HOME AUTOMATION SOFTWARE
- Thread starter gasbie
- Start date
znelbok
Active Member
CQC (www.charmedquark.com)
It is robust, network based, has support for a large range of devices and allows me to write drivers to gear that only I have.
Mick
Deane Johnson
Active Member
I use Elve from Codecore Technolgies.
Capable and robust, but with an easy learning curve (I'm no programmer)
Seems very stable
Exceptional personal support
Low cost - free right now, will be available at $99 introductory after the beta ends
http://codecoretechnologies.com/content/MainPage.ashx
Capable and robust, but with an easy learning curve (I'm no programmer)
Seems very stable
Exceptional personal support
Low cost - free right now, will be available at $99 introductory after the beta ends
http://codecoretechnologies.com/content/MainPage.ashx
potts.mike
Active Member
This is what I use also. I want to add that the customer service dean is exceptional. There will be a new pricing structure soon that will make it more affordable to start off.
potts.mike
Active Member
The drivers that are shipped with the installation package are listed under support and then supported devices on the main web page. Dean only includes these drivers once he can be sure they are 100% stable. In the cqc forums there is a beta drivers section where the user created drivers are. Most of these drivers are plenty stable for a production environment, Dean just has not had the time or equipment to verify this.
Rupp
Senior Member
HomeSeer is one of the most used home automation packages and has the most active message board of any of the automation packages. You can download a free 30 day trial ( http://www.homeseer.com/downloads ) and if you have any issues put in a help desk request or ask the message board here:
http://board.homeseer.com
http://board.homeseer.com
aksor
Member
Are you jumping ship back to homeseer?
Is it the slow development or lack of features that is making you think this way?
Just want to know
drozwood90
Senior Member
wuench
Senior Member
What devices are you looking to support? Dean's categories sometimes confuse people, for example HAI and Elk M1 are under Automation Panels, Amps/Receivers are under AV Processors. Lutron GrafikEye and UPB are both supported.
There are also a lot of drivers in beta in the forum that have yet to be included in the base product, and need to be installed separately, so you might want to try a forum search also.
ctay
Active Member
I'm a CQC user but to be perfectly honest I don't think I would invest any $ in CQC right now. The company seems to be in a never ending tail spin and I'm not sure it is going to pull out. It is sad because I don't think any other software can really touch it's positives. There are other alternatives you really should look at first.
Steve
Senior Member
I've also been a loyal and happy user of CQC for past 5 years. While I am frustrated that they can't get their business strategy consistent, the product is still very good. While there is a risk with any business going under now may actually be a good time to buy CQC while the price is low and all inclusive. Dean has indicated if and when he does finally give up on the business CQC will be open sourced. And he's a stand up guy so I believe that will happen. The point being that if CQC doesn't survive, you still have the product that you purchased at a very good price and will continue to be usable. The truth is, none of the HA software companies are very large and any of them can go under at any time. So as long as you go into that way, its not really too risky.
I'm not going to argue that point, because any prospective buyer needs to do their due diligence. But when Dean was thinking of closing down CQC, at least he was going to open source it. Now that there is some more interest in CQC from some prospective investors, Dean has delayed that decision to see how that all plays out.
So I'm confident that anyone getting CQC isn't going to be left high and dry regardless of what happens long term. I think the worse case scenerio is that someone pays for CQC today, only to have it go open source sometime in the future (and hence might be free to others in the future).
