Automating My Condo

[autom8]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and to automation. I just moved into my condo and wanted to go ahead and set up home automation. For software, I'm thinking of using Indigo4 for Mac and Indigo iPhone app to help control while away from home.

I want to be able to control the following:

- thermostat
- curtains (4 sets)
- entertainment center (tv, sound bar, and satellite box)
- lighting (lamp, and possibly kitchen light switch)
- bedroom fan

I've been looking at Insteon equipment to help with the hardware side. Any suggestions on what hardware I should get? I would like to be able to do most of it wireless. I know I'll probably have to install a wired switch for the kitchen light and bedroom fan.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Michael McSharry]

Typically curtains and entertainment are Infra-red. The lights and fan are your "lighting" technology. The thermostat has a variety of options. I'm not familiar with the HA software for Mac, but I suspect there are not too many options and your interface technology will be driven by what is available for the Mac software. You will also not find many with experience with the Mac vs. the wealth of experience with Windows-based systems or even unix. When you consider that most solutions that cover what you want will require a 24/7 computer and this computer will be somewhat dedicated to the HA, then you may want to consider a very low power solution and divorce it from your general purpose computer.

Insteon is somewhat polarizing as it has had a poor track record for many. UPB is the favorite of the Pro installs and Zwave has support in some marketplaces. I believe both also cover the thermostat, but not postive with UPB. There are several IR computer interfaces and generally not that much that discrminates them from an efffectiveness perspective.

 

[GraysonPeddie]

Even if I dislike showing my bias, Insteon does have a poor track record, so if I were you, I'd rather steer away from Insteon and go with UPB or Z-Wave, but to each their own. I don't know much about UPB (I do know it is powerline technology, like Insteon), but you do get a lot of options that work with Z-Wave technology. Have you check out the Home Automation Technology Comparison sheet (look for a sticky thread in the Home Automation forum)?

If you add a virtual machine to your Mac, you can have a Linux distro as a guest (such as Ubuntu, openSUSE, etc.) and you might try to look for any home automation software (probably MisterHouse) that works under Linux, but that's about it. Indigo is fine, but I don't have a Mac, so I can't help with that.

Do you have a spare PC that is not a Mac? You might want a Windows Home Server for your home automation software needs. (I strip out a lot of WHS components and make it barebone with IIS 6 available and reduce my VM to 192MB of RAM and it's very responsive, despite the installation that requires 512MB of RAM. I already have Ubuntu desktop as a file server and I back up my stuff to my network manually. But I digress. ray

 

[ano]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and to automation. I just moved into my condo and wanted to go ahead and set up home automation. For software, I'm thinking of using Indigo4 for Mac and Indigo iPhone app to help control while away from home.

I want to be able to control the following:

- thermostat
- curtains (4 sets)
- entertainment center (tv, sound bar, and satellite box)
- lighting (lamp, and possibly kitchen light switch)
- bedroom fan

I've been looking at Insteon equipment to help with the hardware side. Any suggestions on what hardware I should get? I would like to be able to do most of it wireless. I know I'll probably have to install a wired switch for the kitchen light and bedroom fan.

Thanks for the help!

I own three Mac in my house and use them for about everything EXCEPT automation. Really, you can buy a pretty good PC for about $300 today, so if you are even remotely serious about automation, I'd go that route. Actually running Windows Home Server on it is a good idea. I actually use two PCs. One for Windows Home Server and one for automation, but these two could be combined. If you go the HAI route, there is a product from HAI called Web-Link3 which is pretty cool. It runs on the Windows Home Server and lets you access your system from the web, iPhones, and Blackberry's, lets you monitor an network cameras in your home, and it can send you e-mail alerts when problems occur. So if you go the HAI route, and use that for control using UPB, and its a security system as well, add a Windows Home Server with Web-Link3, and you have a pretty capable system, and you get a file server in the process.

I have gone further than this with CQC and lots of other extras, but adding that on in the future isn't a problem. you will find that the software control program is cheap. Where the cost will be will be the light switches, and security system wiring and installation. This is why, if your going to do all this, you might as well go to a PC for many more options. If you just want to play with a few switches, and impress your friends when they come over, by all means, a Mac and a few switches can easily do that fine.

Most people go either in one of two ways after they install a small automation system. Either move on and it never gets used again, or they rip it out, start again from scratch, and get a system that meets all their needs, but I will warn you, this is usually a multi-$1000, many year endeavor.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Insteon is somewhat polarizing as it has had a poor track record for many. UPB is the favorite of the Pro installs and Zwave has support in some marketplaces. I believe both also cover the thermostat, but not postive with UPB. There are several IR computer interfaces and generally not that much that discrminates them from an efffectiveness perspective.

I'm not sure it would be totally accurate to say any of those was a favorite among professional installers. I think it would be more like one of them might be seen as the least worst among them. Most pro installers would probably want to start their baseline a notch above those, if it would be at all possible within the budget, since they have to deal with any issues.