Hometroller 2

[upstatemike]

I am thinking about getting a Hometroller 2 to use in conjunction with my ISY lighting controller and the new Homeseer ISY plugin but I am still fuzzy on a couple of things. Maybe somebody who has a Hometroller 2 can help me with a couple of questions?

1- I know the solid state drive is only 4G and I need that much just for my AT&T voices. If I wanted to use use an external usb drive for AT&T voices etc, would this model work?

2- I know the Hometroller uses VNC for headless operation. I currently use Kavoom for remote control of my basement servers from the PCs upstairs. Is anybody using kavoom with a Hometroller 2? Would it conflict with VNC if i installed it? Would installing VNC on my upstairs computers to access the Hometroller 2 mess up my access to my other servers through Kavoom?

3- What is the process for doing a restore from the System Restore Flash? I assume it is flash then update to current HS version then re-install plugins? Would it be worthwhile to buy an updated System Restore Flash every couple of years to keep the baseline restore files more current?

4- I use the Stargate plugin and would want to install WinEVM on the D partition for maintaining the Stargate schedule. Is anybody doing this? Any reason not to?

 

[electron]

Mike, I don't have this unit (eventho I wouldn't mind if Santa brought me one ), but maybe I can help a little.

1) I don't think there will be a problem with external hard drives, as long as they are regular USB drives. I would also consider looking at the Neospeech voices, which require much less resources and sound better IMO (I have both AT&T and Neospeech).
2) I use VNC with other applications such as LogMeIn, and have yet to run into problems. So I don't think you will run into issues there either.
3) not sure
4) not sure

 

[upstatemike]

Mike, I don't have this unit (eventho I wouldn't mind if Santa brought me one ), but maybe I can help a little.

1) I don't think there will be a problem with external hard drives, as long as they are USB compliant. I would also consider looking at the Neospeech voices, which require much less resources and sound better IMO (I have both AT&T and Neospeech).
2) I use VNC with other applications such as LogMeIn, and have yet to run into problems. So I don't think you will run into issues there either.
3) not sure
4) not sure

Thanks Dan. Unfortuately I don't know what HID compliant means or how to ensure a given USB disk is... Can you tell from my link if that one will work?

Isn't LogMeIn a browser based app whereas Kavoom is more smiliar to VNC, loads its own video driver on the taget PC, etc? (which is why I thought it might conflict.) I could just move to VNC for everything but research on the Internet shows most folks who have tried both don't care for VNC although VNC is popular among folks who want something that is free. I really like that Kavoom does not reqire a login, you just Hotkey from any upstairs PC to any downstairs server (alt F1, alt F2, etc) and that's it. I have never used VNC but I assume you can't just flip from server to server that fast?

 

[electron]

The client is browser based (really ActiveX or JAVA), but you still have to install the software/driver on the machine you want to control, similar to other local control packages. Almost every external HD is HID compliant, so I don't think you have to worry about anything. The link you mention doesn't work, so I can't check it.

VNC isn't bad at all, but there are plenty of faster solutions out there. I use it as a 'backup'.

edit: I don't mean HID compliant, which refers to input devices, I am talking about USB Mass Storage here, my apologies for the confusion.

 

[upstatemike]

The client is browser based (really ActiveX or JAVA), but you still have to install the software/driver on the machine you want to control, similar to other local control packages. Almost every external HD is HID compliant, so I don't think you have to worry about anything. The link you mention doesn't work, so I can't check it.

VNC isn't bad at all, but there are plenty of faster solutions out there. I use it as a 'backup'.

OOPS, looks like a cut/paste error. The link should work now.

 

[electron]

That drive should work just fine. I have never heard of that manufacture tho, so I can't confirm if these drives are reliable.

 

[Rupp]

I would recommend putting in a HomeSeer help desk ticket and get Rich's take on each of these questions. That way there shouldn't be any surprises.

 

[upstatemike]

I would recommend putting in a HomeSeer help desk ticket and get Rich's take on each of these questions. That way there shouldn't be any surprises.

I put a post in the Hometroller forum yesterday but I didn't think to log a help desk ticket for a pre-sales question. I'll have to do that.

 

[jhimmel]

I would recommend putting in a HomeSeer help desk ticket and get Rich's take on each of these questions. That way there shouldn't be any surprises.

I put a post in the Hometroller forum yesterday but I didn't think to log a help desk ticket for a pre-sales question. I'll have to do that.

If you would like to stay solid state, did you consider a 16G or 32G USB flash drive? Would that give you enough space? Not the same G per $ of course, but sticks with the benefits of a diskless system.

Jim H.

 

[upstatemike]

I would recommend putting in a HomeSeer help desk ticket and get Rich's take on each of these questions. That way there shouldn't be any surprises.

I put a post in the Hometroller forum yesterday but I didn't think to log a help desk ticket for a pre-sales question. I'll have to do that.

If you would like to stay solid state, did you consider a 16G or 32G USB flash drive? Would that give you enough space? Not the same G per $ of course, but sticks with the benefits of a diskless system.

Jim H.

I posted that idea on the Hometroller forum awhile back and it was suggested that the thumb drive type devices would not be fast enough. There is only 1 Gig of RAM in the Hometroller (not upgradeable) so I guess the AT&T voices would be paging and hitting the drive alot. Dan mentioned the Neospeech voices which are much smaller but I don't think they have all the cool accents available. (I mainly use AT&T Audrey and Anjali). Maybe I should use Neospeech for TTS and create wav files from the AT&T voices for fixed announcements. Then I could use a 32G thumb drive and keep it all solid state.

I put in the help desk ticket as Rupp suggested so we'll see what the officil word from HS is on the subject.

 

[electron]

If there is a spare IDE port, you could use one of those industrial grade CF drives LogicSupply.com sells. I use them myself in fanless mini-itx based systems. The latest generation is extremely fast and reliable.

 

[jhimmel]

I would recommend putting in a HomeSeer help desk ticket and get Rich's take on each of these questions. That way there shouldn't be any surprises.

I put a post in the Hometroller forum yesterday but I didn't think to log a help desk ticket for a pre-sales question. I'll have to do that.

If you would like to stay solid state, did you consider a 16G or 32G USB flash drive? Would that give you enough space? Not the same G per $ of course, but sticks with the benefits of a diskless system.

Jim H.

I posted that idea on the Hometroller forum awhile back and it was suggested that the thumb drive type devices would not be fast enough. There is only 1 Gig of RAM in the Hometroller (not upgradeable) so I guess the AT&T voices would be paging and hitting the drive alot. Dan mentioned the Neospeech voices which are much smaller but I don't think they have all the cool accents available. (I mainly use AT&T Audrey and Anjali). Maybe I should use Neospeech for TTS and create wav files from the AT&T voices for fixed announcements. Then I could use a 32G thumb drive and keep it all solid state.

I put in the help desk ticket as Rupp suggested so we'll see what the officil word from HS is on the subject.

I would be interested in any response you receive from the help desk ticket.

Jim H.

 

[upstatemike]

If there is a spare IDE port, you could use one of those industrial grade CF drives LogicSupply.com sells. I use them myself in fanless mini-itx based systems. The latest generation is extremely fast and reliable.

I'll look into it but I'm not sure what kind of space is available in the case. I also don't want to mess up the passive cooling efficiency by packing things too tight.