I went to the CES show this last week and looked at a bunch of home automation stuff. Here’s the most interesting Zigbee stuff I saw…

ThinkEco Modlet

A company named ThinkEco is releasing the Modlet which is a plug-in outlet replacement that uses Zigbee to let you monitor power usage and turn it on/off via  a web browser (and whatever shell software they make you load). It uses a USB stick with a PC as controller. Woohoo I want to put these in my house if they work mesh whenever they get around to doing an in-wall version. They’re not listed as Zigbee Certified.

GreenPeak GP540

GreenPeak produces the GP540 - a chipset designed for RF4CE remote controls. It has embedded Zigbee code and support for IR, a keyboard scanner, and, of course, Zigbee. It’s incredibly power efficient – they claim a single 2032 cell can last 15+ years (I assume that’s with no IR). Also using Zigbee lets the remote be two-way; consider a FindMe option where the remote beeps when requested.

GE Nucleus

I find it strange to include GE products but these are absolutely Zigbee and they were showing them very well at the show. Yay GE. The Nucleus connects to your power meter and to thermostats (for now) then you run some software to monitor and control the house. And check out this quote from the GE site: 

GE Profile’s Brillion-enabled appliances are designed to work with Nucleus. When your smart meter** signals a change in the variable utility rate, the appliances automatically adjust their operation.

This I truly want to see…

TI

I talked to the gentleman at the TI booth who said they were coming out with chips with more RAM and also a much higher level interface to the Zigbee stack. Woohoo!

HAI MicroControl

HAI showed off some plug in power control and an LCD controller or two. At least they’re getting into Zigbee and they are Zigbee Certified. Now for in-wall. Glad to see them doing this.