...and now for a completely different view...First, I must concede that my experience with Bitwise has not been a DIY based relationship but, rather, "pro". So, that may make a difference. With that said, I can confidently state that I have never had better support from any company in the AV/controls space than I have with Bitwise. They have been a pleasure to work with and have gone the extra twelve miles to support some "non-standard" work that I have attempted with the line. Lance, Mark and Ron have all been a major help and kick more ass than should be allowed. I also know that a CT regular, whom I know well and hold in the highest regard, has recently accepted a position with them.
With the tiny amount of vague info you've given here, I can't help but wonder if the issues you are having stem from an HS, rather than Bitwise, mistake. It appears that HS shit the bed and now you're bad mouthing Bitwise unfairly. You state that Bitwise has "gone dark" but don't bother to mention what they've gone dark on. What is it that you're asking of them? You passive aggressively attempt to disparage the company ("rudimentary automation"- hardly, "As far as I can tell it's exactly the same as the older units, and all the differentiates is firmware"- dude, the firmware IS the difference!) but are yet to articulate what it is you want from them. Don't get me wrong, I have been known to be hard on vendors but, at least I'll clearly state what the issue is before going to a public forum. In other words, put up or shut up. Also, explain to us how on the 16th you had no intention of using the "neat GUI creation environment for iphones/ipads" but on the 19th you had already purchased a couple of iPads to integrate? If you were experiencing such sour grapes why had you already so drastically changed your mind on front end choices and had invested heavily despite an ongoing gripe with Bitwise?
Bitwise has pulled their hardware from the retail channel completely today. Change of strategy that I was caught in the middle of. Begs the question of if they are planning to continue support for DIYers - I'd guess that they will given how popular they are. Not clear if the hardware is available direct to individuals. Hope they clarify and hope the answer is yes.
AnthonyZ, I agree they have a great product, and support it very well - which is entirely why I was ready to drop $1K on their solution. My issue is that I bought a "Pro" unit in the channel from a reputable dealer (and a very large one at that) for the retail price before bitwise explicitly changed their strategy, and was then told I would not be supported, and that I could not buy the project editor - which, again, was a big reason I decided to go with bitwise. The ensuing conversation was less than "nice", including Mark's insinuation above that I (and other DIYers) was acting in a shady way. Their head of business development told me that they would never sell me the project editor, even if I owned the Pro unit, and that it was not their problem anymore - rationally that is true, but not a friendly, supportive answer. My recent emails go unresponded to.
As to my critique of their "rudimentary" automation abilities - surely you must get where I am coming from. The hardware is severely limited in its IO abilities and driver base for serving as the center of gravity for an HVAC, Lighting, Irrigation, Pool, Media, and IR integration. You need to saddle it with another solution, like HAI or homeseer to get a complete system. My homeseer system alone has 8 serial devices attached, 2 USB, several Ethernet, and relies heavily on an ELK M1G to handle security and basic relay based I/O. Now I will say that the Pro bitwise + project editor+ ipad is a killer IR control system, giving you everything you need to control a home theater system, though it lacks onscreen browsing of media, channels, etc - the more advanced abilities that systems with deeper, software level integrations can offer. The GUI from bitwise is not that helpful to me - what is though, and limited to the pro system, is the hardware execution of macros, and their excellent IR macro building environment. Try to do this in homeseer and you will get where I'm coming from. It would be very different if Homeseer actually came out with a halfway decent IR management environment that was hardware agnostic.
Because you described yourself as a dealer/"pro", you may not be able to empathize with why I am upset and scrambling to discover other DIY friendly options for robust IR integration now that bitwise has explicitly taken a step away from the DIY market. As most DIYers, I chose this as a hobby, not because I'm trying to save any money - quite the contrary, I've spent LONG past the cost of a pro install of an AMX or Crestron system in just silly mistakes and the name of having fun.
