Light switch control similar to Z-Wave ZWN-RSM2

End Devices (Nodes) Hardware
1

Hey guys,

I can’t seem to find any devices to control home lights that you can wire behind a light switch. I currently have a whole lot of ZWave ZWN-RSM2 devices In my home, but im building a new home and would like to convert to Lorawan if I can. Reason being, ZWave and Zigbee have been unreliable at times with the mesh method, or lack of signal range with the other.

Is there anything similar for Lorawan out there that someone knows of, as I can’t seem to find anything; google ZWN-RSM2 to see what Im talking about for what Im looking for. Its basically a small relay switch you put behind a light switch.

Many thanks in advance

2

https://lowpowerlab.com/shop/product/128 is an option, but you’d have to ask Felix Rusu, who makes them, if he could equip them with rfm95 lora radios rather than the rfm69 radios that come stock

3

Oh awesome, let me message them, thanks!

4

Maybee start with a few off these : http://www.rfi-engineering.com/index.php/remote-power-switch-3/

5

TTN / LoRaWAN is not very suitable for domotica applications for controlling devices (e.g…switching lights) due to a limit of max 10 downlink messages per day.
But it can be used for things like temperature/humidity sensors that primarily use uplink messages and do not require acknowledgements.

In most domotica applications you want to have confirmed uplink and downlink messages (and/or a different form of acknowledgements) which can easily exceed the number of allowed downlink messages.

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6

+1

In terms of switching electrical items in the home\building its essential that its done on a send\acknowledge basis.

So not a suitable application for TTN.

1 Like
7

Thanks guys, this was considered, though the light switches im looking to manage are mostly outdoor lights, that would only be controlling on/off in scheduled times, such as outdoor lights etc. I will continue with ZWAVE/ZIGBEE for internal house situations, these longer distance switches are more for locations where the range of the conventional method doesn’t suite and would only be limited to an on/off 4 - 6 times a day

8

You’d still need a very regular uplink to poll for the Class A downlink commands? Still doesn’t sound like a typical LoRaWAN use case to me…

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So, in practice, how long could you wait, from the moment your ‘app’ tells the lights to go on and it actually happening ?

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Good point, didn’t think of this, though because they are outdoor lights, or lights in commercial / hotel buildings to ensure power has been turned off when someone checks out for instance, it doesn’t matter if its 5 minutes later.

I am now wondering how the netvox siren works; what would be the point in the siren going off 5 minutes after its asked to turn on… I have bought a siren for testing but haven’t tested it yet, that’s going to be interesting

11

Although from a practical standpoint, surley is does matter.

You decide to turn off the lights, how long would it be acceptable to hang around to make sure its does happen ?

12

Datasheet says the device is class C compatible, so it is constantly listening.

The TTN community network doesn’t do class C yet…

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I wouldn’t use LoRa or LoraWan for device management. They are much more aligned with data collection than control.
Also, what distances are you talking about? A mesh has built in redundancy and reliability, but you may need to ensure each node has at least two neighbors.
Since you have Z-Wave already I’d stick with that.