"Intro to HA" wmv file now available online

[IVB]

The 90 Megabyte WMV file for the "Intro to HA" class is now available here. You need to download the GotoMeeting codec from here FIRST

As a reminder, here's what we cover during that class:

1) Overview of what I did, why I did it, and how it helped. 5mins
2) CQC Overview & Architecture 5min
2) How to physically hook devices up to an HTPC for control - 5mins
3) How to tell CQC you have devices connected, and use it to easily create and render a screen to control them in realtime - 45mins
4) How to setup ElkRP to monitor your devices 15mins
5) How to use CQC's event manager and the Elk together to perform the following: 15mins
5a) scheduled tasks (i.e., irrigation, turn off all devices at midnight)
5b) triggered tasks (i.e., turn off all devices when you ArmAway the Elk. turn on the light when you open the closet door)

 

[JohnWPB]

Nice Tutorial! I have never used CQC before, and was nice to see how it all works.

If anyone has trouble viewing the Video, you need to get the Codec from GotoMyPC.com's website HERE.

 

[IVB]

oh cool, thanks for that codec link.

 

[JohnWPB]

oh cool, thanks for that codec link.

It was out of necessity I could not get the video to play, and just did a little research.

 

[rockdogz]

Wow, awesome video IVB... thanks. It really gives great info on CQC and Elk. Do you do these regularly?

Weird, once I installed that codec my machine halted twice while trying to watch the video!

 

[IVB]

Yeah, typically they're 1x/month. THis month will be focusing on Interface Editing 101 though, as I need to do a dry run before finishing up the training collateral for the AO in-person session.

Good thing I got the 50GB/month account, plus it's near the end of the month, plus I got 3 different websites with that bandwidth allocation - it's been running 1 person downloading per hour (well, 25 per day). It's only 125MB, but that's still only perhaps 390 per month as I need to save some bandwidth for my other session. I doubt the current rate will continue for much longer - I can't imagine there's more than 600 folks over the next 5 weeks that want to see this.

But, if it gets close, I can put mirrors up on the other 2 sites I own - I *really* can't imagine 1500 folks watching this over the next 5 weeks

 

[Dean Roddey]

If it becomes a problem, we can always host it.

 

[IVB]

It's pretty raw, and semi-unprofessional right now. When I get a clean runthrough without me babbling, clean UI, functioning hardware, i'll send off to you. Until then, it's probably better that it's clear it's coming from just a user.

 

[Ranger Digital]

I must say, when I compared ML and CQC I went with Mainlobby as it APPEARED CQC was to complicated and sophisticated. After BUYING mainlobby, i found there was a pretty big learning curve BUT have since gotten more comfortable with mainlobby. Course there are other issues like bugs and NOTHING working on my HAI plugin that worked the day before (and i might add-- little response to fix it, sorry cinemar but its true, but i did notice how fast responses were to "what do i need to buy" posts, LOL, actually not funny but sort of, as i roll my eyes). Regardless, I am confident Cinemar will continue to work on the issues and provide a more stable environment for all plugins, etc. Its a pretty package but I just dont think its there YET to use in a full blown implementation in a customer paid scenario. That said, I am sure there are folks doing it, I am just not ready to commit to that just yet.

The point of this post is to point out the impression CQC's turorial made on me. Sure, there is a pretty hefty learning curve but it appears its only learning is the in's and out of cqc via menu driven input and NOT learning syntax, what follows what, what MUST be done use { instead of | or ! or ~ blah blah. It looks like there are VERY few keystrokes but all menu driven inputs. What could be easier? Once you get the menus down it looks like the learning curve is behind you. Stability never seems to be an issue in the threads of CQC. Comments and questions seem to only be geared towards "how do i do this" and "make a driver for this, i need it" kinda things. Sure beats "this doesnt work when will you fix it", "this has a bug", "when can i get an answer", blah blah.

This is not a knock to Cinemar at all. They have a good thing that COULD be great but its going to take 1) more sales(to make more money to add support) , or 2) influx of investment capital, to add more support, or 3)selling out to a bigger company, to add more suport (support being customer and/or technology). Relying on support from other members via a forum just doesnt cut it to play in bigger league. BUT same goes for CQC I guess. Its pretty much a one or two man show as I understand it. They both have good products. I would like to see them both be GREAT products.

We are always left with the question of WHO will be around in a few years to support their product? Thats the gamble.

Another question, is did we make the right decision on who we went with? I certainly hope so but at this point I sure cant say YES.

 

[rockdogz]

I must say, when I compared ML and CQC I went with Mainlobby as it APPEARED CQC was to complicated and sophisticated. After BUYING mainlobby, i found there was a pretty big learning curve BUT have since gotten more comfortable with mainlobby. Course there are other issues like bugs and NOTHING working on my HAI plugin that worked the day before (and i might add-- little response to fix it, sorry cinemar but its true, but i did notice how fast responses were to "what do i need to buy" posts, LOL, actually not funny but sort of, as i roll my eyes). Regardless, I am confident Cinemar will continue to work on the issues and provide a more stable environment for all plugins, etc. Its a pretty package but I just dont think its there YET to use in a full blown implementation in a customer paid scenario. That said, I am sure there are folks doing it, I am just not ready to commit to that just yet.

The point of this post is to point out the impression CQC's turorial made on me. Sure, there is a pretty hefty learning curve but it appears its only learning is the in's and out of cqc via menu driven input and NOT learning syntax, what follows what, what MUST be done use { instead of | or ! or ~ blah blah. It looks like there are VERY few keystrokes but all menu driven inputs. What could be easier? Once you get the menus down it looks like the learning curve is behind you. Stability never seems to be an issue in the threads of CQC. Comments and questions seem to only be geared towards "how do i do this" and "make a driver for this, i need it" kinda things. Sure beats "this doesnt work when will you fix it", "this has a bug", "when can i get an answer", blah blah.

This is not a knock to Cinemar at all. They have a good thing that COULD be great but its going to take 1) more sales(to make more money to add support) , or 2) influx of investment capital, to add more support, or 3)selling out to a bigger company, to add more suport (support being customer and/or technology). Relying on support from other members via a forum just doesnt cut it to play in bigger league. BUT same goes for CQC I guess. Its pretty much a one or two man show as I understand it. They both have good products. I would like to see them both be GREAT products.

We are always left with the question of WHO will be around in a few years to support their product? Thats the gamble.

Another question, is did we make the right decision on who we went with? I certainly hope so but at this point I sure cant say YES.

Interesting insight, thanks... very useful as I get closer to deciding what software to use.

 

[rfdesq]

Finally got the two hours needed to view the tutorial. Time well spent. Thanks for doing it and making it available.

 

[IVB]

Any tips for next time on how to make it more valuable?

 

[rfdesq]

Any tips for next time on how to make it more valuable?

You did a really good job and it definitely peaked my interest. My interest was peaked enough to start doing some serious research. When I got to the point, and it didn't take long, that CQC doesn't have a driver for UPB I was stopped dead in my tracks. What would make your presentation more valuable to me and I'm sure many others is to continue with the next in a series and show how it works with your ZWave and hopefully one day UPB. Until then, my search goes on, but your presentation lives forever .

 

[Dean Roddey]

A UPB driver is now in beta testing.

 

[Dean Roddey]

BUT same goes for CQC I guess. Its pretty much a one or two man show as I understand it. They both have good products. I would like to see them both be GREAT products.

That's why we concentrate so hard on product stability. When the product is stable, and the support is primarily how would I do this or that, then the user community can help itself to a very large degree because often end users know better how to do this or that than we do, because we don't have that piece of equipment or that combination of equipment ourselves, but a user often does. So we mostly only have to get involved when it's an actual problem, the bulk of which tend to be network related for the most part, not problems in the product.

So many software companies have X number of more testing and support people for every engineer, where X can be pretty large, which is crazy to me. If you take product stability very seriously, that shouldn't be necessary. They just give up on creating a truely robust product and deal with it reactively instead of proactively. But, unless you started from the ground level with that kind of approach, it's almost impossible to get there after the fact, since it would often require almost a page one rewrite of the product, and almost no company can ever afford to do that. You can't fix the foundation, but you can't stop adding more floors to the building to keep up features-wise, the end result being a kind of shakey building.