Z-Wave Data Source

Sense only has WiFi hardware in it today. It communicates with TP-Link and Wemo smart plugs and the Hue controller via broadcast packets and responses. Sense might be able to talk to other smart home hub/controllers on a home LAN, but that kind integration might not be as helpful as the current ones. Why ?

  • latency - unless on/off data is timestamped fairly accurately, there can be a substantial (2 sec) delay between a change in device, and the event reaching a device connected to the hub via WiFi (I see that with the Hue).
  • power data - most smarthome devices data includes only on and off events, not actual power readings. Not as useful as power readings that come from the current smartplugs plus the Hue.
  • data rate - even if your smarthome device supplies the hub with power readings, supplying them at the rate (2x per second) the current smartplugs are read, wouldn’t likely be possible. Z-Wave, Zigbee, etc. just isn’t up the the challenge. 72Mbs WiFi seems to be challenged when really with 20 or so smartplugs.
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