New to Home Automation & Vista MCE Integration

[chilump]

I am new to home automation but have heavily been into building Media Center PC’s, whole home audio systems, and home theaters. I have been reading about home automation and I think this is a logical progression. My intended goal is to have everything integrate with Vista Media Center and Xbox 360 but I want the system to be able to run independently of my computers until they are stable. The software products that seem reasonable and integrate with Vista MCE are mcontrol and HAI’s software?

Lighting: I would like to build a system that can control lights from a central location using a device like a INSTEON KeypadLinc Dimmer or their new wireless device and down the line Vista MCE. I would also eventually like to add macros, motion sensors (lights and music follow through house), remote controls (turn on lights from outside or by phone), and the internet to trigger events in the home. Where do I start or are their resources out there that I should be reading? I dont want to buy equipment now that won't be compatible in the future. I thought systems like th Insteon starter kit would be a good place to start?

Music: I will be putting together a whole home audio system. I have used Abus system in the past but I keep reading about people who can walk in their house hit an AllOn button and the music starts and lights come on or they can walk from room to room and the music follow. What type of Whole home audio system should I start with or is this to ambitious.

I dont have unlimited resources. I would like to keep cost somewhat reasonable

Thx for your help!

 

[IVB]

The software products that seem reasonable and integrate with Vista MCE are mcontrol and HAI’s software?

Dunno what you mean by reasonable, but there's an alpha Vista MCE driver for CQC that some folks are using. I can't recall if it's gone public beta yet, I think not, you can ask userid=jonathan over on the CQC forums. I know jkmonroe is using it in his "production" environment, so it's definitely in some level of read-to-use form.

Music: I will be putting together a whole home audio system. I have used Abus system in the past but I keep reading about people who can walk in their house hit an AllOn button and the music starts and lights come on or they can walk from room to room and the music follow.

Dunno about Abus, but with the NuVo keypads, you can trap keypad presses by CQC and do whatever you want. I think the music-following is a bit much and will be unpredictable for now, start smaller there.

 

[DavidL]

mControl and Homeseer have automation interfaces that work within a Media Center motif. I suspect there are others, but none are coming to mind.

MainLobby and CQC essentially replace MCE UI, but can run on the same operating system.

Not sure about mControl, but the other three can do what you are asking. For the music traveling concept, you likely want an integration with your security system that will likely be the hardware that will determine occupancy. The fact of a motion sensor triggering will be sent to the software that would be programmed to do what you want it to do (change music from one set of speakers to another). The switching needs to happen in another hardware interface like a Russound Cav6 or similar. This is controlled by the automation software. Not sure if mControl has that ability or not.

The three have the ability to control Insteon lighting. Insteon starter kit would be good. I would also purchase the PLM PC Insteon interface which at least MainLobby and Homeseer now support. Not sure about mControl or CQC but I suspect they either do today, or will when you need it.

From a budget perspective, the software will be the cheapest part of the end system. The whole house audio hardware or the Insteon lighting will be more expensive, dependent on how large of a system you ultimately need.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Actually, we bailled out on the MCE integration thing. It was just too kludgey. So we are putting our efforts into making MCE as unneeded as possible except on the far periphery as a DVR type of thing.

CQC does have an Insteon driver, which just went official for the upcoming 2.2 release after a long gestation period.

 

[IVB]

Actually, we bailled out on the MCE integration thing. It was just too kludgey. So we are putting our efforts into making MCE as unneeded as possible except on the far periphery as a DVR type of thing.

Sorry, I used "Vista MCE". I meant Vista MC, not MS MCE.

Jonathan hasn't bailed on Vista, has he?

 

[Dean Roddey]

Jonathan hasn't bailed on Vista, has he?

I'm not sure if he's still working on it or not.

 

[chilump]

mControl and Homeseer have automation interfaces that work within a Media Center motif. I suspect there are others, but none are coming to mind.

MainLobby and CQC essentially replace MCE UI, but can run on the same operating system.

Would you happen to know if HAI software can work?

Not sure about mControl, but the other three can do what you are asking. For the music traveling concept, you likely want an integration with your security system that will likely be the hardware that will determine occupancy. The fact of a motion sensor triggering will be sent to the software that would be programmed to do what you want it to do (change music from one set of speakers to another). The switching needs to happen in another hardware interface like a Russound Cav6 or similar. This is controlled by the automation software. Not sure if mControl has that ability or not.

So if I plan to do any type of music traveling or lighting traveling than I will need some type of integration with my alarm system and a Russound Cav6 av controller or similiar to do the switching. The Russound Cav6 is somewhat pricey, do you know of any alternative products? The only hardware that I know of is the Abus whole home audio switching device

Thanks

 

[sloop]

I am new to home automation but have heavily been into building Media Center PC’s, whole home audio systems, and home theaters. I have been reading about home automation and I think this is a logical progression. My intended goal is to have everything integrate with Vista Media Center and Xbox 360 but I want the system to be able to run independently of my computers until they are stable. The software products that seem reasonable and integrate with Vista MCE are mcontrol and HAI’s software?

Lighting: I would like to build a system that can control lights from a central location using a device like a INSTEON KeypadLinc Dimmer or their new wireless device and down the line Vista MCE. I would also eventually like to add macros, motion sensors (lights and music follow through house), remote controls (turn on lights from outside or by phone), and the internet to trigger events in the home. Where do I start or are their resources out there that I should be reading? I dont want to buy equipment now that won't be compatible in the future. I thought systems like th Insteon starter kit would be a good place to start?

Music: I will be putting together a whole home audio system. I have used Abus system in the past but I keep reading about people who can walk in their house hit an AllOn button and the music starts and lights come on or they can walk from room to room and the music follow. What type of Whole home audio system should I start with or is this to ambitious.

I dont have unlimited resources. I would like to keep cost somewhat reasonable

Thx for your help!

i would look into proximity detection equipment if you want your house to know where you are - but i don't think the technology is there yet to pinpoint it to individual rooms - i read that bill gates' house does it though - but it is available to do one thing you did not ask for - when you approach your house, it can eliminate the need to press that initial button

 

[DavidL]

Cinemar sells a multichannel amp that when plugged into a multichannel sound card and used with MusicLobby software is a very capable, very good sounding system that is less expensive than most other whole house audio solutions.

Re: HAI software - HAI has software that connects to their panel, but I don't think it is integrated with MCE app.
It is a browser based app. No where near as capable as the rest of the software products noted, but if you have an HAI automation panel, is likely the easiest to setup. Not customizable and not particularily good looking but inexpensive and simple.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Re: HAI software - HAI has software that connects to their panel, but I don't think it is integrated with MCE app.
It is a browser based app. No where near as capable as the rest of the software products noted, but if you have an HAI automation panel, is likely the easiest to setup. Not customizable and not particularily good looking but inexpensive and simple.

I dunno, the Media Center Integrated HAI software I saw at CES 2006 knocked my socks off!

http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=3300

 

[CollinR]

<<< Thinks MCE sucks!

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

<<< Thinks MCE sucks!

Yea a lot of people do have that opinion and I swear I seem to be the only lost soul on CocoonTech that happens to like the MCE operating system.

But, on the other hand, I have seen a lot of homeautomation/theater software and, in my opinion of course, none can be operated via a TV viewing interface as well as thoses that embrace the MCE environment.

Drive MCE software such as HAI's and mControl's around with its (MCE) remote and you will see what I mean!

 

[MikeB]

<<< Thinks MCE sucks!

Yea a lot of people do have that opinion and I swear I seem to be the only lost soul on CocoonTech that happens to like the MCE operating system.

But, on the other hand, I have seen a lot of homeautomation/theater software and, in my opinion of course, none can be operated via a TV viewing interface as well as thoses that embrace the MCE environment.

Drive MCE software such as HAI's and mControl's around with its (MCE) remote and you will see what I mean!

I love MCE for what it does out of the box (TV/DVR, DVD playback, photos, etc...). I don't plan on using any of my TVs as primary home automation interfaces, though. So while and MCE interface would be nice, it's not a priority for me.

 

[DavidL]

Re: HAI software - HAI has software that connects to their panel, but I don't think it is integrated with MCE app.
It is a browser based app. No where near as capable as the rest of the software products noted, but if you have an HAI automation panel, is likely the easiest to setup. Not customizable and not particularily good looking but inexpensive and simple.

I dunno, the Media Center Integrated HAI software I saw at CES 2006 knocked my socks off!

http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=3300

Ah, you are right. Didn't realize that HAI came out with a MCE looking app.
http://www.homeauto.com/Products/ConsolesT...ouchscreens.asp
Not that that suprises me.

 

[bradsjm]

Jonathan hasn't bailed on Vista, has he?

No, just had to focus on getting the INSTEON PLM driver out the door for the 2.2 release and I've limited resources to spread around!

As jkmonroe and the other few testers can attest, my CQC Vista MCE driver is stable. There are a number of feature requests which will come in the future but the major holdup was needing to rewrite some functionality so it would work correctly under Vista without having to disable UAC. Once that is done I'll have a public beta release out (could be in the next few weeks)