Documenting Your System

[garylm]

Surely this topic has come up before, but a casual search didn't turn up anything, so I'll show my noob-ness and start a new one...

The home automation paperwork was starting to pile up, and I thought that I'd get organized and put it all in a three-ring binder like I did back in my wastewater treatment plant days.

While punching holes in instruction sheets, my first thought was to throw the Spanish versions away, but on second thought I realized that the next owner of this house may not have English as a first language.

And what is grandma going to do when I kick the bucket, and she has all these mystery gadgets hanging on the wall in her broom closet?

So here's what I'm thinking should go in the book:

1. Cheat sheets for the missus on stuff like how to watch a movie, and how to set up the sprinklers and alarm system.
2. Catalog cut sheets for the stuff I've got and the stuff I'm dreaming about getting.
3. A list of URLs for all my software sources, including revision numbers currently in use.
4. Invoices and packing slips.
5. Wiring diagrams for the whole house and for each panel.
6. Instruction manuals for hardware components and software.
7. Hard copies of software configuration parameters, scripts, and macros.
8. System block diagrams.
9. Operational notes.
10. Backup media.

And if I sell the house I'll want a copy to leave behind and a copy to keep.

Have any of you DIY'ers assembled a manual for you house? Did I leave anything out?

 

[IVB]

Before moving out, i'm going to rip out 99% of what I have, leaving only the bare essentials, like wiring, elk equipment, & speakers. Anything else would potentially confuse and scare away homeowners as 95% of the populace wouldn't get anything more complex than a toaster.

 

[hucker]

Regardless of what I do when I leave, I still think this is important. For me I've created a HA Log where I put important chunks of information. Basically a word document that has all sorts of 'stuff' in it. Not a user's manual. Sort of a lab notebook on my trials and tribulations. All sorts of good information, more technical than how-to. I wrote down lots of information about the problems I had. Each device seems to have it's own quirks, programming the CADDX, some config on the UPB switches, RS485 polarity on the RCS. All small issues, each took hours to figure out...

When I leave (might be sooner than I thought :blink: ) I'm not sure what I'm taking with me.

 

[Timoh]

Definitely a good idea... But a hobbyists, most folks are more interested in tinkering than writing. The only thing I would document would be my Caddx. And maybe some wiring info.

Everything else is coming out. A new home-owner would probably call in an electrician and have it ripped out anyway... + Switches, controllers, etc are not cheap. I'd leave my alarm panel and in-ceiling speakers. That's it.

If something bad should happen to me, the family would probably continue to use HA until it breaks, and then buy a normal sound system and sell the HA stuff on ebay.

I also think as hobbyists, most folks HA is in a state of flux. So as soon as something is documented, it'll change.

Tim

 

[upstatemike]

Been planning to do this for at least 25 years now and this thread just reminded me that I need to give it a higher priority. I have a lot of technical docs like what is on each punch block location but what I really need is some troubleshooting info in case I am not around... How to reboot the automation PC, what to do if the garage door opener button stops working, etc.

Pictures with things circled in red will be required for folks who don't have a clue... and maybe separate sections for "how to use", "what to do if there is a problem", and "technical details on how the thing is wired together".

 

[AnotherOne]

I have been doing this since we moved into our house 9 years ago. Everytime we buy something significant (washer, security part, water filter, tv, camera, gate controller...) I try to download the manual and keep them all in a directory named "manuals". Everytime I have to do something that will need to be repeated I document it - like turning off the sprinkler system for winter.

I have a whole security document that has the location of every smoke detector, what zone it shares with other ones, what type, and the same for heat, CO, gas, motion, and relays.

There's another document for the phone system (panasonic) that tells what every punch down block is, where all the phone jacks are and what extensions they are.

Then there is a set of procedures for my wife and kids (and anyone who may house sit for us) that describes how things work, how to turn on and off the generator, who do deal with the security system, home theater, etc.

It's not much work if you keep it up to date, but I would hate to try to recreate it at this point in time.

 

[htsource]

I agree doing the documentation is important, I've always keep a copy of my wiring diagram up to date (or try to anyway). This way, it's easy if I need to change something I'll know which wire is which.

As far as leaving automation gears behind, I agree with others, most of the potential buyers are not into automation. We just sold our house 6 months ago. So I pulled all the SwitchLinc switches out among others, just leaving the in-ceiling speakers and DSC security behind. They want everything else out anyway.

It's sad to see all the wires leaving behind in the walls :lol: It took me some great effort to pull those wires and they ended up buried in the wall. Oh well, maybe one day they'll contract me back to do automation for them :blink:

 

[hult]

Surely this topic has come up before, but a casual search didn't turn up anything, so I'll show my noob-ness and start a new one...

The home automation paperwork was starting to pile up, and I thought that I'd get organized and put it all in a three-ring binder like I did back in my wastewater treatment plant days.

[snip]

Have any of you DIY'ers assembled a manual for you house? Did I leave anything out?

What I've mostly left out are the paper documents ;-)

Twenty years ago I began a spreadsheet (SS) that is both my primary working document and reference. It is my Instrumentation and HA 'workspace' and
the portal to my HA and instrumentation documentation and project files. It also serves as scratchpad for ephemeral notes and calculations. And can house environmental data ( temperature, status, log files) and graphs -- either static or dynamically linked to other, external spreadsheets.

A large proportion of our HA installation is homebrew or DIY to some extent, so keeping calculations, development resources, and other intermediate docs in the same place as the maintenance and reference docs helps in the goal of making the development work self-documenting.

The main spreadsheet is in an Instrumentation and HA directory (folder), with manuals and other documents and files stored in subdirectories of that folder so the hyperlinks in the SS stay functional (unbroken) when the directory if copied to backup or moved.

Each subsystem (Security, HVAC, INSTEON, etc) has its own tab in the SS as do ongoing development projects (Hard-wired lighting, electronic circuit design, etc).

The first (uppermost) rows typically contains the current configuration (eg X-10/INSTEON addresses by device and location, wiring diagrams, pictures of installations ) with working documents below. The "documents:" can be links to other files (pdf, exe, jpg etc) or notes or calculations in the ss itself. For example, the INSTEON tab features status of returns of stuff to Smarthome :-(

The next section ( set of rows) is typically the To Do list. These keep getting longer; -) but in theory when a task is done, it moves upward into the Configuration section for that subsystem. I try to keep the text to a minimum with step-by-step task lists predominant.

These days, most manuals and drivers are available on-line and often supercede the ones that were provided with the hardware at the time of purchase so this is a good way of organizing updates. For example, the software I used for a decade (Savoy's CyberHouse ) is now on its 24th service pack (upgrade) in Version 4. One can store both all the previously downloaded versions, and a live link (url) for downloading the next version from an external web site..

One could refine this spreadsheet so that a paper printout of it would be the basic "Home HA Manual" by hiding cells that contain non-essental or superceded data.

HTH ... Marc

 

[Ranger Digital]

I say ditch the spanish paperwork. This is America where the official language is English. If they cant read it they need to learn it. Its very frustrating to see the catering this country does to those that dont want to take the time to adjust to this country. If i move to botswana i surely should be expected to learn the ways THERE.

ok, on topic. yes a "book" is a good idea. at least a folder full of manuf. paperwork, lol. in ENGLISH of course coz if you did spanish wouldnt that discriminate against the germans and botswanese??? lol

 

[IVB]

Seriously dude, take the racist attitude off cocoontech. Every immigrant population out there could have the same charges levelled against them upon arrival to America. Hell, I'm pretty sure the Native Americans would say that the Pilgrims didn't try to learn their ways, so be pretty careful if you think you're casting the first stone.

If you're going through the effort, don't be a butthead and throw paperwork away. You got it, hold on to it, file it away with the others. If you get german and botswanese paperwork, file those too.

 

[garylm]

Twenty years ago I began a spreadsheet (SS) that is both my primary working document and reference. It is my Instrumentation and HA 'workspace' and the portal to my HA and instrumentation documentation and project files...

The main spreadsheet is in an Instrumentation and HA directory (folder), with manuals and other documents and files stored in subdirectories of that folder so the hyperlinks in the SS stay functional (unbroken) when the directory if copied to backup or moved.

That sounds cool. I might like to see an example. Did you do it in Excel? Did they even have Excel 20 years ago?

-

Regarding the Spanish speakers, in my area it is the Spanish speakers who have created home-buying pressure from the bottom up. They've boosted the values of starter homes, enabling lots of people, including myself, to sell their two-bedroom bungalows and move up to more luxurious homes. This encourages builders to build ever more luxurious homes. Without those first home buyers, we wouldn't have been able to get out of our first home. And who wants to automate a two-bedroom bungalow?

And when you're in the privacy of your own home, you ought to be free to read in your native language.
</soapbox>

 

[hult]

Twenty years ago I began a spreadsheet (SS) that is both my primary working document and reference. It is my Instrumentation and HA 'workspace' and the portal to my HA and instrumentation documentation and project files...

The main spreadsheet is in an Instrumentation and HA directory (folder), with manuals and other documents and files stored in subdirectories of that folder so the hyperlinks in the SS stay functional (unbroken) when the directory if copied to backup or moved.

That sounds cool. I might like to see an example. Did you do it in Excel? Did they even have Excel 20 years ago?

The first ad for the first spreadsheet -- Dan Bricklin's Visicalc -- ran in Byte in May 1978 --- which makes 2008 the 30th aniversary of the first "killer application". Visicalc begot Lotus 123. Which begot Excel -- a latecomer and a poor second to Wingz which ran/runs on both Unix and Win. I still have a copy of Wingz from 1990 which runs/ran on W3.x,W9x,NT,W2K and XP and might be the longest-running application I still (very occasionally) use.

I will try to post a partial, sanitized version of my spreadsheet. For a whole bunch of good reasons (including not being keen to give the world security keys to my house!) I won't post the whole thing.

For the benefit of monoglot linguistic bigots, I'll be sure to include a partial Spanish translation. ( How useful would documentation in English only be for the HA in my home in Spain, reasonable folks might wonder ... )