The Ultimate Home Automation Software List

BVC [Bill's Voice Commander] Voice control for X10 and IR devices

Hi Dave!

Welcome to the CT forum....took you long enough...

To flesh out what Dave said a little, BVC is an FREE (edit: well a slight nag until you donate) add on to X10's Active Home Pro (AHP). If you combine it with AHP (which usually includes a CM 15A in one of X10's low priced packages) you get an AWFUL lot of capability for a very low price. BVC is a VR (voice recognition) and IR (remote control) package.

Most "differently abled" persons I have met are usually on a tight budget- making much of what is discussed on this forum outside of their means.

This package uses the USB-UIRT (also comparatively low priced - http://www.usbuirt.com/ ) along with a unique interpretation of MS's VR to allow almost complete control one's home with the simplicity of voice.

There are other add on's that also extend AHP's functionality. One good one is X10 Dispatcher: http://x10dispatcher.com/

As most know here, AHP is limited - but the most limiting thing to many is money! The combination of BVC and AHP allows complex automation to those with the tightest of budgets.

It is my sincere hope that the members here will promote this low-cost solution to those who can benefit.

Thanks,

GLT

Note: BVC does require an X10 CM15a for X10 control and/or a USB-UIRT for IR transmission.

(P.S. Electron (Dan) - Please prohibit Dave from entering any contests on this forum- if you don't - others might as well not try. Dave has won so many X10 contests they had to rewrite the rules.)
 
BVC [Bill's Voice Commander] Voice control for X10 and IR devices

Welcome to the CT forum....took you long enough...

Yeah and I should have posted more about Bill's Voice Commander. I would like to see someone more "known" at this forum try-out the trial BVC and see what they think.

I have been using BVC for nearly a year now... and have done it VERY much on-the-cheap. I am now using a curb-side-disguard (P3) PC, the $50 AHP, and $18 baby monitors for getting my voice to the PC from anywhere in my home. And I have complete control of my X10 system. I have nothing to gain from people trying BVC. However I am a BIG fan of the software..

I also posted a YouTube Video (helped with the X10 contest).
 
What about the freeware stuff that just came out? I.E., Lumenlink, vCrib, etc.
 
Since there are so many home automation software packages out there, I want to start putting together a list of free and commercial solutions, no matter what platform. Please do not list frontends unless they are part of the core package, we'll try to cover that in a different thread (i.e. Netremote/Mainlobby do not qualify, but CQC does). All entries are commercial software packages unless mentioned otherwise.
Can we add a last updated date on this post? It seems that the information is not accurate as of 4/13/2005 but instead seems to be much more recent. I was going to have to ignore the post until I did realize that it contained relevant information. Most readers will not know that initially.
 
I think this may help out alot.
HOME AUTOMATION COMPARISON LIST
HOME AUTOMATION COMPARISON EXCEL LIST

Since there are so many home automation software packages out there, I want to start putting together a list of free and commercial solutions, no matter what platform. Please do not list frontends unless they are part of the core package, we'll try to cover that in a different thread (i.e. Netremote/Mainlobby do not qualify, but CQC does). All entries are commercial software packages unless mentioned otherwise.
Can we add a last updated date on this post? It seems that the information is not accurate as of 4/13/2005 but instead seems to be much more recent. I was going to have to ignore the post until I did realize that it contained relevant information. Most readers will not know that initially.
 
Since there are so many home automation software packages out there, I want to start putting together a list of free and commercial solutions, no matter what platform. Please do not list frontends unless they are part of the core package, we'll try to cover that in a different thread (i.e. Netremote/Mainlobby do not qualify, but CQC does). All entries are commercial software packages unless mentioned otherwise.

Windows
ActiveHome (X10-PLC)
ActiveHome Pro (X10-PLC,X10-RF)
Adaptive Home Logic (X10 / UPB)
Bill's Voice Commander (X10-PLC, IR)
CQC (X10-PLC,X10-RF,Z-wave,,UPB,IR)
ECS (X10-PLC,X10-RF,IR,INSTEON)
Harmony (X10-PLC)
Home Automated Living (X10-PLC,X10-RF,Z-wave,UPB,IR)
Home Control Assistant (X10-PLC,X10-RF,UPB,IR)
Home Domination (X10-PLC)
Homeseer (X10-PLC,X10-RF,UPB,Z-wave,INSTEON,UPB,IR)
Girder (X10-PLC,X10-RF,IR)
mControl (X10-PLC,X10-RF,INSTEON)
HouseBot (X10-PLC,X10-RF,Z-wave, INSTEON,IR)
MainLobby (X10-PLC,X10-RF,UPB,Z-wave,INSTEON,UPB,IR, RS232, TCP)
Mister House (X10-PLC,X10-RF,free)
PowerHome (X10-PLC,X10-RF,IR)
Motorola Premise (X10-PLC, Lutron, CentraLite, Leviton, LiteTouch)
SmartHome Manager PLUS (X10-PLC)
SmartHome Manager Essential (X10-PLC)
X10 Dispatcher (X10-PLC,free)
X10Controller (X10-PLC,free)


Linux
Hey2U (X10-PLC,free)
Mister House (X10-PLC,X10-RF,free)
ECS (X10-PLC,X10-RF,IR)
Pluto Home (free,commercial)

Mac
Indigo (X10-PLC,X10-RF,INSTEON)
Xtension (X10-PLC,X10-RF)

This is a great collection of home automation systems thanks a lot buddy for your useful post
 
I dont know if PlutoHome still exists, but somr people are buiding on it and using thd LinuxMCE name. You mught want to add it in the Linux section.
 
Insteon Explorer is great at working with your Insteon PLM to setup links.

From the Webpage's Overview section:
Insteon Explorer provides a clean, professional, intuitive interface to aide in the setup and maintenance of an Insteon-based home control network. Manually configuring an installation of more than a handfull of devices can be a tedious and time-consuming endeavour. Insteon Explorer makes this process easy with a simple to use point-and-click interface that completely eliminates the need to repeatedly walk to each device and learn complex "tap-tap" sequences. Plus, Insteon Explorer provides access to some features on devices that are only programmable through computer control, and can not be configured at the device alone. Finally, it's highly extensible architecture means new device types can be added quickly and easily as they are developed and released, without the need to wait for custom, hard-coded changes to be made to Insteon Explorer to support them.

Terry
 
Since there are so many home automation software packages out there, I want to start putting together a list of free and commercial solutions, no matter what platform. Please do not list frontends unless they are part of the core package, we'll try to cover that in a different thread (i.e. Netremote/Mainlobby do not qualify, but CQC does). All entries are commercial software packages unless mentioned otherwise.

Windows
ActiveHome (X10-PLC)
ActiveHome Pro (X10-PLC,X10-RF)
Adaptive Home Logic (X10 / UPB)
Bill's Voice Commander (X10-PLC, IR)
CQC (X10-PLC,X10-RF,Z-wave,,UPB,IR)
ECS (X10-PLC,X10-RF,IR,INSTEON/UPB)
Harmony (X10-PLC)
Home Automated Living (X10-PLC,X10-RF,Z-wave,UPB,IR)
Home Control Assistant (X10-PLC,X10-RF,UPB,IR)
Home Domination (X10-PLC)
Homeseer (X10-PLC,X10-RF,UPB,Z-wave,INSTEON,UPB,IR)
Girder (X10-PLC,X10-RF,IR)
mControl (X10-PLC,X10-RF,INSTEON)
HouseBot (X10-PLC,X10-RF,Z-wave, INSTEON,IR)
MainLobby (X10-PLC,X10-RF,UPB,Z-wave,INSTEON,UPB,IR, RS232, TCP)
Mister House (X10-PLC,X10-RF,free)
PowerHome (X10-PLC,X10-RF,IR)
Motorola Premise (X10-PLC, Lutron, CentraLite, Leviton, LiteTouch)
SmartHome Manager PLUS (X10-PLC)
SmartHome Manager Essential (X10-PLC)
X10 Dispatcher (X10-PLC,free)
X10Controller (X10-PLC,free)


Linux
Hey2U (X10-PLC,free)
Mister House (X10-PLC,X10-RF,free)
ECS (X10-PLC,X10-RF,IR,INSTEON/UPB)
Pluto Home (free,commercial)
LinuxMCE (free)

Mac
Indigo (X10-PLC,X10-RF,INSTEON)
Xtension (X10-PLC,X10-RF)

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Hi Dan,
ECS(Win & Linux) also supports UPB (corrected above).
Thanks,
Mark Gilmore
 
Since there are so many home automation software packages out there, I want to start putting together a list of free and commercial solutions, no matter what platform. Please do not list frontends unless they are part of the core package, we'll try to cover that in a different thread (i.e. Netremote/Mainlobby do not qualify, but CQC does). All entries are commercial software packages unless mentioned otherwise.
There's a fairly comprehensive document comparing automation software at this link: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pq2...JXEv1Ne9TIQhdA# Wouldn't it be easier just to add to that and maintain that instead?
 
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