Basic dimmers, cans, & audio (was Hello from SoCal)

[tmbrown97]

As Dan said, Insteon I/O is pretty simple... i wouldn't bother with their kit - there are much better solutions for garage door contacts - there was actually some great info here on CT about ways people have done contacts up high completely out of sight and out of the way.

If you're streaming everything from the iMac, what about using Airport Expresses or AppleTV using the Remote Speaker function - I'm pretty sure you can stream to either and have volume control at each one... and be able to selectively turn each one on/off. You can control it fully from any iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone. It would require one such device for each room connected to your speakers or amp.

I'm still on 120V Incandescent purely for the color and full dimming control. Once LED gets more reasonable, I'll switch. My fear with Low Voltage for your case was that you wouldn't be able to use the standard dimmers like the Insteon, blowing that whole portion out of the water... but sticking with standard fixtures/controls will give you more flexibility (as Lou Appo said above). I want LED - but I'm betting it's still 2 years off being where it needs to be - and I'm not about to spend a few grand on LED lights that are inferior; especially considering once we do make the move to the right LED bulbs, they should be about the last bulbs we ever buy.

 

[oberkc]

I would offer to come out and help, but I am nowhere near California.

It appears that Insteon is soon coming out with a garage door monitor and operator. Here. Not that I'm excited about being a beta-tester for them...

This kit is already available. I use it. There is nothing "beta" about it. Work-to-play may be correct about better solutions for garage door contacts, but I am happy with the sensor provided as part of the kit.

The status of your garage door would require a security system and Elk is your best bet if you are looking at ISY since they have a full integration module due out shortly (currently they are partially integrated).

I respectfully disagree. No security system is REQUIRED for garage door status (though it may be a very good solution). The insteon kit (or IOLinc with some other sensor) used, in conjunction with an insteon keypad (aka KPL), can display the status of the garage door, as well as control it.

Any tips on what types of 120v bulbs provide the most natural light and are dimmable? Halogen?

Halogen is my choice, but it depends on the light color that I want. And this depends on the room. I like halogen for kitchen and areas where task and clarity is important. I like standard incandescent for rooms where ambience is a factor. I have tried dimmable CFL and was not as satisfied. More importantly, the wife was not satisfied. Would not fully dim. Light color was not desirable. I believe these problems have been somewhat remedied since I tried, but I have yet to attempt again. I am watching the LED options with great interest. I use a couple in non-dimming applications and like them. I may try a dimmable version soon, but I am not yet willing to spend hundreds of dollars to replace all of my existing lamps with LED and I am not sure that I would be happy with the look of mixing types (one LED mixed in with several halogens).

Definitely check out the ISY-99. I am a happy user of this wonderful device.

My own experience (about three years, now) with insteon (and smarthome) has been good. The only failures I have had were induced when a load shorted out and fried the output section of a switch (switch still works as a virtual controller). I have had no paddle failures, no switch failures, no other failures of any kind. Just beware that insteon is not completely immune to communication errors. Some electronic devices can generate interference that can disrupt insteon powerline communication. My experience is that there are remedies, but some folks appear to find this overly frustrating at times. Given your stated interest in minimizing your time investment, you should go into this with your eyes open. But you have also indicated that you have less than an unlimited budget, so insteon may be that sweet spot for you in terms of price and time. It is for me.

Regarding whole-house audio, the other section (Home Theaters) would likely more help. You will need an amp of some type. If you can live without volume control in each room, your system can be as simple as an amp, speaker selector/load balance, speakers, and some wire. This is how I do it.

 

[apostolakisl]

Regarding audio.

Do you want to listen to the same thing everywhere in your house and just control volume? This can be done fairly cheap by running your speaker wires in each room to a single gang wall box and putting a wall mounted volume control (about $30) in each room.

If you want to have all kinds of flexibility with each room having choices and sharing the same sources of audio, now it is expensive and complex.

Regarding garage door.

Yes, you can monitor garage doors other ways, but I consider this a security issue and prefer to use a security system which are VERY robust when it comes to this sort of thing. I would rather be told nothing about the status of my garage door than be told that it is closed when in fact it is open, even if it is 99.5% reliable. On this point, I like 99.99% reliable with that .01% being error in the way of being told it is open when in fact it is closed.

 

[Jim Hefner]

The same audio output everywhere is fine. As long as I have the ability to turn the volume all the way off in each zone. I will however have 2 audio inputs (HT and iMac) & 3 zones. One zone the HT, one my office (where the iMac w/ iTunes is), and the MB. Volume control knob on the wall is probably the route I will go. I guess the part I'm hung up about is the speakers in my office. The audio output from the iMac would have to be routed to the HT (where the amp or speaker selector) is located and then routed back, right? I'd rather not have to have the amp or whatnot turned on if I'm just listening to simple audio streams, email arrivals, etc. so I'm trying to see if there is way to drive a couple speakers without the amp.

I'm going to call Cruthfield right now to see what sort of amp or speaker selector I'll need. Currently I have no tuner. Fios goes to my Tivo to my TV. Audio is 2 simple bookshelf speakers.

Thanks again

 

[apostolakisl]

This is very simple. Put a splitter on your imac line out, run one line to your whole house amp and one line to a small local amp which controls the speakers in your office only.

One note, if your whole house amp is not close by, your line out signal will degrade. I have run 50 ft of line level audio over coax wire without problems, but those distances are at risk of picking up rf interference and general loss of signal to noise ratio.

If your imac has a digital audio out (coax or fiber) you can run this great distances with zero signal loss. Your amp will need a digital input of course which most halfway descent amps have nowdays. I am not sure about splitting a digital signal between the two amps so you would need to check that out. If you ran coax with the digital signal a regular coax splitter might work, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Jim Hefner]

Awesome! I'm definitely getting closer.

Now I'm trying to sort wether it's possible to get a HT amp/tuner that will drive another 3 pairs of speakers. I'll just use the local volume knobs to turn off the HT audio in the other rooms . I really don't want to have another piece of hardware (ie. 5.1 and an amp for the music).

Thanks

 

[apostolakisl]

You can run 3 pairs of speakers all off of a single stereo amp as long as the ohms don't drop too low. I am not sure what the wall volume knobs do to the resistance so that would be a question to ask when buying them. They would have to run in parrallel for the sake of independent volume control but that will drop the ohms unless the volume control fixes that for you. My guess is they do, but please check so you don't burn out your amp.

 

[oberkc]

You can run 3 pairs of speakers all off of a single stereo amp as long as the ohms don't drop too low.

This is true for some amps, but not others. I suggest checking the rating of a prospective amp befor assuming this. Theoretically, two sets of speakers (nominal resistance 8 ohms each) wired in parallel would reduce circuit resistance to 4 ohms. Three sets of speakers would show about 2.7 ohms. Four sets - 2 ohms. Some amps may not be able to drive a circuit below 8 ohms. I have seen blown amps from trying to drive too many speakers.

This is where the load balancing speaker selectors come into play. These devices ensure total resistance stays at 8ohms regardless of the number of speakers. I highly recommend these commonly-available devices.

 

[Jim Hefner]

Cool. Thanks for the help. This is what I'm going to use for the audio distribution to the different zones. I still haven't decided on the receiver yet tho. I'm looking for some super budget but something that won't be obsoleted in a year.