Tag: Z-Wave

Z-Wave

Z-Wave is a wireless networking specification led by the Danish company Zensys.

Although the Z-wave Alliance is not as powerful as the ZigBee Alliance, the members of the Z-wave Alliance are all manufacturers that already have current products in the smart home field. The alliance has more than 160 internationally renowned companies, and the scope basically covers Countries and regions around the world.

Z-Wave is an emerging short-range wireless communication technology based on radio frequency, low cost, low power consumption, high reliability, and suitable for networks.

The working frequency band is 908.42MHz (U.S.) ~ 868.42MHz (Europe), using FSK (BFSK/GFSK) modulation mode, the data transmission rate is 9.6 kbps, the effective coverage of the signal is 30m indoors and more than 100m outdoors, suitable for narrow Broadband applications.

With the increase of communication distance, the complexity of equipment, power consumption, and system cost are increasing. Compared with various existing wireless communication technologies, Z-Wave technology will be the technology with the lowest power consumption and the lowest cost, and it will effectively Promoting low-speed wireless personal area networks.

Z-Wave technology is designed for residential and light commercial control and status reading applications, such as meter reading, lighting, and home appliance control, HVAC, access control, anti-theft, and fire detection.

Z-Wave can convert any independent device into an intelligent network device, which can realize control and wireless monitoring.

Z-Wave technology was positioned in the field of smart home wireless control when it was initially designed. Using small data format transmission, the transmission rate of 40kb/s is enough to deal with, and the transmission rate of 9.6kb/s was even used in the early days.

Compared with other similar wireless technologies, it has a relatively low transmission frequency, a relatively long transmission distance, and a certain price advantage.

Z-Wave technology specializes in narrowband applications and uses innovative software solutions to replace high-cost hardware. Therefore, high-quality wireless networks can be built at a fraction of the cost of other similar technologies.

Network structure

Each Z-Wave network has its own independent network address (HomeID); the address (NodeID) of each node in the network is assigned by the control node (Controller). Each network can accommodate up to 232 nodes (Slave), including control nodes.

There can be multiple control nodes, but there is only one main control node, that is, the main control node is responsible for the distribution of all nodes in the network, and other control nodes just forward the commands of the main control node.

All control nodes can be controlled by ordinary nodes that have been connected to the network. Nodes beyond the communication distance can be controlled by routing (Routing) through other nodes between the controller and the controlled node.

Routing technology

Z-Wave uses dynamic routing technology. Each Slave stores a routing table, which is written by the Controller. The stored information is the NodeID of other Slaves that exist around the Slave when the Slave is connected to the network. In this way, each Slave knows which Slaves are around, and the Controller stores the routing information of all Slaves.

When the distance between the Controller and the controlled Slave exceeds the maximum control distance, the Controller will call the last path that correctly controlled the Slave to send a command. If the path fails, the new path will be retrieved from the first Slave.

Application

Z-Wave system solution for three-bedroom and one-living room:
The main system is composed of 3 embedded lighting controllers, 3 wall switches, a full-function infrared remote control, and a touch control screen; the embedded scene controller and the handheld scene controller are function expansion modules.

Among them, the full-function infrared remote control and touch control screen are Controller, and the embedded lighting controller, embedded scene controller, and handheld scene controller are all slaves.

In view of the fact that all devices in the system use routing technology, it is only necessary to ensure that the distance between every two embedded devices is less than the longest communication distance during installation.

After the installation is completed, all devices are connected to the network through the HRPZ full-function infrared remote control. After the touch control screen is connected to the network, all networked devices can be synchronized to the touch control screen.

After the device is connected to the network, the user can intuitively see the switch status of all Z-Wave connected appliances in the home through the full-function remote control and touch control screen, and can conveniently control it. If the touch control screen is connected to the Internet network, you can use PDAs, PCs, etc. to remotely control home appliances through the Internet network.

In the system equipped with HRPZ full-function remote control, users can realize mobile control at home more conveniently. Embedded scene controller and hand-held scene controller can set conference, film, and television and other scenes through the touch control screen or supporting PC configuration software, and complete the control of a series of combined functions through a one-key operation.

Marketing strategy

The short-range wireless networking communication technology, which is different from ZigBee technology, is a new alliance formed by chip and software developer Zensys and many others-the Z-Wave Alliance, to promote the adoption of the Z-Wave protocol in the field of home automation.

Cisco and Intel have successively invested in Zensys and joined the Z-Wave Alliance. Microsoft is also a member of the Z-Wave Alliance.

Z-wave will strive to become a toy for adults. The development direction of the z-wave is to integrate entertainment and practical functions.

The technology platform locked by Z-Wave is home automation. The role of Z-Wave is to replace the current X-10 specifications. There have been bridge products that symbiosis between X-10 and Z-Wave.

And the products derived are dazzling, and many home automation users who like to do it yourself (DIY) in foreign countries have also begun to pay attention to and use Z-Wave.

Technically, Z-Wave has increased from the original 9.6Kbit/s to 40Kbit/s, and claims that the original 9.6Kbit/s can coexist with 40Kbit/s after the upgrade. In terms of the number of nodes, a Z-Wave network can support two hundred and thirty-two points.

The routing protocol used by Z-Wave is Source Routing, and the detailed routing path can be directly specified in the packet after sending the packet at the source. This approach greatly saves the resources that each node spends on routing.

Z-Wave’s third-generation chip ZW0301, the microcontroller core uses a six-times 8051 architecture, with 32KB of Flash ROM and 256KB of SRAM.

In terms of current consumption, sleep mode is 2.5 microamps, receiving 23 milliamperes, and transmitting is 36 milliamperes at 0dBm output. However, due to the frequency band selected at 868/908MHz, this power consumption is still slightly high.

Although Z-Wave is not perfect, it locks in the right market and combines its own products with Windows series products. Zensys provides Dynamically Linked Library (DLL) for Windows development, which designers can call