[Rick2102]

Originally Posted by andytvcams

If you can try buying your lightwaverf products dimmers from a B&Q that stocks them.
They offer a 45 day exchange or money back guarantee.
That gives you over a month to try them

Hi Andy,

It seems though from comments they get past 45 days, its around the 6 month stage where issues start appearing

[sparkie1984]

I wouldn't bother putting money into this system.

Their no longer offering support in their own forums, they won't allow people to write their own software to replace their own crap software..

I was gonna buy a few more items but wont bother now

[andytvcams]

Id not sure about that as i dont think B&Q have been selling them that long.
What you have to remember that although Lightwaverf have designed the product the ones on sale in B&Q have the Siemens brand on them and as far as i know they test them to destruction and have to pass very stringent tests before they put their name on them.

[Rick2102]

Originally Posted by sparkie1984

I wouldn't bother putting money into this system.

Their no longer offering support in their own forums, they won't allow people to write their own software to replace their own crap software..

I was gonna buy a few more items but wont bother now

Hi Sparkie,

That to me says something. If they won't even support their own product, what hope have you got really!!

Fair enough, if you have had bad experiences with it, there is no point in spending more for it to break. Like I said further up the thread I thought this was going to be a great product, and with all the issues Leyton Francis I think he was called has gone quiet too.

Just really not sure what to go for as there is quite a bit of negativity over Rako too and that is alot more expensive and that would be even worse to shell out for that and that be useless too.

[Rick2102]

Originally Posted by andytvcams

Id not sure about that as i dont think B&Q have been selling them that long.
What you have to remember that although Lightwaverf have designed the product the ones on sale in B&Q have the Siemens brand on them and as far as i know they test them to destruction and have to pass very stringent tests before they put their name on them.

Hi Andy,

Do you know this from experience? I have never seen them in my B and Q. Is it Superstore only? Like you said just seen them online branded as Siemens products

[andytvcams]

Originally Posted by Rick2102

Hi Andy,

Do you know this from experience? I have never seen them in my B and Q. Is it Superstore only? Like you said just seen them online branded as Siemens products

I bought mine from a superstore but there are three in my area before i found one that sold the product i had to look it up on there website.

And to do that you have to goto the product search box top right on their main page but only type siemens and press go.
When you get to the product page pick out the product your after and tick the reserve and collect box they will ask you to type your post code or home town this will bring up a list of stores that stock the product near to were you live.

[Rick2102]

Have looked online and like you said order and have delivered to store.

I am thinking try one and surely it comes with a 12 month warranty and if it stops working throw it back at
B and Q. They are cheaper than Lightwave RF too on there. Am just worried if I spent the money on Rako and that goes pear shaped I will go mental!!

[andytvcams]

Originally Posted by Rick2102

Have looked online and like you said order and have delivered to store.

I am thinking try one and surely it comes with a 12 month warranty and if it stops working throw it back at
B and Q. They are cheaper than Lightwave RF too on there. Am just worried if I spent the money on Rako and that goes pear shaped I will go mental!!

You actually have longer than that as you can have the product for up to three years and still take it back under the not fit for purpose act.

In most cases a store will give you a refund rarther than risk going to a small case court especially if you have copied other people complaints on the internet. A court can order that company to produce records of any returns they have of that product. And nine times out of ten they will offer a refund.

[sparkie1984]

Originally Posted by andytvcams

You actually have longer than that as you can have the product for up to three years and still take it back under the not fit for purpose act.

In most cases a store will give you a refund rarther than risk going to a small case court especially if you have copied other people complaints on the internet. A court can order that company to produce records of any returns they have of that product. And nine times out of ten they will offer a refund.

Is it worth all this aggro just for this stuff though mate?.

[Rick2102]

Originally Posted by andytvcams

You actually have longer than that as you can have the product for up to three years and still take it back under the not fit for purpose act.

In most cases a store will give you a refund rarther than risk going to a small case court especially if you have copied other people complaints on the internet. A court can order that company to produce records of any returns they have of that product. And nine times out of ten they will offer a refund.

Thanks, didn't know that

[Rick2102]

Originally Posted by sparkie1984

Is it worth all this aggro just for this stuff though mate?.

Depends on how much you have spent and how hacked off you are I suppose?

If I had done my whole house in the stuff and spend in excess of £1k and I could throw that back at someone and get my money back I know I would!!

[trueblue198]

Ok people wats the general opinion on lightwaverf? Buy or not to buy? I currently have a few remote socket faceplates that I use to turn av and a couple of lamps off when we go to bed (homeeasy) and also a couple of plug in remote adaptors (bbsb) but would really like get abit more involved, especially with smartphone control, timed events and scene settings!
I believe the lightwaverf control unit works with the homeeasy sockets. Has anybody had experiences with this? Especially the smartphone control? Thanks

[andytvcams]

First question what smart phone are you using.

[trueblue198]

HTC wildfire, yes I know not the best phone But due to upgrade soon so possibly iPhone or maybe stick with newer HTC or might go with something else. Does it matter which phone is used? Cheers

[andytvcams]

Does not matter what phone you other than the fact Lightwaverf put a lot of effort into the iphone app and the Android app came off second best by a long way.

The company has promised upgrades to the android phone and the Honeycomb tablet but as yet nothing has happened.
You might be better off spending some time on the lightwaverf forums and read what some of their customer comments not all are happy bunny's.

[trueblue198]

Thanks, will defo have a look at there forums before taking the plunge!
How about the Lightwaverf control for smartphone unit? Is this known to be problematic too? Looking on here the problems seem to be about the switches lifetime etc.
I was thinking about buying the lightwaverf control and using the homeeasy sockets and switches, which I know and trust! As long as I know this will work?? Don't want to be buying the controller and no sockets/ switches and finding out it won't work with homeeasy!

[andytvcams]

Again i would do a search on the forums as im not sure that lightwave works with homeasy.

EDIT: no they wont work together.

[trueblue198]

I've just found this list of compatiable devices on the LWRF website:
Receives 433.92MHz signals of:
ANSLUT,
ATI Remote Wonder,
ATI Remote Wonder II,
ByeByeStandBy,
Chacon,
Clas Ohlson weather sensors,
COCO,
DI.O,
Digimax,
Domia Lite,
Düwi,
ELRO AB600,
HomeEasy,
HomeEasy (including HE105),
HomeEasy EU,
Intertechno,
KD101 - Chacon, NEXA, Flamingo smoke detector
KlikAanKlikUit
La Crosse weather sensors
(TX3, TX4, TX17)
LightwaveRF, Siemens (lighting & power),
Mertik Maxitrol,
NEXA,
Oregon Scientific weather sensors, (all 1.0, 2.1 & 3.0)
AW129, AW131, BTHR918, BTHR918N, BTHR968, PCR800, RGR126, RGR682, RGR918, RTGR328N, RTGR328N, STR918, THC138, THC238, THC268, THGN122N, THGN123N, THGN500, THGR122NX, THGR228N, THGR238, THGR268, THGR328N, THGR810, THGR918, THGRN228NX, THN122N/132N, THR128, THR138, THRN122N, THWR288A, UV138, UVN128, UVN800, WGR800, WGR918, WTGR800, WTGR800
Oregon Scientific BWR101/BWR102,
OWL CM113, cent-a-meter, Electrisave,
OWL CM119 / CM160,
PC Remote,
Proove,
RFXMeter,
RFXSensor,
TFA weather sensors,
(TS34C)
X10 lighting, X10 security,
X10 Ninja/Robocam,
Xdom

Transmits 433.92MHz signals for:
ANSLUT,
ATI Remote Wonder,
ATI Remote Wonder II,
ByeByeStandBy,
Chacon (including EMW200),
COCO,
DI.O,
Digimax,
Domia Lite,
Düwi,
ELRO AB400, AB600,
Harrison curtain,
HomeEasy,
HomeEasy (including HE105),
HomeEasy EU,
Ikea Koppla,
Impuls,
Intertechno,
KD101 - Chacon, NEXA, Flamingo smoke detector
KlikAanKlikUit
LightwaveRF, Siemens (lighting & power),
Mertik Maxitrol,
NEXA,
PC Remote,
Proove,
PT2262 receivers
RTS10 / RFS10 / TLX1206,
Waveman,
X10 lighting, X10 security,
X10 Ninja/Robocam,
Xdom

Homeeasy is on there and i've posted on their forum asking if anyone has used LWRF with homeeasy products.
I will post results on here as soon as i know

*Sorry people my mistake! I have just been informed that this is the comparability list for rfxcom and not lwrf!

[trueblue198]

A lot of people on the lwrf forum are recommending staying away from these products at the minute! All I want is a reliable system to control basic lighting and sockets! Looks like i'll be sticking with home easy!

[fredd500]

trueblue

It looks like the list you have is the compatibility list for a device called RFXCom. RFXCom is not a LWRF device, but a standalone RF transceiver for a number of devices working in the 433Mhz band that LWRF also works in.

LWRF have their own WiFi device called the WiFi link which provides the interface between your smartphone, web browser, tablet etc and their RF protocol. Users on the LWRF forums have decoded the simple UDP protocol that is used between the applications and the WiFi link and successfully made the WiFi link send out the necessary RF signals to switch on/off and dim/brighten the LWRF devices.

A number of users have had problems with the system, but as is typical for this type of thing, users who have had complete success generally won't have gone searching for forums to gripe upon. B&Q must be selling a reasonable volume of these devices and the posts to the forum are from a few hardcore users so surely they must generally work? That said, the one very weakly supported area at the moment is the Android phone market. The app is flaky by all accounts. I have an iPhone and it works flawlessly so I cannot substantiate that.

Hardware wise, I have a reasonably small installation of four wall mounted dimmers, a couple of plug in appliance modules and the WiFi link. From my point of view, it all seems to work well, but I appreciate that other users have experienced problems. I replaced a couple of Homeeasy dimmers and what I can say is that the dimmers are better than Homeeasy - they dim lower, have discrete dim/bright buttons which stop when they are at their limits (rather than switch from dimming to brightening as HE do) and they are far more tolerant of a low load (I have had two 4W LED's working fine on LWRF, Homeeasy refused to work with four). I am happy with the replacement and will no doubt add some more in due course.

I would not advise you to stay away from LWRF, the hardware seems fine and for me works better than Homeeasy. If Android control for you is a requirement then perhaps wait a bit. If you are happy to hack together your own home control system or upgrade to an iPhone, then start small, replace one or two dimmers and have a play. Don't throw all your eggs in one basket and replace everything at the same time as it will make getting back out of the LWRF market a challenge.

I have blogged about my experiences with the system on by website at http://www.cpmills.com. Any further questions, please shout, I am happy to help if I can.

[andytvcams]

The problem Fred 500 nobody from lightwaverf/js.js are not making any attempt to defend these complaints.
In fact their has been two members on the site that have slated the product and company to the point that any other company at best would have deleted their posts and had them banned.

Any other company that hosts a members forum has always had a moderator to answer any problems yet lightwaverf dont seem to have anybody to keep an eye on the site. or seem to care.

That in my book can never be good for any business.

PS. Since JS.JS announced that they would no longer take part in the forums the site has become a ghost town.

[Neil in Bristol]

I recently bought some LightwaveRF plug-in socket adaptors and a wall dimmer switch from B&Q. They look very nice, and the sockets work well.

However, I've tried the wall switch in two separate rooms and it makes the lights unacceptably dim. They're 240v halogen lights, and well within the 250W total limit that the switch is rated at, so it's not a transformer or load issue.

I've tried a replacement switch and still have the same issue. Several other customers are reporting a similar problem on the LightWaveRF forums, too.

Have raised a ticket with LightWaveRF online support and will report back how I get on, but at the moment I can't recommend them.

[Smurfin]

Just goes to show, if something looks too good to be true...it usually is.

[Neil in Bristol]

Originally Posted by Smurfin

Just goes to show, if something looks too good to be true...it usually is.

To be fair, there's no good reason why lighting control should cost hundreds of pounds, but it does seem that the cheaper alternatives currently have problems

On the plus side, I did receive a prompt reply from the manufacturers who are waiting for some new switches to come into stock with new software in them, which they hope will resolve my problem. I'll keep you all posted!

[jabriel]

Has anyone else bought LWRF products lately? Has the situation improved in any way?

I'm thinking of taking the plunge but was interested in to know about peoples recent experiences.

1 questions I have is if I want to get around the loss in brightness of LED bulbs, should I buy bulbs with higher watts?

[pvladi]

The problem is with the design of the dimmers, as they are meant to be a retrofit replacement of existing wall switches, there is no neutral wire, so no way for the device to receive power, so they have to dummy-load the lights, which causes problems. then there is an issue with the reduced output...

since this is a design flaw, the problem will not improve.

it is possible to create a dimmer that would function as LWRF envisaged without a problem, but it will be very difficult and costly device to manufacture.
unlikely anytime soon.
(induction for electronics power, dummy load (heat), relay to switch between dummy load and actual load... and so on...)

I went with Crestron dimmer in the end. bought it on Ebay for half the price of the LWRF dimmer & "WiFi box"

If I would not have found the Crestron dimmer - would have bought this Wired Control Modules - Rako Controls Ltd

Originally Posted by jabriel

Has anyone else bought LWRF products lately? Has the situation improved in any way?

I'm thinking of taking the plunge but was interested in to know about peoples recent experiences.

1 questions I have is if I want to get around the loss in brightness of LED bulbs, should I buy bulbs with higher watts?

[sparkie1984]

It seems to me they are crashing and burning, they don't help out on any forums anymore, nothing new has been released..

I seriously wouldn't invest anything into this lot now, I find the app and wifi link poor and barely use it now.

[andrewilley]

I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt at the moment as I do like the basic concept. I had a chat with them again at this year's Gadget Show and raised all of the points here. Briefly:

They are aware of the lower power output issue, and the next batch of wall dimmers should improve this (still won't be a full 240V max due to the nature of the dimming system, but it won't be as low as 170V either). Speak to them if you have a problem with your existing dimmer module.

Forums: I think their legal people insisted in their not getting involved in open disucssions which could be construed as official general advice on user-hacking of electrical products. I got the impression they were told they need to deal with customers one-to-one, which is what they are now doing via a help ticket system. Personally I think staff time was almost certainly an issue too, though.

Apps: they acknowleged that their expertise is not in app design, and that the current app is a bit of a standin that was released just to get something out there (especially the Android version). They currently have a third-party company working on both the iOS and Android apps, which will be ground-up redesigns.

The heating products are still very delayed.

Andre

[Smurfin]

Originally Posted by andrewilley

I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt at the moment as I do like the basic concept. I had a chat with them again at this year's Gadget Show and raised all of the points here. Briefly:

They are aware of the lower power output issue, and the next batch of wall dimmers should improve this (still won't be a full 240V max due to the nature of the dimming system, but it won't be as low as 170V either). Speak to them if you have a problem with your existing dimmer module.

Forums: I think their legal people insisted in their not getting involved in open disucssions which could be construed as official general advice on user-hacking of electrical products. I got the impression they were told they need to deal with customers one-to-one, which is what they are now doing via a help ticket system. Personally I think staff time was almost certainly an issue too, though.

Apps: they acknowleged that their expertise is not in app design, and that the current app is a bit of a standin that was released just to get something out there (especially the Android version). They currently have a third-party company working on both the iOS and Android apps, which will be ground-up redesigns.

The heating products are still very delayed.

Andre

There's nothing new there, personally I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

[andytvcams]

My lightroom system went down on friday night we have it set up on two android phones and two android tablets the wifi box looks to be working.


Their is a on line site that you use to manage your devices that seemed to have disappeared as has the lightwaves website.