Skip to main content

Once more unto the breach with Securifi Almond z-wave dongle

Sometime in May 2017

Removed lock physically from the door (I’m getting good at this part now) and added it to almond.
Put lock back on the door and it worked.  Added codes. It worked. Then it stopped working.  I put the GE module next to it again to try to boost the signal.  No help.  Got busy and left it. A few days later it worked for a few cycles of lock and unlock.
Another learning point: I can reboot a z-wave hub many times without anyone noticing.  But rebooting the “primary” Almond --- not so much. Two teenagers and a wife who has her own consulting business with clients in many time zones. There is never a time when the wifi can be off for an hour without complaints.
I was not sure what was going on.  But now I am. After much trial and error I have discovered that if the Staples Connect is powered on the Almond z-wave dongle has a very limited chance of success.  I believe that in the week where the lock mysteriously worked there were some power outages and the order in which stuff rebooted made a difference.
... BTW has anyone noticed that the Almond 3 takes almost 4 minutes to reboot? ... longer than a modern PC ...

Also BTW the Staples Connect (RIP) probably was violating some security rule: either that or it has a powerful z-wave radio (which I doubt since they all use the same chipset), or because I believe it was able to do the initial connect to the locks over the mesh.  
Then I added one of the thermostats.  This worked sometimes, and now I could figure out how to make it work.  First turn off the staples connect then reboot the ‘primary” almond.   I know that my goal is to completely remove the Staples Connect. but this means fact is that I can not do so gradually and leave both running, not even for an afternoon. 
So I have abandoned the notion of using the Securifi Almond 3 for home automation.  Almond is a solid performer on the IP networking and wifi side and I am continuing to use it for that.   The almond might be a good solution for other people but it just isn’t working for me.  

Also Almond 3 had some weird behaviors: It lists the built in siren and the built in LED as devices. Okay, but I have three Almonds each with a siren and an LED.  Turns out you can only control the ones on the “primary” Almond 3.  I would say that about half of the frustration comes from the requirement that the Almond 3 that is “primary” for the IP network must also be primary (and in the case of siren and LED only) for the z-wave.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What should my kids study if there won't be any jobs.

So I'm 49 staring at the big 50.  I work in technology, and I am always learning the newest tech, and the newest view of project management, and the newest business models.  So the other day I was trying to decide between listening to a podcast of delving into my companies continuous learning tools, and I just didn't want to do either. I thought to myself, we never really get any of these things to work properly before we move on to the next thing.  Always learning and changing.  Can't it just stop for a moment and let me catch up?  Of course it won't.  I'm just being 50 and realizing that work isn't going to be a coast for the last 20 years of my career. But it is also something deeper, and scarier. I am not so sure that the future we are heading to is going to be better than today.  In fact I fundamentally believe that there is a good chance it will be worse.  Automation of both mind work and physical work mean that the 7 billion people currently on the pl
2 comments
Read more

Is someone is getting really good at target marketing

Everything you’ve read about Vista DRM is wrong (Part 1) by ZDNet 's Ed Bott -- Self-described "professional paranoid" Peter Gutmann of the University of Auckland has become the most widely quoted source of information on DRM and content protection in Windows Vista. The trouble is, Gutmann's work is riddled with factual errors, distortions, contradictions, and outright untruths, and his conclusions are equally wrong. In this three-part series, I'll show you why Gutmann's outrageous and inflamatory arguments don't stand up to close scrutiny.
Post a Comment
Read more

There are manny among us who sense the arrival of the Borg

I just read a post on the Oxford University Press Blog which is typically non-committal on privacy. Privacy in Peril? Then I clicked to the author page for James B. Rule and saw that he also wrote �Bait and Switch� (on the alleged WMDs in Iraq), Dissent, Spring 2004. So why the title of this post. Well, I am one of those who feel a connection and (maybe some are making it more intellectually than I) between the illegal warrantless wiretaps Ad networks and the credit rating agencies. TRW etc. As James Rule points out, it is not that any specific step in the tracking is so objectionable it is that the tracking is so pervasive and systematic. I had this vision as I read of an 18 year old at the shoe store glancing at a screen on the cash register to find out a bit about me before coming to offer me help. And I though well that migh be good. Then I saw some things wrong with that picture. First the word 'Cash' attached machine for paying. Second training an 18
Post a Comment
Read more