Hello from Greenville SC

[ToControl]

I have a laptop that running XP to run it on to run automation software on. I was thinking about going with Vcrib but not sure.
I recently set up an ip camera and SSL VPN but now I would like to get into home automation.

I have a barn that gets power from my house circuit box and is about 150 feet away from the house. I would like to turn on/off a two lights.
I would like to control two outlets in the attic.
I want to know when the garage door is open/closed and house doors/windows open closed.

Any help what I should get to do this would be greatly appreciate. I would like keep the cost down but it needs to be dependable but cheap and only works sometimes does not work.
Thanks.
Mark

 

[Rupp]

Well you get what you pay for and cheap and home automation that always works is sometimes hard to come by. Those distances may also be hard to work with if you have noisy powerlines. I would try using UPB devices to control the lights and outlets but again cheap may not work with this protocol. HomeSeer isn't cheap but it works well with UPB, Z-Wave, etc as does other control packages. I'm not sure about the cost of the others as I'm a long time HomeSeer user. If you want to go the cheapest route then X10 and Active Home (free) "may" work for you but that's a long way for an X10 signal to travel. There are a couple of users getting that distance from house to barn using Z-Wave on the HomeSeer message board if you want to investigate this route.
http://board.homeseer.com
Good luck in what ever you choose and welcome to the madness.

 

[ToControl]

Thanks for the reply I will do some more reading tonight.
I have been doing a lot of reading and I have to say the choices seem vast.
Coming from the outside does not seem to be an easy feat.
Mark