lilyoyo1

It's impossible to future proof yourself as new standards are always being developed. 800 was recently announced and at some point 900 will be announced followed by 1000 series and so forth. The best way to semi future proof yourself would be to buy the latest series devices available and use them with your particular controller. Ditto when upgrading your controller. Should 800 series controller be available a few years from now when you decide to upgrade them you would get that so it's ready for whatever 800 series devices you may add later. All series work together. You just don't get the benefits of the higher series such as longer range of using a lower series controller. If you Google benefits of whatever series, you'll see the only talk about specific zwave capabilities not device specific features. This is because each series change improves zwave communication in itself, not necessarily the individual device features. With that said, once youve established a strong mesh in your home, most of the benefits of a higher series becomes moot since you would have reached network density. Newer devices are faster in generally due to newer processors and other improvements but ultimately the gains in speed isn't enough to warrant ripping everything out and starting over every time a new series comes out. If i had a house full of older 300 series from 10 years ago, I'd probably be willing to do that but not from 500 to 700 series. Zwave is like smartphones. They come out with something new often but the gains are incremental with the times. Will you notice a difference between a galaxy s21 vs a 22. Probably. But is it enough to drop 1k on that new one? Probably not!

Are you using polisy? What firmware are you using for that and pg3? You probably should create a separate post for this since the op that started this post meant it as a guide for new users and not necessarily for trpubleshooting

The hub is not compatible with polisy not the isy

I agree with you in regards to installer and prosumer diy homes. Your sentiments are part of the many reasons why I can't fully get on board with zwave. When you talk about basic systems such as smart things and qolsys alarm panels, people are generally looking for basic control of their devices. What we do here with the Isy and other automation controllers do expose the shortcomings of zwave that other basic systems do not. In that regards, zwave works perfect.

He said in his original message he only has zwave. @Valveman clear your Java cache and make sure you use the launcher. Do you have the 300 board (has light in back of Isy) or 500 board (no light). If you have the 500 board, upgrade to 5.3.4

From my experience, if you invest in building a strong mesh throughout your home, zwave doesn't have RF coverage issues. As Geddy stated earlier, depending on your wifi you can potentially have issues as you expand. If that's what you want to use, I'd say go for it

There's your answer. If you go down the Node server lists, you'll see all currently compatible systems. You would just pick a bulb from one of those

What's the UI? How many devices do you have, what are they, and which ones are you having issues with

As long as it's being actively sold by UDI, I see them updating the 994 though not as often as polisy or with the biggest potential updates which could possibly bog it down. It's worth requesting though. Even if it doesn't happen with the 994, maybe it will with polisy. That way should you upgrade in the future, you'll have what you're looking for

Yes. The same as its always been with the ISYs. You just dont want to pull the plug during a firmware update. You should however try to do a proper shutdown should you need to do so using the system system mechanisms outlined in the posts below

all links reside in the devices so things will continue to work without a controller. Its recommended to factory reset your devices prior to setting up with a new controller to avoid half links and unintended behavior down the road.

There are no separate on/off buttons in the admin console for the 6 button kpl. The main button you see (see attached picture in post above) is the load. since it turns on and off, they are together not separate.

Did you make sure zwave did not become unchecked? Are you getting an error message

What happens when you run the then portion by itself? What does the isy show the officel status to be at 3?

Are your outside lights normally on our off after sunset? You could create 2 programs to trigger instead of triggering the scene directly. The first program would turn on the inside lights and set a variable (let's say to 1) Then have another program trigger based off that variable being 1 if it's after sunset. Same premise applies to the off

Ra3 doesn't necessarily have installer costs. The training is free as well as the software. The device price can't be beat when it comes to lutron but I think it comes down to what an individual is willing to pay. For me, the experience one has using a device matters just as much as the automation itself so If i couldn't afford RA at once, I'd be willing to save and replace slowly as the benefits are worth the price (but would need polisy to support it if i couldn't use C4). My experience with insteon vs zooz is different than yours. While the popcorn effect is greatly diminished, it's still well short of insteon. Granted zooz handles individual lights better but not multiple devices.

Ok. Can you make it easy and just post the links to the articles you're copying? That way I can just save them. Thank you

Lutrons makes caseta. I'd recommend going to lutrons website. They'll have all the information you're looking for.

Ok. I guess doing this for a living means less than copying and pasting. I say that because most of your posts were copied from online sources. You must know more than a person who builds and fixes engines for a living too. You win.

Let me start off by saying looks are subjective and I hate the look of Ra2. Ra3 on the other hand has that hands down and what I'm referring to when I speak on Lutron. I know you use Zooz so compare the dimming of that device, how it looks, feels, and operates, then go to your closest home Depot to check out the Lutron Sunnata dimmer. They should have one on display. Touch that one. Operate it. You'll see the difference. Unfortunately, it's something you have to experience more than I can show/prove online. Operation, it's the smoothness of it's dimming ability and lack of popcorn effect. Yes, the speed of 700 series is greater and you can use association for some stuff but it still doesn't compare to a system that can do it all over. The dimming ability (range/smoothness) is also greater with Ra3. I know different led bulbs exhibit different characteristics but since i use the same bulbs on all of my jobs, I'm comparing like for like. It will vary based on bulbs used for both products. Feel: When you click on a Zooz dimmer, you can feel and clearly hear the click the paddle makes when turning on/off while Ra3 is almost silent. The effort it takes to push Zooz's paddle is also greater as well (not saying it's hard, just harder). Look/experience: The reason I talk about the experience is because of how ra3 works. With Zooz, it just sits there unassuming without drawing attention to itself. That isn't a bad thing in itself but at the same time when you walk In a house with ra3, you take notice. It becomes a talking piece in a way. The soft glow when it's off to how the light bar ramps up and fades down afterwards when pressed. It makes a statement that it's special on its on. The Zooz paddle actually feels really good unlike a lot of other zwave devices I've felt over the years and I am amazed at it's quality, especially at it's price point. I can see why you like it. I actually use it in homes that I'm not automating to control outside lights in conjunction with the qolsys IQ panel. As good as it is though, it just doesn't compare. As @mangopointed out, there is a huge difference in price so the ra3 device should be much better.

There is a huge difference price. However, if one can afford it, the experience is worth the price. You're right in that everything has it's place. In this case, we're discussing it because the op asked questions about it. The great thing about Lutron is it's ability to be integrated with other stuff as well beyond lighting just like zwave. Depending on controller, you can also combine it with zwave to get the benefits from that as well... I constantly say people should pick the best system for their situation. At the juncture since insteon is no more, I'd go with Lutron for lighting and 700 series sensors and outlets for everything else. To me (and my needs), that would give the best of both worlds I wouldn't include homeworks because it's not really affordable except by a select few people and not available to the general public to do their own installs in any capacity. Homeworks competition would be Crestron due to the nature of the setup.

I don't understand concepts? Please tell me how many installations have you done? The only thing you've shown is the ability to copy and paste information from online and regurgitate the same stuff over and over again. That's fine if you want to make that look like you know what you're talking about but what and how many systems of Ra3 or ZigBee have you installed? At least in my case, I can speak on things from my experience. Can you say the same? Even control4 recognizes that the frequency can have adverse effects on their system which is why their training material goes over how to minimize and mitigate it. @upstatemike was expressing his opinion about the 2.4g freq. because there can be issues with that frequency. That doesn't mean a customer WILL have issues. But it should be something that someone is aware of. Yes, I agree with him because I've gone to homes to troubleshoot issues that came about from wifi with Control4. Luckily those were easy fixes but the fact is it can happen.

I've tried all 3 and there's a huge difference between Lutron and zwave. Yes 700 series have made things much better but there's still a huge difference in practical use when it comes to 700 series devices and Lutron. It's not just the protocol communication. It's the look, feel, and operation of the devices that plays a large part in how great something is. It's like driving a standard luxury vehicle like my gv80 and then stepping inside of a true luxury vehicle like a high end Mercedes. The build quality and experience is just on a different level.

Its about the frequency it's on. Wifi is RF. The term is ubiquitous to wireless internet but that doesn't change the fact that it's still radio frequency and can interfere with other things that uses that frequency. Most likely Lutron is using a different channel (i know Control4 recommend going outside most wifi router channel range) along with some fancy modulation. At the end of the day interference can still happen which is his point due to market saturation of the bandwidth. It's easy to copy and regurgitate information but it's the details behind it that you have to understand

Same frequency as wifi devices which can cause interference. Imagine a 3 lane highway. 2.4 would be the first lane. As long as all traffic is moving great, it's a great protocol. However, of something goes wrong, you can have system issues. For the most part, you should be ok due to the number of channels out there. With Control4, they recommend seeing the system to channel 25 to avoid normal wifi channel use.