CQC is not cheap!

HomeSeer with Maesto is now where near the $1500 previously mentioned. Now that Maestro is broken into to individual modules you can buy HomeSeer and the Maestro core for around $250
 
WayneW, I believe Rupp is talking about Maestro.

But Rupp, Maestro (like MainLobby) is using ala carte pricing. I am sure the non ala carte priced proponents would prefer to you add up all of the offerings and post that price. Not just the price that many users might actually purchase.

I haven't seen the latest Maestro offerings / pricing. It is a newer product than the one's already mentioned in this thread, so it's offerings have been fewer so far. There is also a significant difference in it's capabilities, especially regarding customizing the user interface, which I believe it is not capable of. So, from an evolutionary perspective, it looks better than the out of the box HS UI, better than Touchpad (a free addon for HS - still?) but no where near what MainLobby and CQC look like or are capable of. So, if you want to customize, it's Apples / Oranges. If you don't, it's appears to be a nice easier to configure solution (if you are already using Homeseer and have that already setup).
 
WayneW, I believe Rupp is talking about Maestro.
Duh, I know that. That is why I corrected him when he transposed or mis-read the original statement. Rupp clearly mentioned Maestro and the original post clearly said MainLobby.
 
The point about evaluating what you need the software to actually do is a good one. That's why I was looking at the CQC site, I was hoping to find a comprehensive feature list. But I didn't. I have not checked out the others yet. Part of my problem is that on Friday, the wall gets closed up, so I am trying to figure out what wires need to be pulled before then.

Also, seeing what the software is capable of certianally helps decide what the options and possibilities are. Mostly, I want to control lights, fans and HVAC. Someday I might add security. But most important, I want the software to keep all the different controllers in sync. So, if I have two Leviton 4 button scene controllers, and the software sends a command to the devices or whatever to change a scene or light, I would like the controllers to reflect that change.

But getting back on topic, I agree I need to eval what i want it to do then see what does it best. I'll do all that. Sometimes, though, figuring out what software can do and what it's requirements are is easier said than done :)
 
I don't think you will find a comprehensive feature list for any of the major software providers. The list can be very significant.

Control lights, fans and HVAC can be done very will with MainLobby, CQC, Homeseer and others. Those are givens now a days.

If you are talking about the Leviton X10 4 button scene controls, that hardware can send the message to the PC software. The PC software then can do your scene management. That way the PC is always in synch on what you are doing locally. Of course the PC then can add running that scene on event or timed. I can't remember if the Leviton are 2 way meaning if the PC was to invoke a scene of button 3, that button 3 is then illuminated. But, this is harware limitations, not the software.

Personally, I would be choosing a different hardware strategy with more modern choices than X10. I have a bunch of those X10 sitting in a box somewhere...
 
I usually don't get into these topics because they tend to turn into a pissing match like you wouldn't believe...
Yes, this can certainly happen at times as we are very passionate about our software choices! :)

I have dabbled in HomeSeer, MainLobby, and (very little, but want to spend more time with it) CQC. There are pros and cons with all these packages. To say one is "easier" than the other is a matter of preference and will depend on how far you want to take the features of each package.

I think the statement that each has its strong and weak points would be more accurate. One point that wasn't mentioned (maybe I just missed it) is that most of the packages offer a free 30 day trial. If one package doesn't, just simply cross that off your list for consideration!

Download the trials and see how their interfaces are suited to your taste and knowledge. Try to perform some tasks and ask for help here if you have some problems. This would be the best way to see which package would be the ultimate choice for you to condiser.

Also, note that we have reps that are members here for all these software products. You can tell a rep from a regular member as they will have their affiliation listed in their signature and an avatar of their product's logo. ;) (This can also help when merriting bias of replies as well). ;)
 
It's kind of hard to do a comprehensive feature list type document that doesn't turn into a book, but it's something we need to tacke. This type of product, in some ways, isn't so much a product as a huge toolkit. It's kind of like listing all of the things you can do with an electrical motor. It's easy to say that it's an electrical motor, but to actually enumerate the things that you could do with it (which would be more necessary in a more specialized product like an automation product) and why that's a good thing, gets kind of hard because you could do a huge number of things with it and you need some background to really appreciate why it's a good thing. But anyway, we need to try to get something in place there.

In terms of the 'who expands their system vs. who doesn't' thing... You have to keep in mind that CQC is primarily targeted as a professional product, where expandability and configurability are king. Having pre-fab stuff isn't generally much of a selling point because every installer will create their own customized systems that work the way that they think it should for the kind of customer they are targeting. The DIY crowd, though we love you, is not the primary audience, and we mainly tend to get the more technically oriented DIY customer who is either interested in open endedness, or expects that it is out there on their horizon somewhere and they want to know that they have a product that will expand with them, and where the cost will not creep as they want to add more functionality to the system. That's not to say that they are all techno-geeks like me, since some of them are not at all and they have set up quite nice systems.

And any customer, pro or DIY, wants to have a good feeling that the company will be around, because they are going to put a lot of time and effort (or money if pro installed) into getting their system done the way they want it and they don't want to switch horses down stream. Trying to get into a pricing war in this low volume and specialized a business is a losing proposition. It's a very time and effort and support intensive business, with fairly low volumes, so it just doesn't make sense to try to hunt for bargain shoppers. There are other products that fill that lower end niche just fine. We offer a pro-level, highly configurable product, and so we price it accordingly and target the customer that is looking for that.

We feel that a single price is the best approach, because after a few years of selling a segmented product, almost no one ever bought anything but the full package. So the extra confusion on the customer's part about what to buy wasn't actually providing any counterbalancing benefits because almost no one ever bought a partial system (less than 1%.) And since we include all drivers in the cost of the product, they aren't separately charged items. So just having a single system made the most sense in the end.
 
I think the statement that each has its strong and weak points would be more accurate. One point that wasn't mentioned (maybe I just missed it) is that most of the packages offer a free 30 day trial. If one package doesn't, just simply cross that off your list for consideration!

Download the trials and see how their interfaces are suited to your taste and knowledge. Try to perform some tasks and ask for help here if you have some problems. This would be the best way to see which package would be the ultimate choice for you to condiser.

And the webinars, don't forget the webinars!

We've had 7-8 of them by now, and put probably 100ish folks through them. It's probably 80% DIY, 20% pro's attending too, so there's a good mix of queestions. The agenda is also very locked down to "How to setup CQC, How to setup the Elk, and how to connect them", after we had one that went left of center where the customer of a competing product dragged us spent 30 minutes on the legalities of DVD ripping.

</shameless plug>

We've got 3 folks signed up for the next "Intro to HA" class, once it hits 7 i'll pick a saturday morning and schedule it. 6/2 is the next regular user group webex. I do the 120 minute "Intro" session in about 20-30mins.

</seriously, shameless plug now done>
 
It's kind of hard to do a comprehensive feature list type document that doesn't turn into a book, but it's something we need to tacke. This type of product, in some ways, isn't so much a product as a huge toolkit. It's kind of like listing all of the things you can do with an electrical motor.

Okay, but how about an overview? Maybe some screen shots? Ideally, a list of specific hardware it supports.

One point of confusion for me has been how the different hardware talks to the PC and then to the software. I have seen that many wired devices are RS232, but I know the typical PC has 1 or 2 serial ports on the system board. So there mst be some device that converts RS232 to enet or USB or something. How about the 1-Wire stuff? And the RF stuff? If I chose CQC tonight, I still would not know what hardware to interface to it. Conversely, if I chose hardware (which I did) I don't know if CQC can talk to it and if so, via what interface hardware.

Without knowing at least what CQC can talk to and how, how can I plan a system? Maybe the pros already know this stuff, but the rest of us don't. I realize we're not you're primary market and that's of course fine, but it sure woulden't hurt to make this information available.

Also, i realize you have a 30 day trial and that's great, but without knowing what hardware I need before I download... You see what I mean.

Maybe all this is available and I have not found it yet. I am new to this stuff.
 
Personally, I would be choosing a different hardware strategy with more modern choices than X10. I have a bunch of those X10 sitting in a box somewhere...

Actually, i was referring to the Leviton Z-Wave 4 button controllers. I just ordered a pile of Vizia Z-Wave stuff.
 
Okay, but how about an overview? Maybe some screen shots?
I agree completely - making that more consumable would certainly help Dean. FWIW, the "Gallery" on the charmedquark.com site has a list of some folks' screens, the "user systems" forum on the CQC site has other folks' screens. Many of those are downloadable, so you have easy access to a variety of look&feel's.

...Ideally, a list of specific hardware it supports....
One point of confusion for me has been how the different hardware talks to the PC and then to the software. I have seen that many wired devices are RS232, but I know the typical PC has 1 or 2 serial ports on the system board. So there mst be some device that converts RS232 to enet or USB or something. How about the 1-Wire stuff? And the RF stuff? If I chose CQC tonight, I still would not know what hardware to interface to it. Conversely, if I chose hardware (which I did) I don't know if CQC can talk to it and if so, via what interface hardware.

Also, i realize you have a 30 day trial and that's great, but without knowing what hardware I need before I download... You see what I mean.

Maybe all this is available and I have not found it yet. I am new to this stuff.
A list of all the 140 devices supporrted in V2.1 is on the website, in the Learn.SupportedDevices section. That's also where all the videos/etc are. Here's a direct link to that section, but formatting will be a little funny as it's frames-based and I have no idea how to actually link directly and keep the top frame.

If you click into any one of those pieces of hardware, you'll get a complete list of all the commands possible with each piece of hardware. That should answer your question completely.

BTW, once you scan that list and see just how many devices are supported "In Production", then look at this thread with the Drivers In Progress (40 as of this moment), you'll realize exactly why no CQC'er ever sticks with their original plan for HA. As our existing equipment dies off, it's just too easy to buy something off that list as a replacement, spend all of $7 on a serial/ethernet/USB cable, and pull that into your setup.
 
WayneW, I believe Rupp is talking about Maestro.
Duh, I know that. That is why I corrected him when he transposed or mis-read the original statement. Rupp clearly mentioned Maestro and the original post clearly said MainLobby.
The post was to show there are other much cheaper solutions available. Granted it doesn't offer the amount of configuration options that other solutions do but many users do not want the steep learning curve of yet another app. Maestro is plugin and play and your up and running in just a few minutes.
 
WayneW, I believe Rupp is talking about Maestro.
Duh, I know that. That is why I corrected him when he transposed or mis-read the original statement. Rupp clearly mentioned Maestro and the original post clearly said MainLobby.
The post was to show there are other much cheaper solutions available. Granted it doesn't offer the amount of configuration options that other solutions do but many users do not want the steep learning curve of yet another app. Maestro is plugin and play and your up and running in just a few minutes.


Rupp, that is IF you are already using Homeseer. Not plug and play if you are starting from scratch.
And it's not much cheaper since you would then also have to purchase Homeseer and related plugins. Closer to MainLobby in price.
MainLobby starts at $179 which is an automation engine and user interface.
 
I also went with zwave as my main hardware. I choose Homseer for software because they seem to be the front runner for supporting zwave. Support is built in for multiple zwave devices. They have probably the best interface called the ztroller. They also have an add on software package called zsteer. Thats very cool when trouble shooting your zwave devices. On the price side I bought a kit which gets you a discount (plus 10% off when I got the guide to HA from them)and got a few plug-ins on sale for half price. My price was a lot lower than what you would get by just adding up the numbers on the site. Ask specific questions about what you want to use also. When I was looking at CQC I asked Dean if I could use a zwave motion detector and at that time there wasn't support for that. I have no doubt CQC can do way more overall than HS but HS seemed to fit my application better and cost less in the end for my needs.
 
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