Need Help With HA Software Comparison

[upstatemike]

I am putting together a spreadsheet for comparing different Home Automation Software packages. So far it lists support for various lighting, multi-zone audio, and hardware controller platforms but I could use some help in determining what other features should be compared. I am talking about high level features that can be compared across many programs and not so much the sub-categories that might only apply to a specific class of application.

Example:
I want to compare what tasks can be done from the applications touch screen interface but do not want to get into the underlying details of how the gui is designed. This is primarily for use by newbie, non-programmer, point-and-click, type folks who are trying to understand what each Home Automation package can do.

If anybody is interested in helping with this please send me a PM with an email address that I can forward the spreadsheet to. (I cannot attach it to a cocoontech reply so please include an email address.)

 

[jml]

I am putting together a spreadsheet for comparing different Home Automation Software packages. So far it lists support for various lighting, multi-zone audio, and hardware controller platforms but I could use some help in determining what other features should be compared. I am talking about high level features that can be compared across many programs and not so much the sub-categories that might only apply to a specific class of application.

Example:
I want to compare what tasks can be done from the applications touch screen interface but do not want to get into the underlying details of how the gui is designed. This is primarily for use by newbie, non-programmer, point-and-click, type folks who are trying to understand what each Home Automation package can do.

If anybody is interested in helping with this please send me a PM with an email address that I can forward the spreadsheet to. (I cannot attach it to a cocoontech reply so please include an email address.)

Get a Control4 system. There are *no* point and click-easy DIY solutions out there, and you will need to chain many elements together to get a fully capable system with Lights, HVAC, Security, Audio, Sprinkler, and IR control.
I would recommend use a google spreadsheet to setup the comparison and open it up to anyone to edit, as well as publish it. Works really well. Here is an example of a published page: Racing DAQs

 

[upstatemike]

Looked at the example and it prompted a couple of questions:

1- Can you freeze panes so the column headings don't scroll off the page like they do in this example?

2- How do you keeep folks from performing malicious edits on their competitor's specs?

Anyway, later this week when the software page is done I'll ask for input on what is the best way to share it all (or input on whether it is even worth sharing.)

 

[jml]

Looked at the example and it prompted a couple of questions:

1- Can you freeze panes so the column headings don't scroll off the page like they do in this example?

2- How do you keeep folks from performing malicious edits on their competitor's specs?

Anyway, later this week when the software page is done I'll ask for input on what is the best way to share it all (or input on whether it is even worth sharing.)

You can give conditional access to those you trust, but it also keep a change log of everything. It has freeze frame, pivot tables, vlookup...everything excel has. A little slow sometimes but it's a superior multi-user tool.

 

[IVB]

Re:C4 - do you say it's easier because all the stuff is preselected/preconfigured to work, so you just use C4's lighting protocol, C4's irrigation controller, etc? It is a serious question, I don't know squat about C4.

 

[jml]

Re:C4 - do you say it's easier because all the stuff is preselected/preconfigured to work, so you just use C4's lighting protocol, C4's irrigation controller, etc? It is a serious question, I don't know squat about C4.

It does everything as an integrated system. You need to add an alarm, but that's it I think. It's not for everyone, they are pretty strict about DIY (though that's up to the dealer) and if you want to access it remotely, you need to pay a monthly fee. You could piece together a system on your own for cheaper, with more research and knowledge building, but C4 is as close to plug and play as you are going to get.

 

[upstatemike]

My only point with plug-in-play was to be mindful of the intended audience. A detailed examination of various technologies employed in a touch screen interface is not going to be of much value to someone who is doing a first pass at deciding what Home Automation technologies they might want for their new house. Just keep it to what you can control from the gui, not how it works.

I have no objection to using Google for sharing this thing if that is the general consensus but I would like to hear a few more opinions before a decision is made.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Don't want to take the topic to far from it's original intentions, but I visited Control 4's booth a couple of CES's ago. I was not impressed at all. Everything was canned and did not seem all that flexible.

Plus once you start pricing out their components, I'm sure you will quickly find alternate solutions. That and the fact (already mentioned above) they only sell to dealers.

 

[jml]

My only point with plug-in-play was to be mindful of the intended audience. A detailed examination of various technologies employed in a touch screen interface is not going to be of much value to someone who is doing a first pass at deciding what Home Automation technologies they might want for their new house. Just keep it to what you can control from the gui, not how it works.

I have no objection to using Google for sharing this thing if that is the general consensus but I would like to hear a few more opinions before a decision is made.

Zoho is another option (www.zoho.com)

 

[IVB]

Don't want to take the topic to far from it's original intentions, but I visited Control 4's booth a couple of CES's ago. I was not impressed at all. Everything was canned and did not seem all that flexible.

That is a key point to not miss in the spreadsheet - how flexible is something, how easy to make it do what you want it to.

It would also be interesting to see what it would take for each setup to accomplish full HA; ie, i've been told a variety of times by pros that to accomplish what I personally do would either be undoable or require extreme effort and memorizing programming.

Then again, if it were not for their greatly superior flexibility/customizability, I suppose software-based HA engines wouldn't have much of a market.

 

[123]

Is software that is not geared towards DIYers a good fit for upstatemike's HA comparison?

If the average Control4 customer is paying for a turn-key solution, is "plug and play" a metric they care about? They "pay and play" and leave the details to the integrator. I doubt a Control4 customer would read upstatemike's HA spreadsheet.

I want to see a comparison of products that are available to DIYers by manufacturer's willing to support me (and that's why I own an ELK M1 and not a DSC product).

If upstatemike has the time to include non-DIY products, then great ... otherwise, I don't see any harm in omitting them.

 

[DavidL]

Control4 is not any where near as customizable / configurable as the popular solutions spoken of on this forum.
It's audience are dealers that don't want to customize, but install with popular features (lighting / HVAC / Media control) and walk away. It is not a hobbyist product at all.
One of our dealers is also a Control4 dealer and I ping him for comparisions frequently. Control4 is easy to add a light (as example), but that light will be in a simple text type menu and no pretty graphics and no customization of the UI at all. Similar to MediaCenter type UI.

So, with this example, the spreadsheet should be cautious to take in consideration capability, customization ability, ease of base system implementation, ease of customization ability, number of popular hardware device control capability (and catagories supported like HVAC / Lighting, etc.). Popular control mechanisms supported (ZWave / Insteon / UPB / X10 / RS232 / TCP / UPnP / RS485 / ZigBee / etc.). I think the key would be that Just because MainLobby and CQC can do tons more than Control4, that might not be what the end user / dealer is looking for. And Visa Versa.

 

[upstatemike]

Because Control4 is not readily available to most folks on this forum I am not going to add it at this time. I think that there are enough products on the sheet at this point to get started.

 

[upstatemike]

You can give conditional access to those you trust, but it also keep a change log of everything. It has freeze frame, pivot tables, vlookup...everything excel has. A little slow sometimes but it's a superior multi-user tool.

OK I put a test sheet up here so folks can decide if this is a good way to go. (No data, just a formatting test).

This particular sheet is for comparing different combinations of lighting, multizone audio, hardware controllers, and software to see the resulting feature set of the whole system.

 

[carry15+1]

I believe the M1G should be a "Y" for ascii IN and analog IN