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Hi,

I'm pretty new to smart home stuff.
After some reading I decided to go with Z-wave and an self-build controller, based on a Pi with the Razberry board.
As I'm a software developer I hope to be more future-proof with this setup, than relying on updates of a 3rd party controller like the Fibaro.

Now I'm not sure which route to go.
Is the Z-Way software enough to set up all the fancy ideas one might have?
- Like light dimming based on light sensors to keep brightness in a room constant
- Automatic switching the lights based on motion at night, but dimmed down further than in the evening
- setting up scenes for different moods (switching on different lights in the living room, also alter the color of the rgbw LED bulbs)

Or should are there other (maybe more easy to use) software solutions for the Pi with Razberry?

Just to be clear:
I'm not afraid of the setup process as I have some Unix background and do a lot coding at work.
But I hope to end with a good solution that is also usable for the rest of the family once it's running.

Smartphone access would be nice as an alternative to physical wall switches too...


edit: Searching on the web brings up a lot OpenSource stuff (Like openHAB, FHME, ...)
Just not sure if it's better to stick to Z-Way or if they even really work with this hardware.

The kind of things you want to do can be achieved with Z-Way. You may have to make a javascript plugin (called userModule) for more complex actions.

Thyraz wrote:edit: Searching on the web brings up a lot OpenSource stuff (Like openHAB, FHME, ...)
Just not sure if it's better to stick to Z-Way or if they even really work with this hardware.

Quite a few early RaZberry users have moved to Domoticz. Developers do get significantly more support there.

Thank you, seems like this was a good tip.

Had Domoticz running on a headless installation after a very short time and already included my first Z-Wave test devices.

Creating a few actions using Lua was also really easy.