Hello Fellow Travelers

[BaduFamily]

Hey there folks,

I'm a northern Ca hacker who is remodeling the house down to the (broken and apparently never previously completed ) foundation over the next few months.

I proposed doing our own automation using Arduino's / Mac Minis and a bewildering array of TCP/IP/Zigbee/IC2 networks and sensors from Jameco but my wife threw a handy laptop at me and that was the end of it. The previous house's oddball mix of X10/Lutron/foo was bad enough, apparently.

I think we've dialed in the Elk M1 system for security and are looking at the Vantage system for lighting.

Too bad all the technical information on the M1 is behind some kind of you-must-be-owner-or-installer wall, that would probably increase my confidence. But this site is very useful in that respect.

We'll use IP cameras on a seperate physical net to a gatewayish mac machine which we'll VNC to for imediate eyeballing.

Here's the odd thing from reading this cool site's forums it seems that folks talk about the Vantage system as being home-run only. But I don't think it is; they have a set of distributed controllers for 'local' load management, and look like they can replace a switch in a gang box. These are 'ScenePoint' devices of various sorts. There is a simple LV networking protocal you can daisy chain to the central brain box. If I'm wrong I would like to be told!

( there is an ABSURD amount of prowling around you have to do to find responsible adult level information out about this stuff; it took finding a poorly secured distributor's site in new zealand to get anything like real product information.)

I also plan on running some kind of IC2 network around for our art/stairway/step lighting. BlinkM's MaxM's and such. We currently have these set up in a totally jerry-rigged way, but we like their addressibility / programmability and so will be building them in.

We currently run a public WIFI net for the retirees around here, but that's enough wireless for us. Our current mesh of Extremes and Expresses may well go, as in a long skinny house we have recurring issues with coverage / contention.

ok, onward! and Hello!

 

[electron]

Welcome to CT!

Vantage is a very nice system, but not really meant for the DIY crowd.

As for the ELK documentation, anyone can register, which will give you full access to the M1 Protocol (very easy to interface!) and all the documentation.

 

[BaduFamily]

Thanks for the welcome!

Vantage: by "really meant" I suppose you mean "the company isn't structured for end-user support?"

ELK: their offerings look fine.

ok more prowling in your forua

 

[Westcojack]

Actually Vantage has great tech support, but only for their dealers.
They do have a local switches and local controllers, usually used if the electrical work has already been completed, you take out the existing switches and replace same one for one with the Scenepoints. This system is 100% compatible with the centralized system, and can be installed with same.
But again, not really DYI.

 

[BaduFamily]

Thanks Westcojack, gotcha - from the gloriously photographed marketing materials it's pretty clear that they're after the plutocrat segment.

Just found time to read the whole "OnQ being dropped / SETNET does ALC / Vantage" vendor thread and found the background very interesting.

I find the local topology more appealing as you can reduce the impact of vendor failure by using devices which are intended to be rather 'drop in.' The centralized relay/dimmer bank approach maximises that risk, IMO. As my remodel will have the house down to the studs and floated on some temporary piers ( foundation issues, on a steep hill at that ) I should be able to combine both approaches w/out too much of a problem.

In addition switch/dimmer failure can be quickly addressed by a trip to the big box store while you're waiting for the more expensive unit to arrive.

So in my reading of the OnC saga this ALC stuff appeared on my radar and I'm trying to trawl the SETNETPRO site. Onward!