New to automation

[hunter69]

I am wanting to start home automation. My two goals for now is a security system and lighting. Not to fast behind that I am going to integrate my theater control. I am looking at upb for lighting. I am deciding between the elkm1 gold and the omni pro. It seems a little confusing as to what is apples to apples when comparing the two packages. The omni seems quite a bit more expensive but then again I have not been able to read any threads about what is a good base package to start with?

The second question I had is, if a person is considering ha what is the suggested user abilities should a person possess. for example does a person have to be a computer programmer? I would hate to spend the money and find out that I don't possess the required skills to set this up.
Thanks for your help

 

[apostolakisl]

Elk and HAI are both great systems. I have Elk. It is cheaper but with all of the add-ons it starts to cost the same. But if you don't need the add-ons or maybe you need lots of one type of add-on and not the others, Elk is better.

I have Insteon, UPB people say it is way better, but the Insteon works 99+% so I don't know that it is worth 3 times the price.

I also have an ISY 99ir-pro which is tremendous. It is in beta for UPB right now but is quite capable with Insteon already.

You don't have to be a computer programmer to do this, but you do have to be willing to put some time in and you do have to think in the logic of the programming interface (they all are a little different). None of them require that you know code, just that you can understand the logic.

 

[hunter69]

Thanks for the info. You have been very helpful. I like the idea of the ISY 99ir-pro. Especially since my first goal is home theater lighting and controlling it. It certainly does seem to be a difficult decision as to whether or not go elk or hai. Heck I was looking at ElkM1 gold prices around $600 and HAI Omni Pro 1000-1,300. It is also hard to decide if I really need to all the features of the top of the line but being in IT, I know that if I need the feature of the Pro or the gold and I chose the cheap route then to bad . So it is a hard decision. I am fairly confident that I can set it up, just getting the right equipment for the project.