Best Home Automation Software/Controller
- Thread starter lanski
- Start date
Homeseer and CQC have their prices on their sites, although it is my understanding that CQC normally has a Presidents Day Step-Up sale, which is what I'm waiting for. The big choice on CQC is how many devices do you need.
Which is easier, based on what Dan said, CQC may be a little more powerful and slightly more complex. However, based on what I've read, Dean at CQC is doing a lot of work to simplify and help the initial setup. The reality is that you will have to spend time learning either one of them and some people find one or the other more intuitive. We're not talking about programming here, we're talking about configuration and learning how each system works. I'm sure you could learn either and frankly if you are scared of learning them, you should purchase a dealer-oriented package such Control4. The fact is DIYers have to learn what they want to do and if you don't want to learn, then you will need to spend to get the job done.
As others have said, download and play with each package and see what is more intuitive to you. There is simply no answer for which is easier to learn as we all learn differently and have different experiences. If CQC reminds you of something you've previously done, then it will be more intuitive than Homeseer and vice-versa.
David
Which is easier, based on what Dan said, CQC may be a little more powerful and slightly more complex. However, based on what I've read, Dean at CQC is doing a lot of work to simplify and help the initial setup. The reality is that you will have to spend time learning either one of them and some people find one or the other more intuitive. We're not talking about programming here, we're talking about configuration and learning how each system works. I'm sure you could learn either and frankly if you are scared of learning them, you should purchase a dealer-oriented package such Control4. The fact is DIYers have to learn what they want to do and if you don't want to learn, then you will need to spend to get the job done.
As others have said, download and play with each package and see what is more intuitive to you. There is simply no answer for which is easier to learn as we all learn differently and have different experiences. If CQC reminds you of something you've previously done, then it will be more intuitive than Homeseer and vice-versa.
David
Dean Roddey
Senior Member
A 'device' is basically a CQC device driver. So Z-Wave is one, RadioRA2 is one, an Elk is one, an Omni is one, etc... In all of these types of devices where there's a controller that CQC talks to and the controller talks to the other things, that's just one device from CQC's point of view, since it only requires one device driver to talk to the controller.
You can make it more physical by saying each of the things that CQC has to connect to, because each connection requires a driver. CQC connects to a Z-Wave or Omni controller, but it doesn't connect directly to the things the Z-Wave or Omni controller controls, so that's just one driver. OTOH, each TV or A/V receiver has its own serial port or ethernet connection, so each of them requires a separate device driver in CQC to talk to it over that specific connection. If you want weather info, that's a connection to a weather server, so it requires a device driver. If you want to manage your media, that's a connection to iTunes or DVD Profiler or My Movies (or in some cases in a more abstract sense a connection to the local drive to expose media files with just embedded tags), so that's a device driver.
Does that make sense?
You can make it more physical by saying each of the things that CQC has to connect to, because each connection requires a driver. CQC connects to a Z-Wave or Omni controller, but it doesn't connect directly to the things the Z-Wave or Omni controller controls, so that's just one driver. OTOH, each TV or A/V receiver has its own serial port or ethernet connection, so each of them requires a separate device driver in CQC to talk to it over that specific connection. If you want weather info, that's a connection to a weather server, so it requires a device driver. If you want to manage your media, that's a connection to iTunes or DVD Profiler or My Movies (or in some cases in a more abstract sense a connection to the local drive to expose media files with just embedded tags), so that's a device driver.
Does that make sense?
Dean Roddey
Senior Member
Seems unlike you would need more than ten.
I would question why you are using Z-Wave and Insteon. Z-Wave is a mesh network, and it's not terribly practical to use it if you don't have a certain density of modules to provide good coveage. If you are thinking of using just a small number of them, widely spread, it may not work so well.
I would question why you are using Z-Wave and Insteon. Z-Wave is a mesh network, and it's not terribly practical to use it if you don't have a certain density of modules to provide good coveage. If you are thinking of using just a small number of them, widely spread, it may not work so well.
Don't rule out the Vera from MiCasaVerde. Much of the advanced stuff requires writing LUA code, but it's pretty easy and chances are others have tried doing whatever it is you want to do and posted their code. It's cheap at $189 for the Lite (only difference for the Lite is it doesn't have wifi), and there are no additional licensing fees down the road. I got mine doing cool stuff, including GREAT text-to-speech using an old Android phone and Vera Alerts hooked into my Elk speakers with a cheap amp. I moved all of my Elk voice announcements to the Vera and I can make it say anything.
Hi Guys, what do you think about mControl ?
Is that the same as CQC and Homeseer ?
mControl
http://home-automation-systems-review.toptenreviews.com/
Is that the same as CQC and Homeseer ?
mControl
http://home-automation-systems-review.toptenreviews.com/
Premise is definitely worth looking at. You can download it and try it for free on any Windows PC. The users have added a plethora of free open source modules to it over the years. There's probably close to a hundred modules for various devices posted on here alone.
I want to tread lightly here out of respect for the other options, but I'd definitely try a free option before dropping $300 or more on a paid option. You have nothing to lose. That is, unless I absolutely needed great tech support that I could call with issues (which both CQC and Homeseer are famous for offering).
I'd put the reliability and design of Premise against any PC option out there. Millions were spent on it, only to have it given away for free by Motorola (thanks Motorola)! Basically anything you can do in Homeseer or CQC, you can do in Premise. This should come as no surprise as Premise offers an extensive IDE called Premise Builder, and even offers an SDK that is also free.
I want to tread lightly here out of respect for the other options, but I'd definitely try a free option before dropping $300 or more on a paid option. You have nothing to lose. That is, unless I absolutely needed great tech support that I could call with issues (which both CQC and Homeseer are famous for offering).
I'd put the reliability and design of Premise against any PC option out there. Millions were spent on it, only to have it given away for free by Motorola (thanks Motorola)! Basically anything you can do in Homeseer or CQC, you can do in Premise. This should come as no surprise as Premise offers an extensive IDE called Premise Builder, and even offers an SDK that is also free.
Elve and HAI OmniproII - if you like a beautiful interface that works on IOS, Android and PC - all at the same time and looks great - then look no further - I cannot believe why Elve is not more active in this forum -
A true client server restful API structure with all drivers available - man I love it -
A true client server restful API structure with all drivers available - man I love it -
Kova4 - no offense but I'm surprised the Elve (Codecore Technologies) forums aren't more active. As a matter of fact, Elve was the software package I was most interested in, that is...until I joined their forums and figured out how quiet they were. As a matter of fact, iostream212 mentioned the same thing on the first page of this thread. But it's great that it is working so well for you as that is all that matters.
David
David
