Maximizing Wife Acceptance Factor

Greetings,
 
I am closing on my new house (a 1950s 1700 square foot ranch) in a week and I wanted to get some advice.  
 
The boss has given permission for me to start my home security and automation project in stages.  However, I am nervous that if the WAF starts to drop then my budget may start shrinking.
 
Are there any tips or tricks that people have came up with over the years that can help in this area?
 
The first phase was going to be sensors on the doors and windows with Z-Wave locks.  I was then going to add smoke and CO2 detectors, motion, and glass break. The next phase would be lighting control.  I would love to add IP video cameras as well.
 
I have not decided between Elk or HAI.  I was hoping something new would come out at CEDIA like the Omni III, but no luck.
 
At first I was excited by the Elk two way key fob.  It could unlock and disarm the alarm.  Convenience and WAF would be high, but it isn't secure enough.  Would disarming the alarm with the correct code entered into the Z Wave lock be a good balance?  Or a key fob could unlock the door and then you manually disable the alarm.
 
Any suggestions from Keypad vs. touchscreen in regards to WAF?
 
As few sensors as possible as well as good looking sensors I think will be.  Any suggestions? I was going to run new wiring for the doors and windows so we can use recessed sensors.  The windows will be new, so I am a little apprehensive about drilling them, but we will see.  I was hoping to try to use as many combo sensors as possible (i.e. motion combined with glass break) to try to reduce the wall/ceiling acne.  
 
Thanks!
 
 
 
 
 
 

What I do is to be honest with her, suffer her wrath and wait for it to pass. If it happens too often then maybe she has a point. I can only speak for myself but I have to admit that I can get carried away with my hobbies and neglect things that need attention. Everything in moderation.
 
I've been spending way more time than I anticipated on my Elk install and as a matter of fact I should go pay the bills right now.
 
Mike.

Have to make SWMBO feel like she is getting the equivalent in terms of her likes. Keep throwing in her benefits from the system or sidetrack items.

Actually, you would be surprised at what she will like about home automation.  My wife likes certain features including washer/dryer notifications (audio through the house) as well as other announcements such as when my vehicle is arriving in the community complex, who is calling, doors or windows open, garbage night (take can out to the street), etc...
 
My friend's wife likes the ability to look at areas of the house (cameras) via her phone as well as disarm and arm from that device as well.  Also, they LOVE being able to look at a red/green notification light that I mounted in the wall in their bedroom and family room that gives status of their garage doors (they were constantly leaving them open during the day and at night).  (Another note:  we did this as well every now and then, but I have them auto-close when armed in stay mode).
 
Some of these capabilities of course are beyond the Elk's hardware alone, but you get the idea.  Look for features she likes and concentrate on making those work first.  When my system is down (not that often luckily), my wife is usually first to tell me so she can have these features working again.

Found an interesting article on the BBC relating mostly to WAF and automation. 


 

15 September 2014 Last updated at 08:53 BST
From a mirror that gives advice to robot vacuum cleaners and wireless kitchen appliances, the newest smart home devices are being designed to fit seamlessly into our lives.
BBC Click's Jen Copestake looks at some of the products that could be coming to our homes in the near future.

Click to expand...

 
[youtube]http://youtu.be/PpxnL9xRFLI[/youtube]

Thanks for the suggestion.  She is actually excited about the security and automation.
 
However, I think if I mount huge sensors everywhere she might be less than thrilled.  Making her use a 8 digit pin to unlock the door probably won't go over well either.
 
I think using a touch screen will help allow me to have more options in the future.  Remembering to hit Function 4 is not as easy as just hitting a button on the touch screen.
 
Speaking from the UI perspective, is there a recommendation of Elk vs. Hai from the interface perspective?  It seems that eKeypad for Elk and Haiku for Hai can both do a lot of things for smart phones and tablets.  But I would like to have a touch screen or two in the house.  The Omnitouch 7 looks nice, but not sure if there are other options that are better suited.  I really like the dedicate use functionality of say the Omnitouch 7 or the ElkNav touchscreen rather than a tablet mounted on the wall that may not always be running the home automation app.

Here I have a Leviton HAI OPII and use two Homeseer 2 boxes.
 
The combined above talks to 20 plus hardware interfaces (well its closer to 30).
 
The Leviton OPII panel does mostly the hearbeat of the home stuff and Homeseer stuff that I cannot do with the panel today.

That said I also have Omnitouch 5.7 legacy screens and Omnitouch 5.7e IP connected in wall screens.
 
I have tablets today and use them for console access.  I do not hang any of my tablets on the wall; never did.

Concurrently also utilize software.  Many folks utilize only software automation.  Some folks use software and hardware automation and other folks only utilize hardware.

Over the years have utilized Homeseer / Homeseer Touch.

I am not very good at designing screens such that I tend to put many functions and buttons on the screens; engineering more than esthetically nice looking screens.

What I found is that my wife prefers the very simple Omnitouch screens over my personally made screens which are a bit too much. She always tells me that she is afraid of breaking the home automation hitting the wrong button?

I am today playing with a variety of software and moving towards Linux based touchscreens that are fast.

My test touchscreen tablets run Linux, Windows or Android. Most recently doing an integration camera thing into the touchscreen tablets that are running automation software consoles.

The above noted and with the OmniPro II you can find sofware consoles today that work on Wintel, Android, iOS (Apple) and Linux. I run the OPII consoles playing with the variety. I have no issues with it. IE: In wall touchscreens are mostly just functional and not for play while some 20 touchscreen tablets today are for playing with. I did just purchase a new capacitance dual touch for in wall mounting wide screen LCD and I can get it to work with Ubuntu 14.04 and Windows 8.1 just fine. 

Personally my "sensors" are all wired to the OPII panel. I do play with wireless but not into changing batteries. You can also today purchase wired sensors that you don't even notice on a ceiling or wall.

Break up your automation endeavor into smaller pieces and do not assume that one technology can be the end all means of all of your automation. 

Lighting - there is a variety of technologies in use today. Wired, wireless and hybrid (both). Here I utilized UPB for all of my in wall switches (and still have X10, Insteon, Z-wave and new Zigbee stuff).  The techologies are changing fast.  Almost too fast to keep up with.

HVAC - basically here have a thermostat connected to the OPII.  I can do all sorts of things with it and today its more a little computer.  That said I never touch it nor play with it much.  I do like that I can have a touchscreen in any room of the house that shows its status plus temperature, humidity levels all throughout the house. 

Security - Use the Leviton OPII panel.  Elk / HAI were the first to create a security panel with automation features built in. 

Irrigation - I went from a Rainbird ESP timer to software running on Linux today controlling two 8 zone irrigation controllers.  It was / is a DIY of sorts.  The software is more than just a timer.

Multimedia - Kind of a separate thing here for me.  I do have a zoned Russound setup.  It is controlled by keypads everywhere plus the Omnitouch screens.  I split the RS-232 control such that I can software control the zoned amps at the same time that the OPII controls them.  I am not though into automating the multimedia nor into automating IR blasters.  I do have blasters and RF remote controls in place today.
 
Today utilize XBMC boxes by every LCD TV.  That said looking to integrate certain pieces of the automation in the home to XBMC.  Easy to do these days.
 
There is more.  Read the forum as many folks here have been automating for years and have come up with a variety of mechanisms to automate just about anything in their homes.
 
Automation here is a hobby and my home is my automation sandbox.
 
WAF is good here today.

Make your justifications based on security and safety.  It works for the guvmint no matter how stupid the real reason is.

sda said:

Make your justifications based on security and safety.  It works for the guvmint no matter how stupid the real reason is.

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Good idea.  We have our first baby coming in a few months, so safety and security is an easy sell.

Pete-
 
Thanks for all the information.  I have been lurking in the forums for countless hours and know it can be overwhelming and I am going to take one project at a time.
 
For now I can't decide between Elk and Hai.  Therefore, I am leaning on going with whatever has the best UI.  This might seem silly, but the cost is hard to calculate because I don't know what modules I will need of either as my system grows.  My house is small so either system will likely not need to be expanded for more inputs/outputs just to add features.
 
I like the idea of a dedicated touchscreen like the Omnitouch 7 or the Elk Nav 3.5 screen.  When there is an alert it is nice to be able to turn on the screen and push information.  For example someone rings the door bell I want the video of the door to be displayed.  I don't think the Omnitouch 7 can do this however.  There was a message board with a HAI employee that if you read between the lines seemed like they were working on this.  I was hoping for big news at Cedia.
 
Can you share the Linux based touch screen you are using?  I am new to home automation but quite familiar with linux.
 
Also, you mentioned "You can also today purchase wired sensors that you don't even notice on a ceiling or wall."  Do you have any links?
 
For audio I was considering going with Nuvo.  I really like the looks of the OLED keypad and the idea of seeing meta-data of my Pandora station in each room is appealing.  But their systems seem old and they don't interface well with Elk or Omni.  The house is small so we really just need 1-2 sources and maybe 4-5 zones.  I have ruled out Sonos because I want something on the wall that can mute or pause the music without using the app on my phone.

I like the idea of a dedicated touchscreen like the Omnitouch 7 or the Elk Nav 3.5 screen.  When there is an alert it is nice to be able to turn on the screen and push information.  For example someone rings the door bell I want the video of the door to be displayed.  I don't think the Omnitouch 7 can do this however.  There was a message board with a HAI employee that if you read between the lines seemed like they were working on this.  I was hoping for big news at Cedia.

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The Omnitouch 5.7e does this.
 
Yup; personally I do not want my in wall touchscreens to look like my phone.  But that is me.  I do not sleep with my phone nor walk around the house with it,

Can you share the Linux based touch screen you are using?  I am new to home automation but quite familiar with linux.

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Playing mostly with whatever I can get my hands on (Linux).
 
Interesting a topic came up yesterday relating to a flash based on Linux touchscreen. 
 
Over the years have played with this. 
 
IE: I played some with the Chumby / flash based applications and more recently with the Joggler which also was based on flash applications.  On a lark yesterday tried running an older flash based "plugin" for Homeseer on Linux Ubuntu 14.04 tabletop touchscreen with Firefox.  It worked well yesterday.  Earlier use with Linux Firefox and same plugin didn't work.
 

 
A while ago a CT user here did write a custom flashed based interface for the Chumby.  While concurrently some one wrote one for Homeseer.
 

 
In the UK FlashXAP automation cropped up.
 
I have some Ubuntu 14.04 running Homeseer touchscreens in Linux (with Mono).  They are OK but a bit sluggish. 
 
Here is an example of a HSTouch screen that will run in Linux (with Mono).
 

 
Homeseer's little Android wireless based tabletop touchscreen is on sale today for $99 if you want to go that route.
My automation consoles are mostly wired / POE.  I do play with wireless consoles.
 

 
I can get HAI touch Pro Wintel consoles to run using Wine right now on Ubuntu 14.04. 
They are fast.  (I have been playing a bit with Omnitouch Pro and use it today on some Wintel table top consoles).
 
Recently have been playing with OpenHAB.  Found it to be very sluggish in Wintel; but very quick in Linux.  Baby steps with the touchscreen stuff. Its fast.
 
OpenHab
 

 
Concurrently playing with the Almond + with a NutOS / OpenWRT talking to a little mini LCD and learning to talk to the baby console.  This device is a combo firewall router, switch and automation controller for Z-Wave and Zigbee. 
 
Note that this a ver tiny LCD touchscreen combination "do all".  Amazing what it can do.
 

 
Personally looking at whatever works and is fast in Linux whatever methodology is utilized for the screens.
 
Currently playing with camera integration into my little Ubuntu 14.04 tabletop touchscreens.  Works. 
 
This are running Linux, Android or Windows around the house today. 
 

Googling found this:

Also, you mentioned "You can also today purchase wired sensors that you don't even notice on a ceiling or wall."  Do you have any links?
 
Small PIR sensors
 
Ask here as there are most likely some CT members using similar.  I am thinking most companies today that sell PIR's are selling similiar tiny PIRs. 
 

 

For audio I was considering going with Nuvo.  I really like the looks of the OLED keypad and the idea of seeing meta-data of my Pandora station in each room is appealing.  But their systems seem old and they don't interface well with Elk or Omni.  The house is small so we really just need 1-2 sources and maybe 4-5 zones.  I have ruled out Sonos because I want something on the wall that can mute or pause the music without using the app on my phone.

Click to expand...

 
Here I have in-wall speakers and ran cat5e to boxes in each audio zone.  Many folks are using Sonos to source their media and combining that with say Nuvo or Russound.  You can really do just about anything these days.  Personally I prefer a wire to a speaker and controller with the option of wireless control if I want to use it which I can.

From installing both Elk and HAI (I'm greater versed in the M1) the HAI is a more of a "take everything out of one big HAI box-like apple" sort of product. Yes, it can interface with other components and hardware, but to get full functionality and expandability you'll need to spring for the flagship panel and expense to get it because the lower panels are hobbled. The M1 is more of a modular add on capabilities panel IMHO, buy as you need until you max it out and it'll interface with a lot but it's not all going to all come from the Elk box to interface with other hardware.
 
Budget is a huge consideration, as is what the end functionality is, but IMHO, I believe Elk is the more robust security panel where HAI is more of a go between other hardware and automate panel with security thrown in.

Yeah here my second HAI OPII purchase related to the size of the closet and the size of the HAI OPII panel.

My best advice on WAF is 1) Don't let her know how much you're really spending; and 2) focus on things she'll like such as security and convenience.  My wife is cheap - she loves the automation but would never want to spend the money on it.  So I place the first order for the security system - she knew about what that cost; we didn't talk about the second order a week later that cost just as much... 
 
For a nesting mother, security and safety and convenience win out - tie a baby cam into the system and alerts when they leave their room (around 2yrs old) and they'll usually buy in.
 
I like the Elk - and I get what you're saying about the touchscreen for more info - but I still prefer the KP2 flush mount physical keypad over any touchscreen offerings - it's always on yet not too bright and I can see what matters from anywhere that a keypad is visible - which is most of the house.  We have a separate 22" TV in the bedroom just for cameras (baby cams currently) - that seems to work well.