I'd say in general hardware that uses the z-wave protocol isn't too locked down. There are many different companies making hardware and software and for the mos

I'd say in general hardware that uses the z-wave protocol isn't too locked down. There are many different companies making hardware and software and for the most part they all interoperate. In my house I just installed a few dimmer switches from Cooper, that I send signals to from a USB dongle by aeotec, which is controlled by a piece of Mac software called Indigo. Also, I think there are some SDKs available if you want to get into writing your own software.