Anyone want a "Setup Home Automation" Webex?

[IVB]

If anyone here wants to learn about how to DIY an HA system, I just arranged to have a "How to setup Home Automation webex" this weekend, 8:30am Sunday for some folks over on avs who are deciding whether to get CQC before the price goes up on 12/10 (from $495 for a full license to $895). For those of you who don't know, it's what I've been using as the engine for all my HA stuff. There's a TCP driver for SageTV in the 2.0 version, which takes advantage of the Sage API. Hopefully soon the developer will determine how to import the sage recordings db into the CQC repository, then we'll be able to have a single screen with receiver control, security system status, and a catalog of TV recordings just like we can for CD & DVDs.

if you're interested in attending, PM me with your email address i'll send you the login details. There's only enough room for probably 8ish people left, but I can do a 2nd one if there's adequate interest.

Here's the sample agenda I put forth. There's nothing about SageTV in this first one, that's a session best had once the driver is expanded to include the recordings stuff mentioned above.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sample topics could be a subset of the following (too much for a single session, you wouldn't absorb it):

BTW, Dean has a set of video tutorials he's building now. You'll get a lot more out of this if you're able to watch those videos and also read through the written tutorial on the CQC site. I know that Elk put up 2 long videos on the cocoontech site, but they're pretty long, and I haven't watched them myself, so that could be overkill at this time.

"Intro"
- CQC Overview (30 mins)
- ElkRP Overview (5ish mins)

"Theory of CQC"
- CQC Interface Building (strictly front-end type stuff)
- CQC Event Engine (scheduled events like HVAC, triggered events like IR receipt and security system armed/disarmed)
- CQC State Engine (Hide or disable GUI widgets based on some set of rules. For example, don't show the disarm button on your security screen if the system is in disarm mode)
- CQC Media Repository Engine (aka CDs and DVDs)
- Building Drivers inside CQC

"Theory of Elk"
- Setting up an Elk
- Setting up Automation rules inside the Elk

"Applied Theory"
- Getting the Elk and CQC to work together to accomplish something
- Media Mgmt from within CQC
- HA from within CQC
- etc.

[Humanzee]

IVB, Ive followed your thread for a while over at cocoontech. I'm just getting started with HA myself and am considering CQC among my options. I would encourage people to learn as much as they can about home automation systems. And to that end, thank you for extending this offer.

From what I have already learned CQC seems to be very impressive program, however at this point in my life, I have more time than money to invest in my system.

For anyone looking for yet another HA alternative vcrib is being released soon, www.vcrib.com and it is going to be open source. Support for ELK equipment is planned in the future, however, much can be done already with cheap wireless sensors instead of relying on hardwired and/or custom installed alarm system/HA controllers like the ELK. Because of this your cost of entry can be reduced for both hardware and software.

Keep in mind that vcrib is still in development and isn't out quite yet so it will probably be a while before a super wide variety of plug-ins and supported devices are available to compare with other automation systems. I hope to be among the vcrib alpha testers and intend on trying to contribute with some SageTV plug-ins if I can. At least its something to keep an eye on.

[IVB]

yeah, i've heard of vcrib. I'm a big fan of keeping this field as crowded as possible, b/c competition is what will drive innovation by each vendor.

Another great option for folks with more time than money is girder/NR. Honestly, i'm really not that technical, so instead of learning how to write scripts/etc, I just bought a package that took care of it for me.

Regardless, i'm excited that the consumer has so many choices at his disposal. Growing the pie is what we need.