Simple home automation

[johntarr]

I just purchased an Intermatic kit this evening and got it programmed to do just that. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully it will address the issue of simulating sunrise. I only went with 4 steps to get to full brightness, but I may do more later. I'm guessing that I have 28 events from the last post?

Does anyone know if ThinkEssentials can respond to events from Z-wave devices? For instance, a motion detector picks up motion and this triggers ThinkEssentials to turn on the light?

I'd hate to leave my PC up and running all day so Think Essentials can operate, but then again, it beats spending $600 on an ELK at this point.

 

[Rupp]

I just purchased an Intermatic kit this evening and got it programmed to do just that. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully it will address the issue of simulating sunrise. I only went with 4 steps to get to full brightness, but I may do more later. I'm guessing that I have 28 events from the last post?

Does anyone know if ThinkEssentials can respond to events from Z-wave devices? For instance, a motion detector picks up motion and this triggers ThinkEssentials to turn on the light?

I'd hate to leave my PC up and running all day so Think Essentials can operate, but then again, it beats spending $600 on an ELK at this point.

HomeSeer does this and a whole lot more. There's a free 30 day trial available here if you want to try but beware it's fun and addicting.
http://store.homeseer.com/store/Control-Software-C5.aspx

Combine these with some of the new HSM100 motion sensors that report light level, temp, battery level and motion and you have a whole room controller as well.

http://store.homeseer.com/store/Motion-Sensors-C57.aspx

 

[applecake]

If you could use a USB module to control the brightness of up to 7 X 3watt 12 volt LED lamps, would this suffice ?

If you don't trust billy gates then you could use linux,
Perhaps even linux running totally in RAM, loading off read only media, or a usb drive.. (puppy linux), that costs nothing and is physically impossible to corrupt or infect,.. but I digress.

Any one interested in the above option, (LED USB controlled dimmer module) ?