Cao Wireless Tag Controller.

[Brian H]

I got an email sales message from Smarthome this morning.

On a Cao Wireless Tag Controller and assorted tags.

Indicated it could be used with an ISY controller. Through rest and an Android App.

Anyone have one or have thoughts on it?

http://www.smarthome.com/69532/Cao-Gadg ... ler/p.aspx

[MWareman]

I got an email sales message from Smarthome this morning.

On a Cao Wireless Tag Controller and assorted tags.

Indicated it could be used with an ISY controller. Through rest and an Android App.

Anyone have one or have thoughts on it?

http://www.smarthome.com/69532/Cao-Gadg ... ler/p.aspx

Smart home have added a large mark up over what Cao were selling them for a few months ago. No great surprise there I guess.

 

I gave up on mine (I have 8 tags and one receiver). Never could get them to talk to the ISY over rest, and the tags keep losing communication - at least in my environment.

 

I have one on the arm of my garage door - the interference from being strapped to metal arm caused the range to diminish substantially. Just not reliable communication.

 

Neat idea though.

[Brian H]

Thank you for you feedback on the devices.

[TJF1960]

They recently released their new Long Range tags and reintroduced an updated water sensor. I bought two of each. I have had trouble with one motion tag but the other one is working great and the water sensors are working great as well. I put one motion tag in the garage freezer and it works fine reporting the temp as well as when the door is opened and closed. They even have an adjustable temp range, anything outside of the range will send an alert.

ISY variables get updated very quickly as well.

So far I like it and the price of the sensors are had to beat (thru cai not sh).

[arw01]

Did you determine if you can completely stop their tag manager from going through their cloud servers?

 

E.g. can you block it's access and it still works long term?

 

I am not at all convinced they will be around long term, and hence don't want to buy something that won't work as soon as they sell, or I have to subscribe to on a monthly basis.

 

Alan

[TJF1960]

Just checked and it will not work without the cloud. So this should be something that anyone considering purchasing should be aware of. Although at this point I personally am not too concerned about it. It seems to work well (so far) and the cost of the sensors are very reasonable allowing a great number of inexpensive possibilities in HA. I remember reading somewhere on their site the cost of the cloud is very small and they will not ever charge for its use. Whether or not they go out of business, who knows, like anything else in life this too is a gamble.