HA Software Options

[pete_c]

A short story (tangent et al):

Many years ago - 1960's - our grade school science teacher (5th grade I think) introduced us to model rockets. I guess I got bitten by the bug and started to build model rockets small and large. I had a lot of fun with it. I remember one day a neighbor - kid that was the same age as me (11 or so) said he wanted to "check out" model rockets and if I could help him. I said sure. We set out building one of the kits he purchased. By the end of the afternoon (think it was on a Saturday) noticed that he wanted to assemble, paint and launch the rocket all withing one hour or two.

I told him that you needed to wait a bit for glue and paint to dry before the attempt to launch the rocket. He didn't and the rocket fell apart at the launch pad. In conclusion he never really got into building model rockets after he found out what really was involved but would go with me (and a bunch of us kids) to a local open field to launch a variety of rockets small and large (some with cameras etc).

 

[johnnynine]

The j9 support forum seems very inactive, I am quite surprised since the product looks very promising. In my tests it was so buggy though that it did not even look to be viable.

Hi guys, I figured I'd better give my 2 cents worth since I think even aslamma would now agree this quote is misleading.

J9AE is stable however there are a few beta drivers that have not yet been fully tested, and they are marked so in their description. Regrettably the CM15A (is this still in production?) was marked as stable based on prior user feedback but this was clearly not accurate and had 1 bug plus had 2 commands that were not actually supported by the ActiveHome SDK and should not have been included in the driver. Based on feedback from aslamma we fixed the issues quickly over the weekend as well as added additional functionality and delivered an intermediate release to aslamma to get him up and running.

There was also quite a bit of misconception on how parts of the product worked which I believe aslamma now has a much better handle on after reading some of the manual and a lot of Q&A on our forum.

Aslamma, Thanks again for the feedback on the CM15A driver. Fixing reported issues in the software is our #1 priority and I hope that we have addressed the issues to your satisfaction.

Johnny

edit: Is the CM15A still in production by ActiveHome?

 

[Dave X10]

..... Regrettably the CM15A (which is a discontinued product) was marked as stable based on prior user feedback but this was clearly not accurate ....

Is this true.. or a mis-type? I haven't heard of the CM15A being discontinued.

 

[johnnynine]

..... Regrettably the CM15A (which is a discontinued product) was marked as stable based on prior user feedback but this was clearly not accurate ....

Is this true.. or a mis-type? I haven't heard of the CM15A being discontinued.

I think you are right... although I didn't track it down as a separate product for sale other on the x10 site, just in bundles. Does anyone have a link for it as an individual purchase?

Johnny

 

[aslamma]

I think it is only sold through x10 via a package deal.

But I don't know that MY OPINION about j9 has changed too much. The iTunes driver seems to have problems with playlists as we talked about. It could very well be that my particular hardware setup is troublesome for j9. The three things i need are x10, iTunes, and ir. I mentioned the other and since there is no test feature on the ir learn, I did not find it practical to use for if one is doing many ir learns. So, I don't know...I'm iffy on what I think.

J9: I see this as the choice of the future (for me). Again, my opinion. Johnny seems to have a knack for making it logical and intuitive where the others don't. Hstouch is also very good at this. J9 actually handles my x10 a lot better than homseer. There is no iPhone client although one is being worked. Scrolling features probably not to come soon so it won't have an iPhone feel to it. Overall, I really like what is being done and I'm almost certain I will buy it, but not sure how useful it is to me TODAY.

Homeseer. I like this quite a bit. For the most part everything works. It's a bit clunky at times, but hey it works. They seem to move at a decent pace, but probably the slowest of the bunch. For me, it's good choice until j9 better meets my criteria.

Cqc. Well I didn't get too far with this one so an honest review is tough. It is the most unintuitive program I have ever seen. I read all the docs and watched the vids, but got stuck on the iTunes side. Evidently it has some problems (iTunes seems to be a problem fir everyone). But the ir was good and the functionality seems great. I am even willing to redo any and all hardware if need be. But I just don't think I want to make the investment that I see cqc requiring. If I come to it after several months of not touching it, I think it will be a pain. I don't this burden.

This is just my opinion with my hardware. All are viable choices and there is no clear winner or loser. I plan on buying homeseer to fill my immediate needs but to ultimately go to j9 when everything has matured and the iPhone client is available. I could wait for j9, but want something ready to go for the ipad. I expect j9 to be a winner when it is released.

 

[johnnynine]

But I don't know that MY OPINION about j9 has changed too much. The iTunes driver seems to have problems with playlists as we talked about. It could very well be that my particular hardware setup is troublesome for j9. The three things i need are x10, iTunes, and ir. I mentioned the other and since there is no test feature on the ir learn, I did not find it practical to use for if one is doing many ir learns. So, I don't know...I'm iffy on what I think.

The iTunes driver is marked as depreciated and although it is functional it is not complete since it does not support playlists in the way that you are looking to use them. I'm not sure I would call it a bug, it's just functionality that was not added before we realized that iTunes just isn't a solid media player for home automation (in our opinion). But I can see how this would be confusing since you'd have to fully read the driver description to know this. The upcoming release has a new feature that will notify the user when they are adding a driver that is in development, in test, experimental, or depreciated with a short description of what that means. You could also argue that if the iTunes driver is depreciated then maybe it aught to be completely removed, but while we are in beta anything can happen. :lol:

We totally agree on the lack of an IR learning test button, this is something that we hope to see before v1.0 is released. Actually I think I agree for the most part with pretty much everything else you mentioned.

Thanks again for the feedback... it's comments like yours that are helping us improve the product.

Johnny

 

[aslamma]

Glad you did not take that the wrong way. I think there is a good chance that j9 will be the best option in the near future for many people. Probably just have to keep down the path you are going and I don't see the others being able to compete for new DIY users. Sure there are always niche markets, but j9 is the only that actually "feels" right. I'm really pulling for your success.

 

[mustangcoupe]

Not to make this a J9 thread, but I too am a j9 user.... I have been testing/using this product in my home for about 2 years now(? ) I think I have tried every beta version from like 0.6 (even tho it wasn't labeled as nicely Johnny has been very quick in responding to questions and issues. He developed the original PPC interface over a week and be it a little slow it worked... now we have the TS lite version which is a great without the delays of the original interface. I have it loaded on my smart phone and my wife's, and on a touch screen that runs windows CE5.0 in my living room. I have also beta'd the iphone/ipod touch app which works great also( I think it needs a way to store credentials though)

I currently use it with UPB, ELK, weather, soon to try IR and media(audio).....

I am eagerly awaiting the next release to see what is in store.

 

[aslamma]

Thought I would update on my "progress". I have been comparing CQC, HS, and J9 head to head for some time (not nearly as much with CQC though).

I decided to buy HomeSeer the other day since I was already "in bed" with it. It is OK for the most part. Nothing is great about it, nothing particularly bad about it. It's quite capable, but keep finding myself having to go to the forums to get what should be basic info or intuitive.

Only a day after I bought HomeSeer, I saw that J9 upgraded a few things (it changes fast). I then found a decent workout to my iTunes problems. So I decided to make more of an effort with J9. Man, this thing is totally amazing. I was doing things in no time and rebuilt my entire project I did in HS very quickly. Everything is so simple to use and intuitive. I also just started to use the iPhone client. I don't know Johnny is doing over there but it seems to be working. I can directly compare it to HSTouch and CQC and it is at lest on pace, if not better. And this thing is still in beta. It was a bad decision to buy HS since I used it for all of 3 days, haha.

I will make a few comments on CQC. I guess I see this aimed at pros. Even if it had every feature under the sun (it did not do well with iTunes), I don't think this would be the choice for me. It's just too difficult to learn. I consider my time valuable and just cannot justify the effort to get it going...then maintenance would be a nightmare (I like to tinker). I think CQC is just aimed at a different pro or DIY user than myself.

Both CQC and HS have significant ceilings (learning curve for CQC and basic architecture for HS). J9 suffers from neither of these so I can only see this getting better and better. I am truly amazed.

Oh yeah, a very significant intangible for me. I find working in HS and CQC to just be a beating and it feels like work. With J9 I find it to be a fun and enjoyable experience, which is pretty much why I mess with this stuff in the first place.

 

[myyaz33]

It was a bad decision to buy HS since I used it for all of 3 days, haha.

http://www.homeseer.com/company/return_policy.htm

check here and see if you still have grounds to return it..