Anyone have Centralite Jetstream stuff?

Just looking for some feedback on it. Is it any good? Does anyone know if it utilizes the Zigbee Home Automation Public profile, or is it some proprietary crap?

I have some that I have been testing and have some comments spread around in other threads. Here are some bullet items of my personal opinions:

• Yes, it is proprietary but pretty much all existing stuff is. I believe they do use the PRO standard at a lower level, but all interoperability with their software and control protocol, etc are still proprietary. I have asked Centralite if they plan on adopting the PRO standard and they don't seem to want to answer that question for me. But still, I'm not sure I would call it proprietary 'crap'.
• While the switch seems like good quality, their bezel/button design is... yes... crap. Because of the way they are designed, they take too much force to press and many people are actually pressing so hard they are breaking the microswitches. They have come up with a few temporary fixes and are supposedly coming out with a whole new button/bezel design in a few months. I have been steadily on their case about this and they have been sending me stuff to test but it is all crap. Hopefully the totally new design will work better.
• The software is great and very easy to use and setup/configure switches. It is as good if not easier than UPStart for UPB.
• The switches are field firmware upgradeable which is very nice. If Centralite decided to adopt the 'standard' PRO protocol I think it would be a simple matter of reflashing the devices, but that is just my thought, not confirmed.
• The switches/technology seems to work very well and reliably. The switches I have in operation have not missed a beat.
• They need a wider product line, especially stuff like inline modules, etc to be competive with other systems like UPB, Insteon and ZWave.

I would echo everything that Steve has posted with the exception that we don't quite agree on the force issue. I have never tried the single button switch, only the 3 button and yes, they are a little firmer than I would prefer and they don't have as good a "clicky" feel as they might, but, I still find them acceptable. I would recommend buying a couple and trying them out and see for yourself. If they end up improving the feel in the near future and offer an upgrade kit they might very well be the best wireless system out there.

Is anyone having problems with scenes fully executing? A user on CQC says some of his larger scenes don't fully execute sometimes. Any problems with "missed" commands (ie lights not working when the button is pressed, etc)?

I eventually want to have a lighting system and I think I've narrowed it down to the OnQ ALC system and the Centralite Jetstream. I like the fact that the ALC system is hardwired, but don't like the lack of devices. Even though the Jetstream only has switches and the lamp module right now, the ALC system doesn't even have a lamp module. I have plenty of lamps that I would like to control in scenes, but cannot rewire them to use a ALC switch. The lamp module would be very helpful in those situations.

Sorry, I used to work crap to illustrate my annoyance with companies that don't use interoperable protocols when those protocols exist.

I got an answer from Centralite on the Home Automation Profile. They are developing something, but there is no release date set yet.

sic0048 said:

Is anyone having problems with scenes fully executing? A user on CQC says some of his larger scenes don't fully execute sometimes. Any problems with "missed" commands (ie lights not working when the button is pressed, etc)?

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I've never had a problem with a scene not executing. All lights go on before I can take my finger off the button. I believe they have now fixed the bezel problem as well.

RichardU said:

sic0048 said:

Is anyone having problems with scenes fully executing? A user on CQC says some of his larger scenes don't fully execute sometimes. Any problems with "missed" commands (ie lights not working when the button is pressed, etc)?

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...I believe they have now fixed the bezel problem as well.

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They are actually still working on that. They should have some new ones to test hopefully in January.

Steve said:

They are actually still working on that. They should have some new ones to test hopefully in January.

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Good. The ones they sent are a bit stiff. Please report back if you hear something and I'll do the same. Do you know about any new modules? Their web site looks like it hasn't been updated since 2007. It's unfortunate such a good system is barely heard of.

Yea, They released an intermediate bezel to fix the specific issues related to breakage and messing up of internal contacts, that's what you received. They have been working on an entirely new bezel design for quite a while now and that's what hopefully will be available in Jan. I think the modules referred to in the other post were the motion detector and something else, although they really are not that new, I saw them last March at Ehx. They are IMHO a bit slow to release new products and upgrades on the Jetstream line.

The final bezel and new buttons have been released. I have replacements coming to me.

I will be interested to hear your opinion. I was NOT impressed and not what I expected.

Me too considering I just bought some Jetstream stuff! I'd like if it was accepted in my house as this is the first lighting system I've tried out.

Brian, it actually works great as technologies go, its just that the paddles can be a bit troublesome. It's like anything else though, even between UPB manufacturers, all the paddles have a different feel. I just am not a fan of the feel of the Jetstream switches and the new ones turned out not much better than the old IMHO. But you may not have an issue at all, even with the originals.

Steve said:

Brian, it actually works great as technologies go, its just that the paddles can be a bit troublesome. It's like anything else though, even between UPB manufacturers, all the paddles have a different feel. I just am not a fan of the feel of the Jetstream switches and the new ones turned out not much better than the old IMHO. But you may not have an issue at all, even with the originals.

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I don't mind the feel of the originals. I just want something that won't break. I'll report back.