++++ NEWS ++++ Added device inclusion support
The ZWave With Perl project attempts to get Z-Wave controlled home automation devices under control of a free, basic, easy to understand, easy to implement Perl library. No guarantee that this aim will be achieved, since this is a spare-time project based on self-interest, which could be abandoned at any time.
Have you already tried out home automation products? Some of them just do not work as you expect them to work, some of them are just too expensive to be used in a "normal" home, are too proprietary, the sensors/actors you'd like to get do not exist, they need re-wiring your home, ...
In my, the authors opinion, Z-Wave is an interesting approach: quite a number of manufacturers are selling a broad range of Z-Wave enabled devices, the devices are more or less interoperable and not very expensive. The wireless protocol used works quite reliable, works over sufficient distances, and is flexible enough.
Besides all the advantages of Z-Wave, there is a major drawback: The protocols used are not open in a sense one naively defines the notion 'open'. There is no free documentation of the protocol, nor are the various manufacturers give out information about the requests their devices will respond to.
While on the first spot this might not sound like a real problem (hey, you can buy some commercial software, no problem), I prefer systems I control from my own boxes without having to add just another PC to the stack in my cave. That's where I tried to figure out how one could send at least a few simple commands like "switch this on" or "dim that light to 50%" via some simple program.
At the moment there exists a tiny Perl script that can be used to send out switch on/off and dim commands via a TrickleStar USB dongle to Innovus switches/dimmers. However, the same thing will work with most other Z-Wave interfaces (actually those implementing the Z-Wave Serial API) and most switches/dimmers.Quite limitted, isn't it?
I'll add growing functionality with growing population of Z-Wave devices ... let's see the future
