Home Automation Protocols

Major protocols over time:

• X10 - The first widely used protocol created in 1975. Many devices were created on it, but it had lots of reliability issues and the signal was easily corrupted by other electronics, such as microwaves.
• Z-wave - Introduced in 1999 by Zensys. The best I can tell, the first chip usable by other companies was in 2003. The 500 series chip, released in 2013, is when it really started to expand. As much as I love Insteon, this is the protocol I would go with if starting fresh today.
• Insteon - created by Smartlabs and introduced under a company by the same name, Insteon was backwards compatible with X10 devices and helped it gain a lot of popularity very quickly. For multiple reasons that I can only speculate on, they ended up going bankrupt in 2022, folding, and then some HA enthusiasts came together, bought the company, and are slowly working on reviving it. My favorite solution for many reasons.
• Lutron LIP - Somewhat DIY friendly but missing functionality that was added to LEAP
• Lutron LEAP - Lutron’s latest protocol. Very closed off and not DIY friendly. Also still missing functionality that was available in LIP.
• WiFi based protocols - Many companies didn’t want to license any of the other protocols or wanted to create their own walled garden. The easiest way to do that is to have everything require wifi. Outside of a few device types, it is annoying that so many companies are going down this route.
• Zigbee - created in 1998, standardized in 2003, and revised in 2006. Zigbee