[Home Automation Software] HomeSeer
- Thread starter electron
- Start date
I have tried many applications, and in the end, I always go back to HomeSeer. HomeSeer isn't perfect, but it's flexibility, and the VBScript/VBScript.NET based scripting support makes it extremely easy to do things the software doesn't do out of the box. HSTouch is another feature worth considering, as the learning curve is not as steep compared with other touch screen designers.
pete_c
Guru
Here I started to utilize HS back in 1998. I am still using it today. Personally I know of no other program as flexible that works literally with almost everything out there related to home automation.
Over the years; if it didn't exists then one of the many 3rd party plug in authors would write it.
Today Homeseer is connected to some 20 I/O devices and then some do a multiplicity of script events, plugin stuff, variable storage in multiple DB's, events nested in events on and on, screen scraping the weather stuff, talking to two weather stations, et al.
I do get upset sometimes though when my hourly chime is a few seconds off ; that is me though....and I am into time....
Over the years; if it didn't exists then one of the many 3rd party plug in authors would write it.
Today Homeseer is connected to some 20 I/O devices and then some do a multiplicity of script events, plugin stuff, variable storage in multiple DB's, events nested in events on and on, screen scraping the weather stuff, talking to two weather stations, et al.
I do get upset sometimes though when my hourly chime is a few seconds off ; that is me though....and I am into time....
BraveSirRobbin
Moderator
I think the reason you see HomeSeer getting both good and bad experiences is a lot of people are using it with a LOT of different applications (which shows its versatility as Pete mentioned above).
I have been using Homeseer since 2000 and agree with above posts that both its strength and its weakness are exactly in its versatility. What I have found over the years is that the main automation engine and scripting capabilities are very powerful, but because its an open system and has a myriads of plugins, the interactions between those can get tricky. I have trimmed the number of plugins I am using to about a dozen, and most of my system is running on my own scripts. It has been very stable and I have 1200 devices and 600 events.
Pete - why is your chime so much off? Are you using a priority event for it?
Pete - why is your chime so much off? Are you using a priority event for it?
pete_c
Guru
Thanks Picta.
The chime isn't off regularly. Just occassionally. I prefer though not to utilize the priority event functions if I can do without. Its not really an issue other than I utilize it sometimes to guage the utilization/CPU levels along with events/scripts that just do metrics. I guess though it really isn't always good to sit and "watch the pot going to a boil".
Here too I have disabled and removed many plugins no longer utilized. That and cleaned up DB's with literally years of data.
I am pulling weather data and try to space out the timeframe schedules such that they do not coincide. Concurrently though I am building a composite picture for weather that includes a get from the IP camera, text variables, HTML screen scrape and captures putting this together every 10 minutes.
I am also testing the newest betas (punishing myself) where as I know downgrading to a certain revision level Homeseer will run just fine.
I did initially only connect an X10 CM11A and went like this for a few years. A little bit at a time; here and there added more.
The chime isn't off regularly. Just occassionally. I prefer though not to utilize the priority event functions if I can do without. Its not really an issue other than I utilize it sometimes to guage the utilization/CPU levels along with events/scripts that just do metrics. I guess though it really isn't always good to sit and "watch the pot going to a boil".
Here too I have disabled and removed many plugins no longer utilized. That and cleaned up DB's with literally years of data.
I am pulling weather data and try to space out the timeframe schedules such that they do not coincide. Concurrently though I am building a composite picture for weather that includes a get from the IP camera, text variables, HTML screen scrape and captures putting this together every 10 minutes.
I am also testing the newest betas (punishing myself) where as I know downgrading to a certain revision level Homeseer will run just fine.
I did initially only connect an X10 CM11A and went like this for a few years. A little bit at a time; here and there added more.
jwilson56
Senior Member
I guess it really comes down to what you want to do with it. For the backside of home automation it is a good app. HSTouch has a lot of flaws though and is not as good as it should be. For those that want basic touchscreens for lighting and other HA functions it will work. Try interfacing with JRMC or UPNP then HSTouch/Homeseer shows some weak spots. Also a pet pieve of mine is that there are dozens of plugins that should be scrapped from the updater/store as they are no longer supported or do not work. I purchased some of these only to find out they were broken.
Anyone that has looked at my blog can see what I use my system for. To be honest HSTouch/Homeseer could not replace what I have (I know as I purchsed HSPro and probably was one of the few people that actually got a refund direct from Rich). If your not trying to use JRMC and don't care if the clients all stay in sync (at least quickly) then it will be fine. Just didn't work for me. I hope in the future to put to use the Homeseer 2 I have sitting here. Just not right now.
Anyone that has looked at my blog can see what I use my system for. To be honest HSTouch/Homeseer could not replace what I have (I know as I purchsed HSPro and probably was one of the few people that actually got a refund direct from Rich). If your not trying to use JRMC and don't care if the clients all stay in sync (at least quickly) then it will be fine. Just didn't work for me. I hope in the future to put to use the Homeseer 2 I have sitting here. Just not right now.
BraveSirRobbin
Moderator
Yea, it's not everything for everyone, but also remember, you put a LOT of time into figuring out Girder. HomeSeer has a lot less of a learning curve (though it is limited in your specific needs as you mentioned).
jwilson56
Senior Member
Well I would say Netremote has a higher learning curve but Girder is pretty straight forward. Other than a couple of functions I don't have much custom code in Girder to do the home automation functions. If you can use the Windows Explorer tree then Girder is not much harder. A lot of drag and drop functions. Sure you can write LUA code but that is not needed most of the time and not much more than VBscript if you want to compare the difficulty. All of the plugins (like the Ocelot plugin) are free except for the Elk and Insteon and those are pretty cheap. So if you wanted to do basic lights on and off and tie it in with your Elk for TTS or sending text messages to your phone then Girder would be a whole lot cheaper. It is all what you get used to. Most people that have been around here awhile evolved with Homeseer so you probably have spent a lot of time over the years getting your setup the way you want it as well. I am not saying Girder is better and disrespect Homeseer but it does do somethings (for me) Homeseer can't and when I ask about those functions for Homeseer all I get is wait for Homeseer 3. I have been down that road with Homeseer 2 (look how long it took them to get the bugs out).
I honestly gave Homeseer another try along with Elve. Both have some nice features but also lack in some. I have been told many time in PM's that I should migrate Now Playing to this or that but it just is not possible at this time. I would not give up my Grace Tuner control or JRMC integration. It is the center of Now Playing. I grew bored of turning lights on and off a long time ago and much of that was taken over by the Elk anyways. I will keep on eye out in the future to see if things change but for now what I have works. Homeseer just sits there doing nothing.
I honestly gave Homeseer another try along with Elve. Both have some nice features but also lack in some. I have been told many time in PM's that I should migrate Now Playing to this or that but it just is not possible at this time. I would not give up my Grace Tuner control or JRMC integration. It is the center of Now Playing. I grew bored of turning lights on and off a long time ago and much of that was taken over by the Elk anyways. I will keep on eye out in the future to see if things change but for now what I have works. Homeseer just sits there doing nothing.
pete_c
Guru
Nice to see you on the forum here Huggy59.
There are many Homeseer 2 users out there in Internetlandia that continue to utilize Homeseer 2 and it works fine for them.
Yup here used an Ocelot in the late 1990's / early 2000's with Homeseer 2.
Today here still utilize X10 CM11A's, TW-523's and Jeff Volp's XTB and dual phased TW-523 emulator (XTB IIR).
XTB Products picture. Note that this stuff costs more than CM11A's and TW523's and is worth the money paid. I have shipped one of Jeff's products over to the UK for testing and it worked better than the legacy CM11A and TW-523 products. Note I do not work for Jeff and just wanted to keep X10 going in my house.
Homeseer 2 CM11A plugin was broken in 2005 and never got fixed. The TI-103 X10 device and plugin did get fixed.
I did utilize a TI-103 way back in the early 2000's and was never impressed with it and did abandon any efforts of its use.
I have migrated my in wall lighting switches from X10 to Insteon and currently using UPB. I have no issues with UPB today.
I play today with multiple Z-Wave / Zigbee wireless networks but do not really utilize them much for my automation. Newest play is with a RPi2 with a Z-Wave Plus GPIO card in the attic with a POE connection. I can move one Z-Wave device (have 5 in the garage) to one side of the garage and the RPi2 doesn't see it.
I have 5 Z-Wave networks running and do not mix wireless devices with wired (HV plugged in); never have.
Only have played with wireless Zigbee stuff which is doing OK but have had to replace batteries before a year is up.
Relating to Homeseer 3 I have switched over to Linux and the CM11A works great. I am also using X10 play stuff with Linux based automation programs and have absolutely no issues with the X10 running today in the house.
That and I have a Wintel 32 bit server VB running on the Ubuntu Box that runs HS2/HS3 stuff just fine. You can if you want run a VB of HS2 and have it chit chat with HS3 via Jon's HS2-HS3 plugin. I have tested this plugin to work fine.
I am also utilizing 1-2-3 W800's and really only need the one mounted in the attic today. I did migrate over to a W800 from the MR26A many years ago.
I am also running X10, UPB and Z-Wave via the Leviton OmniPro 2 combo panel and have no issues today with it.
There are many Homeseer 2 users out there in Internetlandia that continue to utilize Homeseer 2 and it works fine for them.
Yup here used an Ocelot in the late 1990's / early 2000's with Homeseer 2.
Today here still utilize X10 CM11A's, TW-523's and Jeff Volp's XTB and dual phased TW-523 emulator (XTB IIR).
XTB Products picture. Note that this stuff costs more than CM11A's and TW523's and is worth the money paid. I have shipped one of Jeff's products over to the UK for testing and it worked better than the legacy CM11A and TW-523 products. Note I do not work for Jeff and just wanted to keep X10 going in my house.
Homeseer 2 CM11A plugin was broken in 2005 and never got fixed. The TI-103 X10 device and plugin did get fixed.
I did utilize a TI-103 way back in the early 2000's and was never impressed with it and did abandon any efforts of its use.
I have migrated my in wall lighting switches from X10 to Insteon and currently using UPB. I have no issues with UPB today.
I play today with multiple Z-Wave / Zigbee wireless networks but do not really utilize them much for my automation. Newest play is with a RPi2 with a Z-Wave Plus GPIO card in the attic with a POE connection. I can move one Z-Wave device (have 5 in the garage) to one side of the garage and the RPi2 doesn't see it.
I have 5 Z-Wave networks running and do not mix wireless devices with wired (HV plugged in); never have.
Only have played with wireless Zigbee stuff which is doing OK but have had to replace batteries before a year is up.
Relating to Homeseer 3 I have switched over to Linux and the CM11A works great. I am also using X10 play stuff with Linux based automation programs and have absolutely no issues with the X10 running today in the house.
That and I have a Wintel 32 bit server VB running on the Ubuntu Box that runs HS2/HS3 stuff just fine. You can if you want run a VB of HS2 and have it chit chat with HS3 via Jon's HS2-HS3 plugin. I have tested this plugin to work fine.
I am also utilizing 1-2-3 W800's and really only need the one mounted in the attic today. I did migrate over to a W800 from the MR26A many years ago.
I am also running X10, UPB and Z-Wave via the Leviton OmniPro 2 combo panel and have no issues today with it.
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