What is everyone using for home automation?

[Fuzzy]

Easiest way to control girder from in Sage would be to call the 'Event.exe' program in the girder folder. The command line is simple the event name you want triggered.

[CollinR]

Yup I did that for a long time with EventGhost. Works fine for a bunch of stuff.

However v7 doesn't have the dynamic customizable menus so not so easy anymore.

[samgreco]

Originally Posted by CollinR

However v7 doesn't have the dynamic customizable menus so not so easy anymore.

You forget, it's Plucky

I've been using Premise for ages, since Motorola decided to kill it and released it for free. Unfortunately, they didn't release the source. But it is very extensible. So it has served me well so far. It supports a ton of stuff and I hear it's fairly easy to write drivers for, but I don't code.

Still, I have a touchscreen mounted in the wall of my kitchen that comtrols lights, whole house music and can switch to Sage to watch Good Eats while I'm cooking.

Oh, and it's free

[Brent94Z]

My original intentions were to use HAL2000. I have most everything I need for it but just need some time off work to be able to get it all up and running. There was a Sage plugin for this but it is no longer being developed AFAIK. I originally went with HAL2000 because I have an Ademco 128BP alarm system which will talk to HAL2000. Then I have a voice module for the alarm that I can call in and do stuff with the alarm, thermostat, etc. Also, all the sensors being used by the alarm system can be used for home automation stuff as well.

This guy has a pretty cool HAL2000 setup...

http://james.lipsit.com/home.htm

The above is pretty cool BUT, I really would like something that interfaces with Sage and since I'm no dev, I have to go with what is out there and so far, that makes HomeSeer more appealing to somebody like me at the moment.

I've got a lot of X10 modules in the house. The work OK but aren't reliable enough to be able to use for "security" purposes in my opinion. They aren't very expensive either so playing around with them won't cost you that much. Heck, all the lighting in my garage (80 4' fluorescent tubes!) is remote controlled using X10 modules. It was actually cheaper than wiring switches

But, check out HAL2000 too. They don't seem to update their software very often but it'll do some pretty neat stuff.

[Wirenut]

Yeah. I use Hal2000 also. The latest ver 4.0.65 works without failure for me, and on the same server as Sage 7.

There's a SageTV front end that a guy "Bohica" from this forum developed that worked fine up til the ver 7 upgrade. Actually I have been looking at working on porting it over to ver 7. Doesn't look all that bad, Dynamic menus would make it much easier though.

I've got nothing against the other Home Automation systems, it's just that after you get involved in the same software for five years or so, it's just a heck of a lot easier to stay the course. ...and if it aint broke....

The voice recognition stuff works very well for us too. Both via phones, in house, on the road, and open air mics in the house. It's nice to just tell the house, "Play Rolling Stones" and Mick and the boys fire right into song. Pretty amazing. ....and well... a bit of work to get right, kinda like Sage.

YMMV,

Wirenut

[shill]

I'm a bit late to the party, but I've been using HomeSeer for almost 12 years now, I think. The amount of customization, types of devices and technologies you can combine and control, the ability to develop custom scripts and/or plugins, and a rich user community make it much more than the brief blurb it got at the beginning of the thread.

1. Apple ipad/iphone application to control it (want to mount a couple of ipads in the house for touchscreen control) - Check
2. Be able to control lighting,fans,A/c/heat, Alarm system, maybe some security cameras. - Check
3. Open API so I can integrate it into sagetv addin - Check (I've written 4 or 5 plug-ins myself)
4. Control via software that can be remoted into from another location. - Check (all web-based, several smartphone apps available, too)
5. Not to big on plugin in adapter type dongles wanting something more built in or integrated with switches and stuff. - Check
6. want 2 way communication that tells me if something is on or off regardless of where it was turned on/off from. - Check (I suggest Z-Wave as your best bet for a current, reliable 2-way protocol)


I control my alarm system, HVAC, lights, fans, and Christmas lights, track motion sensors, provide text-to-speech announcements of incoming calls (using Asterisk as my PBX), email, breaking news, and weather warnings, and more. And I'm only using a small percentage of the technology that it supports.

I'm not an employee or anything, but I'm definitely an advocate and HUGE fan and would encourage you to look at it more in-depth and/or let me know if you want to chat more about it.

[jhh]

Homeseer here too - if you try to buy the standard version it will offer a discount at checkout for the version that has iPad client included.

I built something to browse Sagetv recordings in their HSTOUCH and start them on xbmc. Nothing more than a listbox which shows detailed description on the current selection and a play icon.

But in the end it is just a toy - which came at the right time as SageTV just works...

Did eventghost first. Also I can't get Homeseer to run in service mode if it has to do IR signals but that is the only downside I have so far.

Jan

[kcjack]

I just saw this thread and hope my comments are OK. I have never fully understood the name Home Automation. what does that consist of. I think it depends on who you talk to.

I use Logitech 890 remotes with Z-wave light switches and a z-wave receiver in my fireplace for my Home Theater Room. I also use my electric company to control my thermostat over the Web. No cost for thermostat. Now it can be controlled from any iphone, android or pc anywhere. Only thing I would like to add is motorized curtains for Home Theater. (Z-Wave). I think Z-wave is cheap and works, if that is what home automation is.

What is Home automation?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by kcjack

I just saw this thread and hope my comments are OK. I have never fully understood the name Home Automation. what does that consist of. I think it depends on who you talk to.

I use Logitech 890 remotes with Z-wave light switches and a z-wave receiver in my fireplace for my Home Theater Room. I also use my electric company to control my thermostat over the Web. No cost for thermostat. Now it can be controlled from any iphone, android or pc anywhere. Only thing I would like to add is motorized curtains for Home Theater. (Z-Wave). I think Z-wave is cheap and works, if that is what home automation is.

What is Home automation?

You are pretty much using HA on a small scale. Full HA like Homeseer is awesome (been looking at that myself) because you can do lots of awesome things. One example would be to install light sensors around your house so when the sun is on a particular side of the house the blinds close until the sun is not blaring through the windows, then as the sun fades to the other side of the house they will open up. The same will also prevent lights from being turned on in the house if there is enough natural light. Pretty cool when you think about it.

[wayner]

Full scale HA goes so far as having all of your lights, blinds, security and A/V controlled by the system. You can then set a "wake-up" scheme that gently starts ramping up the lights to wake you up, then opens your blinds and turns on your A/V to get your lazy butt out of bed.

My HA system is called Control4 and I use it to control lighting, HVAC, bedroom blinds and a gas fireplace. The system has a controller that is essentially a dumbed down PC running Linux. All devices attach to the control via a form of wireless mesh networking called Zigbee (or Zigbee Pro). In place of traditional light switches you place various 6 button switches around your house and you can map these switches to any device on the system - lights, fireplace, etc and they don't ahve to be in the same room. For example, you could have an "All Off" switch beside your bed that shuts off all lights in your house. The system can also be controlled by Control4's proprietary touch panels, via a remote control and via an iPhone/iPad.

Many people also use the system for A/V including whole home audio, but I think it makes more sense to use Sage extenders to do this and I have Harmony remotes on all of my TVs that can control multiple devices.

[Xiphoid]

Wayne, just curious to know if your Control4 system interfaces with Sage??

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Xiphoid

Wayne, just curious to know if your Control4 system interfaces with Sage??

No - the closest I came was connecting the video out from my C4 controller into a SageTV tuner. But that requires you to use the C4 remote and there is about a two second delay between each remote button push and seeing the reaction on the screen so it isn'treally usable.

I have java code that can turn on and off my lights,etc. So I would just need to integrate that with a UI that allows you to do this sor of stuff. But I don't have the time to do this and it might even break if I upgrade my C4 system to version 2, which I will have to do one of these days anyone.

It is probably easier to just buy an iDevice and the C4 license for that.

[Xiphoid]

Any recommendations for a HA system providing whole home audio on top of Sage?

[wayner]

It is not exactly what you are looking for but everyone that has a Sonos raves about it.

[Fonceur]

I think the Homeseer plugin might be the only one with bidirectional control... CQC and MainLobby have drivers to control SageTV, but it doesn't work the other way around.

[Xiphoid]

Originally Posted by wayner

It is not exactly what you are looking for but everyone that has a Sonos raves about it.

Yes, I've seen those reviews too. It does look like a good product, but it's not going to be an all in one system.

[heatvent]

HomeSeer user as well. They have a control app for ipad (and a designer that you can basically create anything you want). The InControl plugn is solid although if you are using an iPad, you really just need to control Sage. Going the other way becomes a bit irrelevant since you will likely control HA from the iPad vs the TV.

HAL2000 is a nice package but doesn't have 1/100th the flexibility of HS IMO. I started with HAL and moved on to HS which is very developer friendly and therefore has tons of plugins. This is way better than waiting for the HAL guys to get around to programming something into HAL.

Re: integration. Look at Insteon or Zwave, they both have in the wall outlets and switches if you don't like the look of the modules. They also have keypads, door locks, remotes, touchscreens, etc. that integrate as well.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Xiphoid

Yes, I've seen those reviews too. It does look like a good product, but it's not going to be an all in one system.

What all are you wanting to control?

[Whitey]

Originally Posted by wayner

It is probably easier to just buy an iDevice and the C4 license for that.

Or get the myhome app for pc

Whitey

[Xiphoid]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

What all are you wanting to control?

Well, lots of things. Here's a bunch of things I want to be able to do:

1) On my deck (which is well away from any convenient living area), I want to be able to control music with some type of remote system. (I will need to figure out the speaker arrangement on the deck, as there are none right now...)

2) On the same deck, I'd like to be able to get a feed of who's at the front door and let them in by remotely unlocking the door.

3) I'd like to be able to control my HVAC system from any TV in the house, or from remote control pads. I have a duel-fuel forced air system that is both a heat pump and also natural gas. Right now it switches over to gas when it gets too cold out, I'd like to be able to control the temperature that it switches over at if possible. At a minimum, I'd like to be able to just modify the temperature.

4) I'd like to be able to access from any TV or a remote control pad the 4 CCTVs around my house.

5) I'd like to be able to control my sprinkler system through the system (although I think I'll need to replace my current sprinkler controller if I do this).

6) I'd like to control and integrate one-touch lighting systems to pre-set lighting levels.

7) Eventually, I'd like to be able to control blinds (although I'll need to install motorized blinds for this).

8) I want to install speakers in my kitchen and a few other rooms that would also integrate in the whole-home audio system described in #1 above. Having the same music and/or different music streams would be a big benefit.

9) Be able to log in remotely and control the house from any web device.

10) Be able to control any of it with my iPad.

11) Integrate with my SageTV system if possible...I don't want to throw away the set-up I have and love. Just want to add to it.


Any suggestions? I've thought about Sonos, but that only gives me audio. Control4, but not sure how much it'll cost. I'm willing to do it DIY (within reason), Control4 seems like it's dealer only. Homeseer seems too complicated for my simple DIY brain. There may be other options...so I'm open to suggestions.