Seeking advice whether to upgrade ISY 994i to Z wVW capability

[lonebullnuke]

For anyone desiring to comment, I invite your perspective on the following:

I am considering upgrading my ISY 994i to Z-wave capability by purchasing the UDI upgrade add on daughter board dongle and the associated portal subscription. Firstly, I acknowledge this system upgrade will necessitate enduring the pains and vagaries of reworking the configurations of the existing 50+ populated Insteon devices in my system in conjunction with updating the OS to 5.3.0, as extensively cataloged on this forum. The intended objective is to support addition of:

1. One Z-Wave siren (product recommendations and experience with same are hereby solicited)

2. One Z-wave door lock (likely a Schlage or Yale z-wave variety - product recommendations and experience with same are hereby solicited)

3. Implementation of Somfy based motorized shade control by means of a Somfy Z-Wave to RTS Plug-in Interface Wall Module ZRTSI - 1811265   Please provide any relevant comment on experience with this device functionality and reliability in a Z wave network controlled by a UDI ISY 994 z-wave capable controller.

I recognize that Z-wave functionality and reliability is highly dependent on local configuration of the Z wave mesh network and number of  deployed Z wave devices and that my above described upgrade may be inherently unreliable due to so few added Z wave devices supporting the mesh network, and which therefore require the addition of repeaters/extenders to improve mesh network coverage.

So, for those interested in this mental (at this point ) exercise, I would appreciate any/all comments as to whether this upgrade will be worth the trip when judged against the likely effort required to get it all working.  I enjoy tinkering by my patience is finite.

Thanks in advance to all for any/all comment and advice. I have monitored this forum for several years now and greatly respect the collective knowledge it brings to this technology.

 

Bill

[Mecheng70]

I have nothing but zwave.  

As for door locks, I use the kwikset 910 series.  Have 4 of them.  Have installed a total of 7 of them.  

 

Make sure you have outlets and switches in order to increase your Z-Wave mesh before putting your battery-operated devices in the mesh. 

[nwchicago]

Bill,

I had a similar configuration (less the shade control) with 6 Schlage zwave locks and Zwave garage door control via Fortrezza io product. 
 

I basically had to install quite a few Zwave alarms by Aotec as repeaters across my house. Maybe 8-10 of them to build a good enough mesh. Even the. I had issues with some door lock communications. The Aotec repeaters and all other Zwave repeaters never worked worth a damn. Only the sirens worked. Also, adding a new Zwave device in secure mode can be a bit tricky. Invest in a short extension cord and add all devices near your isy securely before deploying them. 
 

I trust Schlage locks but I found their Zwave functionality to be less tha I really wanted. Also, I found I needed to add hidden door open close sensors - there’s always a problem with doors being slammed closed while the bolt is deployed. You don’t want that. 
 

I actually like the simplisafe lock implementation a lot better. You give up some control but the automated and default settings are a lot better. 
 

ihad about 200 sensors and devices. Most Insteon. On the whole very reliable. 

[lonebullnuke]

On 1/14/2021 at 8:30 PM, nwchicago said:

Bill,

I had a similar configuration (less the shade control) with 6 Schlage zwave locks and Zwave garage door control via Fortrezza io product. 
 

I basically had to install quite a few Zwave alarms by Aotec as repeaters across my house. Maybe 8-10 of them to build a good enough mesh. Even the. I had issues with some door lock communications. The Aotec repeaters and all other Zwave repeaters never worked worth a damn. Only the sirens worked. Also, adding a new Zwave device in secure mode can be a bit tricky. Invest in a short extension cord and add all devices near your isy securely before deploying them. 
 

I trust Schlage locks but I found their Zwave functionality to be less tha I really wanted. Also, I found I needed to add hidden door open close sensors - there’s always a problem with doors being slammed closed while the bolt is deployed. You don’t want that. 
 

I actually like the simplisafe lock implementation a lot better. You give up some control but the automated and default settings are a lot better. 
 

ihad about 200 sensors and devices. Most Insteon. On the whole very reliable. 

 

[lonebullnuke]

Thanks nwchicago for a comphrehensive reply.

If I might ask for some expanded perspective on General Zwave functionality,

You commented about your experience with the ineffectivness in general of Zwave repeaters (other than the Aotec sirens) when building out the coverage of your mesh network. Are not all Zwave devices inherently repeating and therefore contribute to expanded network coverage, at least in theroy ? Or do you have to determine on a device-by-device basis whether or not a given device will also serve as a repeater in addition to its native node functionality (e.g just a motion sensor of also a Z wave repeater)?

 

Elsewhere on this forum, I have seen favorable remarks about the Aotec siren providing good repeater function and thus network range extension.  Am I correct to assume that means without enbling the siren function? Given the anticipated widespread distribution of controller Zwave devices in my application, I am trying to aticipate the extent of distributed repeating nodes I might need.  Hence the above question regarding device native repeating function.

 

Regarding door locks, I was suprised about your comments regarding the need for door open/close sensors to preclude "bolt extended door slamming" problems. Is this an inherent design flaw in the door lock? I would have presumed that would be an integral function of the doorlock. Also, could you elaborate on your preference for the simplesafe door lock features?

Thanks in advance for the favor of sharing your experience.

Bill 

 

[nwchicago]

You have great questions:

1. Schlage locks have a more or less limited co figuration on auto-lock functionality. My door frames and I could only stand so many door slams and gouges while the deadbolt was extended. Schlage could not tell if it was closed before extending the deadbolt. 
2. You can write a Zwave program to check if the door is closed first using an extra sensor. 
3. Fundamentally I trust Schlage as a lock much lire than Kwik set etc.   But I’m unhappy with that aspect of the automation. 
4. Simplisafe checks for this but is not really programmable and I do know of it’s integrate able with isy. 
5. You do not need to activate the aeotec siren. It just sits there. The more perm plugged in devices you have the better a mesh network. I tried several Zwave repeaters and they all failed. 
6. Also for your locks you’ll want devices that can be configured with encrypted Zwave as repeaters. That’s what I did with the aeotec sirens. 
I was pleasantly surprised to see the fortrezza garage door controllers strengthening my network. 
7. I’m not sure if you can get encrypted support on Zwave light switches but that could work. Just hard to validate. 
8. Most people that have invested in Zwave really like it. I always felt it was more fragile than Insteon.