Which Home Automation software do you use?
- Thread starter Sacedog
- Start date
upstatemike
Senior Member
Homevision is on the spreadsheet so it must have just been overlooked. xPL is not because I think of it more as a protocol than an application. If anybody wants to make the case for listing xPL or xAP as applications, and is willing to fill in the details on the spreadsheeet, just send me a PM.
kwilcox
Active Member
Ditto. I've got HCA turning handsprings at my house. The more I use it, the more impressed I get. It's multi protocol bridge capabilities are just short of unbelievable. I've got UPB links firing both UPB and X10 devices with no noticeable latency. Now that v8.0 is out, I've added an Insteon controller and am looking forward to extending my home's automation to those devices as well.
The insteon support is v8 is amazing! I love the new visual scene editor. It's great being able to setup links without having to walk all over the house having to put each device into linking mode.
Squintz
Senior Member
CQC, I tried CQC back in the HomeSeer 2.0 days when everyone got frustrated with being charged for a buggy HS 2.0 program. This was before CQC was ever considered an option by most of us cocooners. I guess you can say I am one of the original fan boys of CQC. I really like the fact that CQC uses hardly any third party code librarys. This makes fixing a bug a much easier task for the CQC developers (Dean and Mark). I also liked that the software is 100% network distributable unlike HomeSeer which only offers TTS as a distributed option. While trying HomeSeer I also started to really dislike the web only interface. I prefer an windows application over a web application. I also like the proprietary object oriented scripting language that CQC has developed. It makes for a very robust platform.
The only negative thing I can say about CQC is that there are way too many feature request and too few coders to implement those features. It already has just about every feature you need in a home automation system but because the system is so flexible the users never stop coming up with improvements and feature ideas.
CQC is also the only software system available that I would install professionally in a customers home. This is simply because I know if a bug exist it will be fixed by the next release and releases happen almost weekly.
The only negative thing I can say about CQC is that there are way too many feature request and too few coders to implement those features. It already has just about every feature you need in a home automation system but because the system is so flexible the users never stop coming up with improvements and feature ideas.
CQC is also the only software system available that I would install professionally in a customers home. This is simply because I know if a bug exist it will be fixed by the next release and releases happen almost weekly.
ultrajones
Active Member
HomeSeer 2, Elk M1 (with Insteon) and the UltraM1G HomeSeer plug-in.
CQC. I really had no clue when I started and just started poking around. I was all set to buy HAI when I stumbled across CQC. When I realized that you could write your own interfaces (drivers) to connect to anything that can be communicated to using TCP, classic serial, USB, file based or whatever, I was sold. Add to that the ability to develop custom user interfaces and the distributed architecture it turned out to be a very solid system. Now, add to that the user community and the access to the developers.... how can it be beat?
As mentioned elsewhere, the drawbacks are that it can be a bit overwhelming for a new user and there are limited development personnel... both of which are minor. And... oh, BTW, it interfaces with HAI (or ELK) so I can still go that way if I so choose when I upgrade my security system.
As mentioned elsewhere, the drawbacks are that it can be a bit overwhelming for a new user and there are limited development personnel... both of which are minor. And... oh, BTW, it interfaces with HAI (or ELK) so I can still go that way if I so choose when I upgrade my security system.
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