upstatemike
Senior Member
Hopefully this discussion will apply to many potential customers who are working through the same questions and issues that I am.mdesmarais said:
Time to Make a Decision
- Thread starter upstatemike
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upstatemike
Senior Member
No. This is why I don't count a CQC Stargate plugin as one of the viable options.Dean Roddey said:If the protocol is both complex and under-documented, that doesn't sound terribly optimal
IVB
Senior Member
For the record, MarkP (potential over on avs) had squintz/jkmonroe, a few others spend 6 hours with him on the November CQCUsers webex chatting about how to do tons of stuff.mdesmarais said:
That's the nice thing about being part of a smaller community (ie CQC vs HomeSeer) - lots of personal attention to not just potential customers, but also existing ones. Most of the folks on the biweekly/monthly webexes, or on the CQCUsers.com chat board are existing customers who need help getting something to work right.
Reminds me of the Matrix Quote:
"This company is one of the top software companies in the world because every single employee understands that they are part of a whole. Thus, if an employee has a problem, the company has a problem. "
Steve
Senior Member
Yeah, I reckon you're right. It would also be a reason for me to switch to something that did! At some point you need to get you're systems talking to each other, regardless of what they are and I would be leery of one that was complex and not documented.upstatemike said:No. This is why I don't count a CQC Stargate plugin as one of the viable options.Dean Roddey said:If the protocol is both complex and under-documented, that doesn't sound terribly optimal
upstatemike
Senior Member
But I have to acknowledge the fact the HS did get it working and it is a viable option for now.Steve said:
CQC 2.0 supports reading data from an ODBC database and VWS supports writing data to a database. I use Weather-Display for my Davis station which can write to a database table and CQC is pulling data from it through a very simple driver.upstatemike said:
This has some advantages over the brute force approach of parsing a csv file every second which is easy enough to do too in CML but isn't as elegant
I've been following this thread with bated breath as well, so it is certainly helping out more than one person. I am in the enviable (or perhaps not so enviable) position of having no HA hardware to integrate, and am effectively starting from a clean slate. What I want to do (in no particular order):upstatemike said:
1) Tie lighting control, security and presence detection together to make what I would consider a "smart" house. Things like activating the alarm when no one is home, unlocking doors and turning on lights based on some event (garage door opens or prox card scanned), etc. Also manage sprinklers and any other add-ons.
2) Integrate home theatre and DVD changer into a panel-driven DVD library
3) Build a "personal assistant" that displays basic weather, house status, email (via Exchange), appointments, voicemails, news headlines, etc. all on one screen.
I know HS + ML will do this, and that was the avenue I was originally looking at, but CQC seems a little more robost in some areas, and a bit cheaper by the time you put in the various plugins. Only bit holes are Sonos and Exchange integration but I image sonos will come in soon enough with the home theatre bent CQC seems to have, and I think I can do a workaround for exchange. I just need some further assurance before plunking down the bucks to make it happen.
I wouldn't say the JDS protocol is complex. It's just not exactly 100% documented. Glen Todd (R.I.P.) who did the HomeSeer plugin had to chase a few things down with JDS and reverse engineer a few other things, but it was definitely do-able. However, it would take a fairly motivated individual, someone with a Stargate to test with, to knock out a CQC driver.upstatemike said:No. This is why I don't count a CQC Stargate plugin as one of the viable options.Dean Roddey said:If the protocol is both complex and under-documented, that doesn't sound terribly optimal
There was an opportunity in the recent past for a CQC driver to pick up a bunch of Stargate users, including myself, who were dissatisfied with HomeSeer. HomeSeer got better, nevertheless a CQC driver would peak my interest.
Upstate- a few more comments:
I think you'd quickly dump HomeRunner after you see what HS/ML can do, or CQC for that matter.
Although I'm a die-hard SG user, Elk is clearly the hottest thing going on right now and the apparent energy/enthusiasm behind it is bound to bring about several years of enhancements and new opportunities for hardware and software interfaces. That alone makes it definitely worth considering.
A CQC Stargate plugin would be the best deal (in terms of investment), but I still think it leaves you vulnerable on phone functions because the JDS phone board is basically obsolete.
I'm not sure why you need a "one-wire" touchscreen, but I still think you can save some serious $ by going with cheap PC's and a 15" touchscreen combo for less that $600 per setup. For example, I use a Dell 153FPT desktop touchscreen for about $200-350 and an HP EPC42 small form factor PC for about $200. Since these are full-function PC setups - not proprietary touchscreens and not limited by Win CE - you can pretty much do anything you can think of with them - ML or CQC, IP Cams, TV tuners, surfing, VR, TTS, etc.
Mark
The video of my Elk TS07 actually shows a panasonic cam in action. Here is a close up pic:upstatemike said:
http://mydotsoft.com/products/my.Gallery/e...07/PC042598.JPG
upstatemike
Senior Member
So exactly which room in your house are we seeing displayed on the screen?electron said:
upstatemike
Senior Member
Reason 1 - I do not have a wireless network so the screen needs at least one wire.Mark S. said:
Reason 2 - I will likely use tabletop screens instead of wall screens because I will not cut big holes in my wall to recess mount a screen. (a small hole to stub out a single cat5 cable to a surface mount device is OK.)
Reason 3 - If I am using a tabletop device it needs to be aesthetically acceptable so no big wiring harness for separate network + power + video. I need to be able to unplug the single cat5 wire and move the screen to a new location where I can just plug it into the network again. (I will upgrade to POE switches for my network)
upstatemike
Senior Member
Thought maybe you were taking the concept of "home office" a little too seriously!electron said:
upstatemike
Senior Member
I guess I need some examples. Right now my touch screen plans are pretty limited to the following:Mark S. said:
1- View security cameras.
2- Show weather maps and some other Internet based info.
3- Let me review and change the settings of all Tstats from my bedroom.
4- View a status screen to check garage door is closed, mailbox mail alert status, furnace run time stats for the day, Lights currently on, Weather station info, and birthday reminders.
5- Provide a foolproof interface so grandma can select an Internet radio station or play a playlist through one or more SlimDevices Squeezebox players. If I can include FM radio into the interface that would be a bonus.
I can't think of anything else I would use a touch screen for so what will ML do for me that Homerunner won't?
