Need Help On Direction To Go.

[humzai]

I am in the process of (god willing) building a house in the near future and I want to get into home automation in a major way. I have been researching this the last several weeks and the whole thing is a bit mind boggling. To find much information regarding how one should go about the process is quite difficult much more so then many other obscure hobbies. I need help on what dirrection I should go. Information regarding the plan is on this site.

I know what I mostly want the system to do. What I am having trouble with is how to do it in a resonably priced manner. I'll list what I desire and will appreciate all the help I can get regarding the hardware, software or whatever to do this.

In the way of security and sensors I would like to have a fully integrated sytem that can be accessed and controlled remotely. I would like to have recessed or aesthetically pleasing sensors. and cameras. I want to have motion sensors for security and lighting control both inside and outside the house. I would also like to have cameras (Color/night) that can be acessed via touchpanels or on a remote umpc. I would also like to have recessed temperature sensors along with yard, drive way, mailbox sensor and any others that might be useful. I would also like to have electric locks and fingerprint/ pin doors locks. I'd also like to have intercomms throughout the house using maybe the telephone sets and have my doorbell be connected to an intercomm and camera system.

On the front of hvac and lighting I think having automated celing registers would be pretty cool. Automated window treatments are sort of related to this I guess. I would also like to have a nice light control system.

For control I'd like to have a few touchscreens in the house to control the whole house audio and video although I'd like to be able to use my tv displays to control the audio and video along with umpcs. I'd also to mess with voice control by maybe using an acoustic magic mic or a wireless mike like the gn netcomm one. I'd also like to have the system contact me if there is someone at the door that I might want to let in. Maybe have some rfid system for stuffl like auto opening the garage when my car gets there and music and other cues. I'd also like the speakers throughout the house and lights be used to inform me of vistors, callers etc.

A cool thing I would like to do is have electronic picture frames built by using dell lcds along with a small comp and a nice frame to display pictures, art, and video throughout the house. I'd also like irrigation to be controlled by the ha.

Thanks for reading my long winded desires and any help will be appreciated along with any ideas and suggestion about what I might want to do.

 

[Rupp]

Welcome humzai ,
Any of the main software packages like HomeSeer or CQC,etc should be able to control all you want and need. I would suggest breaking down your wants/desires into individual projects and start from there. Just as an example lets take the irrigation. This could be accomplished using a Rain8net or Rain8II or Rain8UPB sprinkler controller, HomeSeer and one of the Rain8 plugins. The same could be accomplish for security using the Elk security system, HomeSeer, and Elk plugin. This can go on and on.

 

[IVB]

The first order of business for you should be to do as Rupp says, break down your wants, detail them out, and start creating a wiring diagram. Once you get all the wiring done, and it'll be a lot, you can start worrying about stuff like which particular manufacturers hardware to use to mount in each location. Run more wire than you think to each location, so you can have the freedom to change your mind about a given hardware manufacturer later.

Software should be the last bit, and assuming it takes another 6-12 months to build out your house, the world will have changed 3x by then.

Here's some thoughts on that pre-wire. The following is probably a super-set of what you'd need, but it's much cheaper to go overboard now rather than regret something later. Even if this pre-wiring ends up running you $15K or more now, trust me, it's $$ definitely well spent as you could get cheaper and more stable parts later, making this whole effort worthwhile.

In addition to the standard high-voltage [120V] wiring throughout the house, you'll need low voltage for the following that folks usually forget about:
- HVAC [probably 1-2 CAT5 from the thermo location to the central wiring.]
- HVAC local room monitoring [ok, this part is tough without knowing the given hardware manufacturer. Probably 22-4 from central closet to each room if you use an Elk or the Aprilaire remote thermo thingey to detect local temps]
- Irrigation [CAT5 from server to wherever your sprinkler system wiring will be run to]
- Security [This is the backbreaker. I'm running ~60 runs for this part alone, and my house is only 1650 sqft. Run 22/2 for window/door, 18/4 fireproof or 22/4 proof for smoke, 22/4 for motion/CO/glassbreak/other, 1-2 CAT5 per keypad location, 22/2 for outside gate control]
- CCTV [18/2 for power + RG59 for video + 18/4 or CAT5 if you're going to have a covert/multipurpose ie Motion detector/camera]
- Lighting [ideally you can afford/rip out enough to put in a hardwired lighting control, which is a rock-solid mechanism. Otherwise, something robust like RadioRA would be MUCH higher WAF than X10, zWave, Insteon, or UPB, all of which have large reliability issues]
- touchpanel locations [18/2 for power, CAT5 for network. Hardwired network is so much nicer than wifi]

On the a/v side, decide whether you want to put PCs in each video playback zone or group all your sources together and distribute component.
- If you group all together, then to be on the safe side, run a 5 RG6 mini-coax bundle from the central closet to each room.
- Run speaker wiring for on-wall or in-wall/ceiling speakers from central closet to each room. Run via a local volume control location in case you ever want to put local volume controllers there. You can just twist-tie off for now.
- Also to be safe, if you have a den/office, run 5 RG6 from there to the central location. I'm currently trying to see how to re-use my office PC as a video source for SageTV/TheaterTek, fairly close to getting it working. That means that when that PC isn't in use, I can use it to deliver another video stream to the house.
- If you want to be super-ludicrous safe, run an extra 2-3 CAT5 per room so you can control any local RS232 capable equipment [ie, Panasonic and some plasma TV's, local a/v receiver, etc]
- Not sure how local IR via something like the Global Cache IR system is done, but that's a way to centrally control remote IR equipment.

I think that's it, but I reserve the right to reply again saying "oh wait, there's more "

 

[humzai]

I plan on going crazy overboard with the wiring but I thought that it would be best to decide what I actually want to do so as not to forget something that one would not normally consider such as acoustic magic mics throughout the hose.

This thread makes me relaize how much more I have to lear. I don't even recognize most of the wires you mention IVB.

 

[IVB]

Yep, certainly figure out what you want to do, where it'll go, and what wiring it'll need, or else you're bumming.

FYI: The syntax "18/4" means 18gauge, 4 conductor wire, meaning, 4 runs of 18g wire in the same bundle. 22/2, 22/4, 18/2 all mean gauge & #.

 

[humzai]

Ok I thought it had to do with runs and gauge but I was thinking the opposite and that seemed too crazy so I decided I had no idea. This stuff while it interests me, is giving me no little consternation. I am concerned that I don't have enough time to learn and decide what I want and that I'll miss something. I was thinking about using one of the new video over cat 5 systems and not have to run as much rg6. What does everyone think regarding installing cat 7, i also would like to perhaps run hdmi but that's probably crazy talk.

 

[az1324]

Well new HDMI over 1 rg 6 systems are going to be coming out .... sometime. Who knows how much they will cost. But those cat-5 hdmi converters are expensive too. So what i did was just run conduits to all my tv locations so I can have the option to pull whatever i need later.

 

[IVB]

Ok I thought it had to do with runs and gauge but I was thinking the opposite and that seemed too crazy so I decided I had no idea. This stuff while it interests me, is giving me no little consternation. I am concerned that I don't have enough time to learn and decide what I want and that I'll miss something. I was thinking about using one of the new video over cat 5 systems and not have to run as much rg6. What does everyone think regarding installing cat 7, i also would like to perhaps run hdmi but that's probably crazy talk.

Where do you live? You should look into getting some professional advice, if only to make yourself feel better about this.

I know toymaster [on this forum] offers this service. I've engaged him to do some of this, it's all remote as he's in Chicago and I'm in the SF Bay area. But he's saved me from more than one stupid move...

 

[humzai]

Good idea I was initially thinking I'd get a professional to do it but I don't think there any good ones locally. I live in Tallahasse, Florida if anyone can tell me of a good installer in the area I'll look into hiring them.