I have a 23" touchscreen monitor to put up in my kitchen that will run Windows 8 and I will be able to have as fancy an interface as I want with CQC and you can most definitely know I will have such an elegant, easy-to-use interface that will give me full control of my house. I plan to put a second touchscreen monitor at the top of the stairs on the second floor. I could easily put cheap Dell Venue 8 or 11 full Windows tablets around the house if I wanted to but not sure I will as these 2 monitors are centrally located. We will be able to manage the home automation, music, irrigation, kids calendars, surf, recipes, etc. The other options Dean mentioned would be for remote devices where the interface can still be nice but might not have all of the cool whizbang transitions and smooth sliding panels. That doesn't mean the remote interface isn't just as nice or informative because it absolutely can be. In reading about Dean's efforts I know he has put a ton of work into ensuring interfaces of different sizes have pictures scaled for just that size device and precached/configured so the interface is fast. I think maybe Dean is doing himself a disservice calling CQC 4.5 when it really should be a 5.0 product based on all of the work he has done on the back-end engine.uscpsycho said:
I read where Work2Play said that none of the DIY solutions have as elegant touchscreens and I completely respect his opinion as he is a true pro and I'm a dabbler but if I were to take a small Dell Venue 8, I would think I could have an even more capable touchscreen than any of the pre-configured big boys. That's a guess but I personally don't feel I will be missing any functionality, might even be better with more control, and surely a hell of a lot cheaper. And if my kid drops the remote, I'm not going to be nearly as upset if he drops a $200 Windows tablet vs a $1,000+ "remote". And that menas I could have a couple remotes around the living room instead of the potential of getting up to get "THE" remote that is sitting on a table on the other side of the room.
I originally wanted to go with Elve but I got into this about a year and a half ago when work on Elve ceased. What is it's future...who knows but likely isn't going to compare to something like CQC that has Dean fully committed to its' success. And drivers...they don't have one for RadioRa2 and many other devices you might want...who are you going to ask to build you one?
Regarding Homeseer, that is a competitor to CQC and I've never used it. I did look at it because it seemed to have more plugins and hardware that could be purchased from their site. The more I looked into Homeseer though, the more I worried about quality as some said certain drivers were good while others weren't so much. In this case, the third-party sourced driver model didn't have consistent quality. CQC has third-party drivers as well but they are more community driven, not for sale, which to me might mean it was backwards but based on what I've read, the third-party drivers are solid. I'm sure there are exceptions but with Homeseer, driver quality seemed to be a wide-spread issue. Maybe this has changed with Homeseer 3 having been released.
Sorry for the confusion. Unless you want to spend a ton of money, there is no rule that every single light in your house has to be automated. Do you want all of the closet lights automated? I have a mix of RadioRa2 dimmers/switches, Lutron Maestro "dumb" switches" (match RadioRa2 perfectly), the dumb motion sensor switches I previously linked (switched based motion sensor has to work for placement), and timer switches (http://www.amazon.com/Lutron-MA-T51-WH-Maestro-Countdown-Timer/dp/B001EFV1DA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403884839&sr=8-1&keywords=lutron+bathroom+timer) for items like the bathroom fan. Again, I looked at what I needed and determined the best solution. Do I need automation control of a particular light? Will a dumb motion sensor switch work well? For an automated light, do I want motion control of it?
This page shows the model numbers for RadioRa2 devices from last year (http://www.lutron.com/en-US/Products/Pages/WholeHomeSystems/RadioRA2/ModelNumbers.aspx). The $54 item you linked is a Maestro switch, which is part of their stand-alone (non-automated) collection and frankly seems expensive. I believe there are cheaper Maestro dimmers such as ones at the big box store. If you're paying $54 for a switch, you might as well buy RadioRa2, but keep in mind the 100/200 device limit. The second dimmer you linked for $200 seems expensive as well and I would only spend more than that for a single control if it was something like a hybrid keypad switch (RRD‑H6BRL). The latest RadioRa2 dimmer is the RRD6CLWH and the most popular RadioRa2 switch is RRD‑8ANS and for 3-way or more switch legs, you would get the remote dimmer RDRD and remote switch RDRS, respectively. By the way, I have several of the hybrid keypads in the kitchen to control the main lights, pendants, under cabinet, under island, "All Off", etc. but still have a regular RadioRa2 dimmer right next to the hybrid keypad for the main kitchen lights. That way you can quickly come in to the kitchen and hit a big button to turn on the lights and then selec any additional lights from the smaller keypad buttons.
Also, related to the Sonos comments, the Sonos has its software updated...I have read of some of the older versions of Russound or Nuvo not getting updated as quickly or at all to support more recent music streaming solutions. That right there would be enough to scare me. In any of these things, I worry if the company is solid enough to continue, did they sell enough of X item for them to support it long-term, etc.
One other thought I had, make sure you wire for exterior lights on every single corner of your house. It would be nice to use some sort of security/automation based lighting solution but I just use dumb (but high quality) motion sensors built into the light fixtures with bright led lights and we haven't had any vehicle break-ins while other neighbors have. The security lights do a good job of lighting the perimeter that makes it not the best place to be at night if up to no good...very easy to see people around the perimeter. And if you have a long house, throw 1 or 2 in the center to make sure your house lights up like Las Vegas when anyone comes near. And while it would be nice to have them automated, I bought mine before I got into automation and haven't found a solution worth making me change yet.
