Categories/Downloads
Check the manual to see if your brand is listed and what protocol it uses and I will try to help you from there.
Edit: just checked myself, and it doesn’t appear to be listed. But that doesn’t mean hope is lost!
The easiest way to discover the protocol is to use Rfxmngr and connect your Rfxcom to a PC. Then you can press a button on the remote and see what pops up. If nothing happens, try enabling more protocols and try again.
I believe most 433MHz devices use one of the standard protocols, but if your devices uses some other proprietary protocol, there are plenty of alternatives, and many are quite cheap. As for choice of technology there are some other things to consider as well:
Since the 433MHz devices are just one-way, they could be less reliable (you have no way of knowing if the signal actually reached the device or not), but I have rarely had any problems. Z-wave devices report back their status, so you can be certain that OH has the right state, and the protocol handles retransmission if the command doesn’t reach the device.
I have a mix of both, but I mostly use 433MHz devices for window lights and other decorative lighting where it doesn’t really matter if a command should be lost. I also have a couple of 433MHz temp sensors, where again it doesn’t matter if a report sometimes doesn’t reach OH. For switches built into the wall-box, and for motion sensors I always choose z-wave though because I want to know I can trust them. It’s often a matter of money though, since you often can get 4-5 433MHz wall plugs for the same price as one z-wave wall plug.
