[HH] Lowe's Iris home automation products, inexpensive Z-Wave connected water timer

[Tom Metro]

I've largely ignored the Lowe's Iris line of home automation products,
as it struck me as just another big company jumping on the home
automation bandwagon using the model of proprietary technology and a
controller that requires a perpetual subscription fee for a cloud
service. (I have no interest in either paying a monthly fee nor in
having my home automation controller connected to third party cloud
service.)

(Sadly for the D-I-Yer, almost all of the most talked about new products
in the home automation space have been either proprietary, or they have
at least gone to some length to suppress any mention of the protocols
they use. They're all laser focused on the techno-neophyte user, who
wants to just buy a bunch of stuff made to work together, and cares more
about ease of setup than capability, privacy. or interoperability. In
their defense, part of why these companies are getting funded is because
the tech has gotten good enough to make it possible to pull off an easy
to setup system, and investors only see these companies as valuable if
they can reach a larger market than the limited techo-hobbyists that
bought home automation gear in the past. Although a clever company could
address the needs of both markets, if they tried. They're not inherently
incompatible.)


However, I've ran across a few mentions that the Iris system actually
uses Z-Wave, and thus the compatible devices should be usable with other
controllers, including those running the open source OpenZwave stack.

The latest Lowe's press release on Iris says:
http://media.lowes.com/pr/2014/07/23/lowes-helps-consumers-outsmart-summer-with-new-home-automation-products-for-iris/

  Iris' open platform also supports dozens of other Zigbee and
  Z-Wave-enabled devices.

Their definition of "open" apparently means you can use 3rd party
peripherals with the device. At least they are admitting they use
Z-Wave. (I'm not sure knowing it uses Zigbee is useful. My understanding
is that Zigbee is a link-layer protocol, similar to Ethernet. For two
devices to interoperate, they need to agree upon several more layers of
common protocol, which isn't covered by the Zigbee spec., unlike Z-Wave.)

Of the more interesting new products is:

$40 Orbit Iris Hose Faucet Water Timer
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=586530-74985-27087

The description for it says:

  Works with the Iris home management system (Iris smart hub required)

They make absolutely no mention of Z-Wave. Apparently it either didn't
occur to them that they could expand the market for this device
considerably by indicating it is compatible with dozens of home
automation controllers on the market, or they simply thought it was more
in their best interest to mislead their customers into thinking they
could only use it with the proprietary Iris controller (for which they
get to charge a monthly subscription fee, that is almost pure profit).

The reality is unknown, and until someone buys it and tries paring it
with other Z-wave gear, no one can say whether they've monkeyed with the
protocol to make it only work with Iris.

If it does work with other Z-wave controllers, this is probably the
least expensive Z-wave connected sprinkler controller on the market.

Though a bargain basement price may not be the best thing for quality.
One of the reviewers noted that after a power outage, the timer failed
in the on state, letting water flow to his plants for the duration of
his vacation. Clearly they cut some corners and eliminated sensors that
could have made it fail safe.

 -Tom