Recent content by irish

Ok, I'm back again... I have a lot of long term plans, but a lot of it will need to be on hold for a while. Of primary importance is I need to come up with a basic, reliable, and cost effective way to meet at least the following refined criteria: 24 hours a day 1) Sense motion outside...

Hey guys, I currently have a home alarm system that was provided and installed by my monitoring company (Guardian Alarm). As far as I can tell the system components are all DSC. I currently have some motion sensors, door sensors and a smoke detector. The control panel is the...

does anybody use the Caddx or ITI wireless transmitters as part of their Elk system? I'm thinking it would be a better way to expanding the sensing capabilities of the system rather than using z-wave or insteon or whatever sensors. Then only use insteon/z-wave for lighting control instead of...

yeah, i did think about that...might go that route... I did check and my current panel certainly is not able to be integrated. in regards to the Elk, I was just reading through the Installation & Programming manual and if I went that route I want to make certain that I am correct that the RP...

that is the response I was somewhat expecting, however it seems to run into concern number one in my original post, "...put a lot of time, money, and effort into a system and components that I would then have to leave behind and start all over in a new house..." in a few years doesn't it?

no apology necessary, if I do move forward with tying everything together then your assumption is correct, so your comments were still useful. of course if I tie it in it will be tied in all the time, not just at dusk. I'm curious though, let's assume that I was tying in my existing system...

If I utilize Z-wave motion sensors, light switches, and outlets, would HSBasic be able to do everything I previously stated? Including the Audio announcements? Wait...is there a Z-wave outdoor motion sensor? I live in Michigan so weather is a concern.

Steve, I haven't checked but I highly doubt my existing alarm panel will integrate. Doing things based on system status is on my "would be nice someday" list, but probably won't be soon and won't be in my current house. If I do move in this direction though I fully expect to be considering...

Rupp, I was just looking at HomeSeer earlier and was wondering if it would meet my needs. It looks like they have several levels of software, Basic, HS2, and Pro. Am I correct that you are referring to the HS2 level listed or would the Basic meet the requirements? So it seems like I may be...

actually, I want to control both of the stacked switches, although separately (one is outdoor patio lights and one is outdoor floodlights)...I was kind of hoping to not have to change out the gang-box, but if that is the only way I will do so. any suggestions one other details?

Ok, so I'm not exactly sure if I should post in Home Automation or Home Security section. My original thought was for home automation although as I have read more I have started to consider switching out my current alarm system (a fairly simple system provided by a monitoring company) for a...