CAI Web Control

Hi All,

I was just looking at this product and it looks interesting. Anybody have any positive or negative feedback about it? I would like to use it in a second home to check the temp.(Installed a low temp. monitoring system, but I only get an alarm no actual tempature reading). I currently have an M1 with Hai tstats. Checking the current tempature with Ekey on my iPhone is sweet. I know if somthing happens and I get an alarm, I'm going to go crazy not knowing the actual tempature. The home is 4 hours away, so it's not that easy to hop in the car and check it out. The setup will be this device connected to a router conected to a Time Warner cable modem, No computer. does anybody see any problems with this? Also, what would be the best tempature sensors to get.

Thanks for the help,

Mike

No problems with that. You can set email alarms to send you the temp at certain times and/or temps. Better yet would be to port forward your router to the cai and use dyndns.com or no-ip.com so you can just log into it from any internet connection. You can also use it to turn things on and off, or even let it be the actual thermostat. You can log in before you head up there and have the heat turn on so its nice and warm when you get there.

Lou,

Thanks, I think i'll give it a try. As for the heat, No go, I do that now at my home, but it's all electric heat in the second home. May add some relays in the future to control some of it(Lake Placid, NY gets down to -30F sometimes), a nice warm home would be nice when we arrived.

Thanks,

Mike

Ok, another question. I can get this board for $35.00 with PLC firmware or specify BRE firmware. I'm not sure exactly what BRE is or would do for my simple project. Any help on this one would be great.

Thanks,

Mike

I know nothing about BRE, I have only used the PLC. I am pretty sure the latest boards are all PLC. I would make sure you get the most recent board as there are improvements that are meaningful. Both firmware and hardware. These are not user upgradable on the firmware side so you want to get the most up to date when you buy. I would buy it direct from CAI to be sure you get the most recent.

I have both the PLC and BRE versions, Get the PLC version, it's much more versatile.

Terry

Or you could save the hassle and just put an Elk in the second home! You already have eKeypad; and it's really easy to add another HAI thermostat to electric wall heat

Tell the spouse you did it so you could keep things easy and consistent for her so she doesn't have to figure out another gadget :wub:

Work2Play said:

Or you could save the hassle and just put an Elk in the second home! You already have eKeypad; and it's really easy to add another HAI thermostat to electric wall heat

Tell the spouse you did it so you could keep things easy and consistent for her so she doesn't have to figure out another gadget :wub:

Click to expand...

The first part is not a bad idea, the second part ... I'm not sure you understand being an HA geek do you? ;-)

I can never think of a good reason not to have more gadgets (my wife can).

Latest board can run both PLC and BRE. BRE stands for Boolean Run Engine. PLC is Programmable Logic Control. Like Roussell said, PLC is much more versatile. Some people want BRE firmware due to some HomeSeer modules only support BRE. However, there is no new function or features added for BRE firmware due to code space limitation. BRE code has fixed logic in the firmware, took most space. On the other hand, PLC allows user to enter his own program, so that less code space taken, thus allowing new features and functions being added to the firmware. The latest additions to PLC firmware were real time clock support and external A/D support through DS2417 and DS2450, for supporting a group of scientists to remote monitor / control their instruments in North Pole.

Work2Play said:

Or you could save the hassle and just put an Elk in the second home! You already have eKeypad; and it's really easy to add another HAI thermostat to electric wall heat Tell the spouse you did it so you could keep things easy and consistent for her so she doesn't have to figure out another gadget :wub:

Click to expand...

Already promised her I would not do that.....

I'm going to give it a try, now I have another question. What parts would I need to monitor three tempature sensors? I would like to have a sensor located on each level, Basement, First, and Second floors.

You will need a power supply (9v wall wart), something to mount the board in/on, some twisted pair wire (cat 5) for the temp sensors, cat5 with rj45 plugs to hook it to your router, and three of the dallas semiconductor one-wire temp sensors. Keep in mind, that if the wire runs are long, you may have some issues. The new boards are better at this than the old ones.

Lou,

Thanks, what would be the limitations on the cable length? The longest would be about 90'. I can use Cat6, 22G, 18G, or 16G. I have thousands of feet of cable at my disposal. My company is a cable(not cable tv) installation company. How would I see three dallas semiconductor one-wire temp sensors on one input?

Thanks,

Mike

Mike P said:

Lou,

Thanks, what would be the limitations on the cable length? The longest would be about 90'. I can use Cat6, 22G, 18G, or 16G. I have thousands of feet of cable at my disposal. My company is a cable(not cable tv) installation company. How would I see three dallas semiconductor one-wire temp sensors on one input?

Thanks,

Mike

Click to expand...

Dallas semiconductor created the "one-wire" concept by providing each of their devices with an address. The CAI can handle 8 addresses. It will be obvious.

90 feet is a long way. I have had success at 50 feet of cat5. I also had a failure with 50 ft of cat 5 with a splice in it. My understanding is that the latest hardware versions are better at long distances. Worst case, you need to buy two cai boards.

You will need DS18B20 temperature sensors. Twisted pair cable are good for reducing noise on the line, but capacitance on the long twisted wire can also cause trouble, since controller and sensors must drive the bus high and low in certain amount of time. There are few things to watch out for long wire:
http://www.maxim-ic.com/app-notes/index.mvp/id/148