CQC on sale

[batwater]

Well now that I have my family calendar online , I can see that i'm busy this weekend but am free on 5/2 @8:30am. How about you? If yes, i'll post a thread on the various fora. How about:
8:30-9:30 CQC 101 (abbreviated)
9:30-10:30 CQC User Group Webinar (may be advanced stuff)

Well bummer, I'm camping that weekend, no access, have to catch the next one.

I'm joining the CQC family, woo hoo.
-Ben

 

[ysualum]

When I tell my kids "If you're thirsty, then get yourself a glass of water", I don't think i'm teaching them programming. When I tell my kids "If you're thirsty and you don't want water, then get some juice. If it's past 7pm and you're thirsty and you don't want water, then get some milk", it's slightly more complex logic, but it's still a far cry from programming.

Will CQC whine and cry back to you if it doesn't agree with your logic?

Will the webinar be recorded and accessible afterwards? I'm working that Saturday and won't be able to attend.

Thanks

 

[felixrosbergen]

hopefully I'll be able to attend the webinar as well..let me know if you need a gotomeeting account for it..

Anybody know which CQC Nuvo driver i need to use for the E6G? Technically it's a Essentia, but for all intends and purpose it appears to be a Grand Concerto with less power only. Even Nuvo's configurator software doesnt seem to differentiate much between the GC and the E6G.

Guess I'll load it up and see.

 

[IVB]

Will the webinar be recorded and accessible afterwards? I'm working that Saturday and won't be able to attend.

Thanks

Probably not - we have an awesome recording of both a CQC 101 & CQC 201 session on the site in my sig, see that one.

 

[rfdesq]

Probably not - we have an awesome recording of both a CQC 101 & CQC 201 session on the site in my sig, see that one.

Vivek, thanks for the CQC 101 video. With that, my 30+ years in the business, and a lot of patience and persistence, I got my new purchase of CQC up and running. I've installed it on a dedicated server with an extra Admin setup on my desktop computer. I've installed the ELK driver and the UPB driver and both seem to be functioning properly. I did feel a little like a witch doctor, swinging a dead chicken in a bag over my head, having to make sure Upstart was installed, exporting the UPB file, going to the Kanak website (downloading for free the conversion utility), converting the imported Upstart file, etc., etc., etc. I never did find the "how to" manual for all of this in one location. I found bits and pieces of it and was able to read the error logs to determine a file was missing for the UPB serial interface. I don't want to hijack this thread so for those interested in purchasing CQC it still appears to be a work in progress. If you are willing to be a part of that project then go ahead and buy it. If you want something that is completely developed and supports every new device, i.e. UPB, I don't think it exists in a powerful automation software solution. I'm going to watch CQC 201 and I'm looking forward to next Saturday's webinar. Dean has also been terrific, so for those on the fence, know that you have a support team behind you.

Robert

 

[Dean Roddey]

Probably not - we have an awesome recording of both a CQC 101 & CQC 201 session on the site in my sig, see that one.

Vivek, thanks for the CQC 101 video. With that, my 30+ years in the business, and a lot of patience and persistence, I got my new purchase of CQC up and running. I've installed it on a dedicated server with an extra Admin setup on my desktop computer. I've installed the ELK driver and the UPB driver and both seem to be functioning properly. I did feel a little like a witch doctor, swinging a dead chicken in a bag over my head, having to make sure Upstart was installed, exporting the UPB file, going to the Kanak website (downloading for free the conversion utility), converting the imported Upstart file, etc., etc., etc. I never did find the "how to" manual for all of this in one location. I found bits and pieces of it and was able to read the error logs to determine a file was missing for the UPB serial interface. I don't want to hijack this thread so for those interested in purchasing CQC it still appears to be a work in progress. If you are willing to be a part of that project then go ahead and buy it. If you want something that is completely developed and supports every new device, i.e. UPB, I don't think it exists in a powerful automation software solution. I'm going to watch CQC 201 and I'm looking forward to next Saturday's webinar. Dean has also been terrific, so for those on the fence, know that you have a support team behind you.

Robert

Well, CQC is certainly a work in progress in that it can never be finished, given all that it could theoretically do. But, it's not a work in progress in the sense that you mean. You have to separate the devices supported from the product itself. If you want an easier integration, you have to move up to hardware that is designed for the professional integration market. Products like UPB, Insteon and Z-Wave, though they work, are not very automation system friendly systems. Not because they are stupid, but because it's not really their primary market. At their price points they are not probably able to devote the engineering resources required to make their products as integratable as lighting systems from Lutron, for instance. When you have hardware that's well designed for integration, it's a lot more straightforward and there are fewer hoops to jump through.

But CQC itself is very powerful and getting quite mature, in terms of the product itself. There's still plenty to do, but it's as powerful and flexible as its much more expensive competitors. And you'd likely have similar issues integrating UPB into those as well, for similar reasons. I'd have thunk that the Elk setup would have been pretty straightforward since it is well designed for integration.

So anyway, I just wanted to make that point, that the integration of any given device into the automation system is largely driven by that device's level of integratibility, and sometimes by the fact that it was done by a third party instead of us, so they were a little more limited in what they could do. And not that we couldn't do better in some cases, but it's a separate issue from the quality and maturity of the product itself. And there's always the learning curve issue which makes it seem more complex than it is at first.

Also, be sure to read through the driver documentation page for each driver. Generally everything you need to know is documented there. Sometimes the docs might get a little behind, but they should generally be correct. If you don't find some information you need to know on that driver's documention page, just let us know.

Here are the pages for UPB and the ELk. Is there anything missing there, since you just went through it and would likely remember better?

http://www.charmedquark.com/Web/Support/Dr...ighting/UPB.htm
http://www.charmedquark.com/Web/Support/Dr...anels/ElkM1.htm

 

[rfdesq]

I'd have thunk that the Elk setup would have been pretty straightforward since it is well designed for integration.

Dean, thanks for responding. The ELK setup took 2 minutes. It was the UPB install that was the tricky one. I see now by your explanation the difficulty. I'm a Pulseworx certified dealer and do like the product. Perhaps Scott or Mike at PCS need to jump on the CQC UPB driver issues. I have determined that if there is a problem it is my doing and not CQC. CQC and UPB are not exactly plug n' play and I understand that. I'm sure that my other devices will go as easily as the ELK did. I'm glad I made the purchase.

As far as the documentation, I did read it and it appears to be all there. CQC to me has it's own language or terminology, I just need to become familiar with it. You are correct that the video tutorials are way behind on the CQC website. I believe they are 1.X, IVB's are 2.X and I'm using 2.4.46 beta. You kind of have to use your "third eye" to make them all understandable.

 

[Dean Roddey]

I'd have thunk that the Elk setup would have been pretty straightforward since it is well designed for integration.

Dean, thanks for responding. The ELK setup took 2 minutes. It was the UPB install that was the tricky one. I see now by your explanation the difficulty. I'm a Pulseworx certified dealer and do like the product. Perhaps Scott or Mike at PCS need to jump on the CQC UPB driver issues. I have determined that if there is a problem it is my doing and not CQC. CQC and UPB are not exactly plug n' play and I understand that. I'm sure that my other devices will go as easily as the ELK did. I'm glad I made the purchase.

As far as the documentation, I did read it and it appears to be all there. CQC to me has it's own language or terminology, I just need to become familiar with it. You are correct that the video tutorials are way behind on the CQC website. I believe they are 1.X, IVB's are 2.X and I'm using 2.4.46 beta. You kind of have to use your "third eye" to make them all understandable.

I never fully groked the UPB issues totally, since I didn't do that driver and have never played with UPB personally. I'm sure that it could be improved with sufficient brain cycles and experience applied to it.

 

[fcwilt]

I have UPB at home and it is rather HA friendly. The API is mostly simple and effective. There are both serial and USB controllers available. The UPStart config tool can generate an text based file of the UPB network setup which can be used as an import to an HA system. Some HA systems just need the basic UPB network info and can scan the system to see what is there. Both approaches work well, although as you might expect, scanning the network can take a
while.

While I haven't (yet) tried UPB with CQC, if there are problems it is not with UPB being unfriendly to HA. UPB is not perfect (what is) but it can work very, very well when tied to a HA system.

 

[Steve]

UPB support in CQC was done by a 3rd party since it was needed and not at the top of Dean's list at the time. While it is not that bad and does work well I do have to admit it is perhaps not as well integrated or intuitive as some of the other drivers. I'm sure the driver can be improved whether it be by the original author or if Dean makes a more native driver.

But Robert - here's an idea for you... unless you perhaps need something beyond basic lighting control, you don't even need to mess with the native UPB driver. Why don't you just have the Elk driver and control your UPB lights via Elk? I've also felt for those with a hardware controller, lighting is best done there anyway. You could also easily have it on CQC as a backup or whatever, but its almost stupidly easy to control a light in CQC via the Elk driver.

 

[rfdesq]

But Robert - here's an idea for you... unless you perhaps need something beyond basic lighting control, you don't even need to mess with the native UPB driver. Why don't you just have the Elk driver and control your UPB lights via Elk? I've also felt for those with a hardware controller, lighting is best done there anyway. You could also easily have it on CQC as a backup or whatever, but its almost stupidly easy to control a light in CQC via the Elk driver.

Hi Steve, long time no talk. My goal is to remove as much of the HA load from the ELK and move it to CQC. That was one of the reasons for my CQC purchase. I want the ELK to be concentrated on the security side. I don't mind reading the zone outputs and having CQC handle the HA. I was disheartened to find that after this many years of my interest in CQC, the UPB driver is still DEV, isn't that CQC speak for beta? I definitely wouldn't mind a CQC UPB driver discovering the network and doing its thing without the need for the Upstart file. Reading the network isn't that big a deal and wouldn't be done again unless configurations were changed. Thanks.

 

[Dean Roddey]

But Robert - here's an idea for you... unless you perhaps need something beyond basic lighting control, you don't even need to mess with the native UPB driver. Why don't you just have the Elk driver and control your UPB lights via Elk? I've also felt for those with a hardware controller, lighting is best done there anyway. You could also easily have it on CQC as a backup or whatever, but its almost stupidly easy to control a light in CQC via the Elk driver.

Hi Steve, long time no talk. My goal is to remove as much of the HA load from the ELK and move it to CQC. That was one of the reasons for my CQC purchase. I want the ELK to be concentrated on the security side. I don't mind reading the zone outputs and having CQC handle the HA. I was disheartened to find that after this many years of my interest in CQC, the UPB driver is still DEV, isn't that CQC speak for beta? I definitely wouldn't mind a CQC UPB driver discovering the network and doing its thing without the need for the Upstart file. Reading the network isn't that big a deal and wouldn't be done again unless configurations were changed. Thanks.

It's not that we don't care about UPB particularly. It's just that we have to be primarily targeted towards professional installers, since that's where the actual market is to create and maintain a viable company. UPB, Z-Wave, and Insteon really don't play much of a part in the pro install world, so we aren't able to give them as much emphasis as products like Lutron, Elk, Omni, etc...

I did do our Z-Wave driver, which has been a vast time sucker even to the degree that it currently exists. If UPB is anything like Z-Wave, then it's nothing like integrating a Lutron system which is quite straighforward and highly reliable.

 

[rfdesq]

we have an awesome recording of both a CQC 101 & CQC 201 session on the site in my sig, see that one.

I drank from the fire hose and watched the videos, thanks. I'm ready for Saturday morning. Here's my status if it helps with your presentation. I know what CQC can do, I know what I want to do, I need to learn how to do it.

 

[IVB]

As far as the documentation, I did read it and it appears to be all there. CQC to me has it's own language or terminology, I just need to become familiar with it. You are correct that the video tutorials are way behind on the CQC website. I believe they are 1.X, IVB's are 2.X and I'm using 2.4.46 beta. You kind of have to use your "third eye" to make them all understandable.

Oh yeah, i totally phased that the webinar is on 2.x. I'll have to redo that once 3.0 comes out (and I learn anything about it - heck, 99% of my stuff is from 2.1, i haven't kept up too much after that).

 

[royalj7]

I'm thinking about purchasing CQC during the sale and have a quick question. Can CQC be installed on a headless WHS system? Are there any bugs or gotchas I should know about with that setup?

Thanks,
--Jamie