Quite some time ago, I laid down some things I'm looking for in a home automation solution. I've recently come to the conclusion that Z-wave is probably mature enough to begin experimenting with. It's a closed protocol owned by a single company, but the company has been around long enough and has affiliated with enough consumer partners that it's unlikely to vanish tomorrow. It may not be secure (it looks like there are security features in the protocol, but I don't know yet if all devices support them), but it should support the debugging and status features I'm looking for that I was never able to get working with INSTEON. To that end, I purchased a UZB stick from Z-Wave.Me and a GE Dimmable Lamp Module and started experimenting. This will be an ongoing trip; we'll see where we end up.
