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Home automation is an emerging field with great potential, however without the appropriate standardisation of devices it can become a minefield of incompatibilities and frustrated customers. However there’s a standard we’re excited about – Zigbee Home Automation – that is quite promising.

ZigBee Home Automation is an application profile for Networked devices for home automation use – a global standard helping to create smarter homes that enhance comfort, convenience, security and energy management in the home environment. This standard for ZigBee wireless mesh-networked home automation applications can help make every home a smarter, safer and more energy efficient environment for consumers and families.

The standard gives your customers a way to gain greater control of the functionality of their home. By offering a global standard for interoperable products you it enables the secure and reliable monitoring and control of technologies in the home environment with robust, energy-efficient and easy to install wireless networks. Almost anything can be connected, such as appliances, home entertainment, environmental control and sensing, HVAC and security systems – providing convenience and energy efficiency benefits to the resident.

Smarter homes allow consumers to save money, be more environmentally aware, feel more secure and enjoy a variety of conveniences that make homes easier and less expensive to maintain. ZigBee Home Automation supports the needs of a diverse global ecosystem of stakeholders including home owners or tenants, product manufacturers, designers and architects, offering a standard that provides a reliable, consistent way to wirelessly monitor, control and automate household appliances and technologies to create innovative, functional and liveable home environments.

Typical application areas for ZigBee Home Automation can include smart lighting, access control, temperature and environmental sensing and control, intruder detection, smoke or fire detection, automated occupancy sensing and automated lighting or appliance control. The use of wireless radio networks eliminates the cost and effort of cable installation throughout the home, whilst the ZigBee standard provides certified interoperability and global 2.4 GHz ISM spectrum allocation, allowing manufacturers to take their ZigBee-based solutions to the global market relatively easily with relatively simple installation and operation.

Devices will have a typical RF range of up to 70 meters indoors or 400 meters outdoors, offering a flexibility to cover homes of all sizes. As with all ZigBee solutions, ZigBee Home Automation systems are built on top of an open and freely available specification based on international standards and represent a highly scalable solution with the ability to potentially network thousands of devices.

The devices are easy to install, even allowing for do-it-yourself installation in most cases. Employing wireless radio networks as well as battery power in many cases means that ZigBee Home Automation devices require little or no cable installation, making them ideal for easy retrofitting to existing homes and buildings as well as remodelling and new construction. Self-organising networks with easy device discovery simplify the setup and maintenance of networks consisting of many nodes, and the proven interference avoidance mechanisms in ZigBee networks ensure worry-free operation even in environments where coexistence with other 2.4 GHz radios such as 802.11 WiFi and Bluetooth is required.

The ZigBee Home Automation standard is designed for full coexistence with 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs and Bluetooth, as with all ZigBee technologies. Thus all devices based on these standards are designed to operate effectively in the same environment as WiFi networks, employing proven interference avoidance techniques such as channel agility.

Internet connectivity to the ZigBee network allows ZigBee Home Automation devices to be controlled via the Internet from anywhere in the world, as well as allowing WiFi-connected smartphones to be used as compact, powerful control and user-interface appliances to control the network of ZigBee appliances around the home.

Furthermore the standard is secure – employing AES128 encryption and device authentication to secure personal information, prevent unauthorised control of or access to the network, and to prevent interference or unauthorised access between independent neighbouring networks.

ZigBee Home Automation devices can be used to monitor household energy use, and to turn on and off devices remotely. Since ZigBee Home Automation is a ZigBee standard, ZigBee Home Automation devices will interoperate effortlessly with other products already in consumers’ homes using other ZigBee application profiles, such as ZigBee Light Link, ZigBee Remote Control, ZigBee Smart Energy or ZigBee Building Automation.

Finally – the standard is interoperable – integrating control and monitoring devices for lighting, security, home access and home appliances, allowing the customer to select from a variety of different products to meet her needs. All ZigBee-certified products are interoperable with each other and with other ZigBee networks, regardless of their manufacturer. All certified ZigBee devices, including but not limited to ZigBee Home Automation devices, from different vendors all use the same standards and are tested and certified to be fully interoperable with each other, allowing the consumer to purchase new devices with confidence.

With our existing experience in producing a wide range of devices incorporating Zigbee-based wireless technology our engineers can take your ideas for home automation to the final product stage.

We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

There’s more to the Internet of Things than just deciding upon the desired outcome, designing and selecting the appropriate hardware, software and network infrastructure required to enable things to communicate with each other. You may even have systems in place to analyse data from the system as described in our previous article about the industrial Internet.

However you can take the system further – by planning the processes of how various entities can work together to find synergy and more opportunity from the investment. These entities can be classed as individual Internet of Things installations. Some organisations such as Cisco Systems have even coined a new term – the “Internet of Everything” – which takes into account the people, data, things – and the processes of how they can all work together.

This is an interesting development and not one unique to any particular manufacturer. However “uniqueness” in itself a possible hindrance when designing a system – as lack of compatibility with other systems can be a downfall over the longer term. So as part of the design process, you need to decide whether or not you want your system to communicate with others for the benefit of all involved.

In doing so the linked systems can work more efficiently together and make life easier for all. This involves coordinating various events in a way that may have been normally achieved by a person who would normally use two or more disparate systems at once to achieve a single goal. In other words – taking intelligent decision making to the next level.

This level of integration can be found in many areas, such as the consumer device and industrial fields. Let’s consider some broad examples of how processes can match two different systems to meet a common goal for the end user.

Traffic and vehicle systems – The ability to monitor traffic on major roads and arterials is nothing new, however the data generated can of course be used to broadcast traffic data for external services, alter signal timings, variable speed signs and other notices to motorists. Furthermore some vehicles now have GPS receivers which are pre-programmed with static speed limits and other warnings.

As a motorist your ultimate goal is to get to your destination as safe and as fast as legally possible. If the IoT system in the vehicle could interact with the separate traffic system – by submitting location and planned destination – a customised live route plan could be sent to the vehicle directing the driver to the optimum route. The vehicle could also take fuel consumption into account, the distance to travel – and interrogate the traffic system for the location of the nearest service station if required.

Commercial interests could also integrate live fuel pricing into the system to allow the vehicle to select the cheapest fuel as well. Finally the law enforcement aspect can also create some interesting scenarios that may not be popular with all – but useful to administration. Nevertheless all of these functions then remove the tasks away from the driver, allowing them to focus on driving and safety.

Intelligent hotel HVAC and water solutions – Running a large hotel includes a myriad of fixed and variable costs with respect to energy usage. Some buildings may utilised standard fixed-thermostat hot water boilers and air conditioning systems that may have a degree of adjustment, but still run when not entirely required in all areas of the hotel. By creating a system of processes that allow a hotel’s guest booking system to integrate with intelligent HVAC and water systems – real money can be saved on energy bills.

By re-engineering or installing new zone-based air conditioning systems into the building that allow greater control of output to various areas or zones, and individually-controlled hot water systems for each room (or each floor) the ability to shut down complete areas when required can be possible.If the hotel’s booking system could allow bookings to occur in certain areas – for example booking rooms in sequential order, whole zones or floors can be kept full with guests, and empty with vacant rooms. By creating processes for the booking system to communicate with the HVAC/water system – the minimum of energy required for booked rooms could be used and vacant areas could be shut down.

With customers pre-booking check-in times – individual hot water systems could be only activated a few hours before guest arrival and shut down until the next booking – saving more energy. Furthermore by capturing weather data and understanding the seasons, the booking system could ensure guests are booked into the cooler or warmer side of the building – thus reducing the impulse to “turn up the heat” or “crank up the air conditioning” upon arrival.As you can easily imagine, a fair amount of planning needs to be taken into consideration with regards to the processes involved in Internet of Things systems that may need to work together.

Even if you aren’t considering system interoperability – adding the ability for data interchange with other systems should be considered to avoid future obsolescence.Just as in the 1980s a wide variety of computer systems was reduced to a handful – in the 21st century connected technology in our “Internet of Everything” will need to work together in order to find success. Planning is the key, and understanding the requirements is paramount.If you have the needs, the ideas – and want to move forward with intelligent systems – you will set your organisation on the path to increased efficiency and profitability – and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

We can discuss and understand your requirements and goals – then help you navigate the various hardware and other options available to help solve your problems. We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.