Fw: Home Automation Integration and touchscreen front end

[Gareth Cook <g@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Paul and myself chat often as we have almost the same installation
with
Comfort, CBUS, Homeseer, and Sonos.

I would like to say that the PC component is as flakey as a box of
cornflakes - always has been and I've been running Homeseer for several
years.

The Comfort plugin is ok, but has a temper now and again - and the Sonos
plugin is not stable at all. If you dont mind checking your system every
now and again, you'll be fine. I too, like Paul, have CBUS buttons
activating Sonos stuff and the like - and we have to use Homeseer as
that's the only route between Sonos and Comfort - but it's often not
functioning because one of the 2 plugins has died on its arse.

I plan to reinstall (for the umpteen time) and try to keep to a stable
revision of everything (ie one but last of the Comfort plugin) but both
plugins really requires some extensive QA work - stability is severely
lacking. Even Comfort has it's moments, but CBUS has never ever gone
wrong.

G.




Ben,

I agree with pretty much all those choices, with the exception of
Smartfit... - the good thing about it is there is a dedicated UCM to
integrate smartfit & comfort, but the downside is that smartfit is a
pretty dumb system, and is only suitable for certain Central Heating
designs. The newer Hometronic system is far better in most respects,
although there isn't a dedicated UCM for it unfortunately.  I believe
Cytech were (are?) attempting to make an arrangement with Honeywell with
a view to developing a Hometronic UCM, but I've heard nothing on this
for the last 2 years or so, so I guess that idea never got off the
ground (shame). Hometronic is, as you've noticed, significantly more
expensive, especially if you have lots of radiators all needing the
hometronic control valves on them, although I guess you *could*
implement it in phases to reduce the initial impact.

In case you hadn't sussed, it *is* actually possible to implement a
degree of integration between Hometronic & Comfort, using some of the
Hometronic modules that provide digital input/outputs that can then be
connected to Comfort outputs/inputs to signal discrete states, and
enable Comfort to control Hometronic (i.e comfort could have a number of
outputs connected to Hometronic, each signal line could then be
programmed in Hometronic to set a particular "lifestyle" so for
instance
Comfort would be able to turn off all heating when set to away mode...)

I already have almost all the components of the system that you've
specified (Comfort, CBUS, SONOS, Homeseer) and I actually settled on
Hometronic for my heating as well, and even went as far as getting a
quote for a system. Unforseen circumstances have repeatedly forced me to
put it on hold unfortunately, so I still haven't got round to purchasing
it, although I do still intend to when circumstances allow.

If you haven't already experimented with Homeseer, its worth pointing
out that there is just about to be a new component launched for it which
is specifically designed for easy implementation of touchscreens.
"Homeseer Touch" is in beta at the moment, and I've been playing
with it
for a couple of months. It is pretty simple & straightforward, and
integrates seamlessly with Homeseer. It's still a bit rough around the
edges, but I believe in time it will be an extremely capable system, and
almost a no-brainer for anyone who already runs Homeseer.

Using this combination of components I've been able to achieve some
additional integration that actually isn't possible if any of them are
omitted. For instance I can have CBUS buttons control SONOS zones so
that my "room off" button that I have on all my CBUS keypads can
also
stop the SONOS zone playing in that room as well, which makes for a
nicer overall experience. This particular function uses Homeseer to
bridge several systems via their respective plugins (signals go: CBUS
--> Comfort --> Homeseer --> SONOS)

If you'd like any further info about my experiences, then just holler.

HTH

Paul G.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of Ben McCormack
> Sent: 04 January 2009 16:16
> To: UKHA Group
> Subject: [ukha_d] Home Automation Integration and touchscreen front
end
>
> All
>
> As I am suer many of you are aware we have recently moved into a new
> house that needs renovation. This has given me the chance to automate
> the house. I have tried to use best of breed in each area where
> possible and integrate systems as well.
>
> I have arrived at the following scheme
>
> Lighting : Cbus
> Alarm : Comfort
> Heating : Smartfit
> Temp Monitoing : 1-Wire using HA7Net. This is based on recent
> discussions.
> All the media in the house will be supplied from my Mac Mini Server
> and Sonos.
>
> cbus and Comfort are linked
> Comfort and Smartfit are linked
>
> So I have Lighting, Heating and Alarm integrated. So far Comfort will
> be my main interface so I can use Comfort keypads or the DECT phones
> in the house to control things.
>
> Now I have added 1-Wire I am starting to think how to integrate that
> and make intelligent decisions based on room temperature and also
> provide temp logging and graphing.
>
> There is one area that I don't think I have worked out yet and that is
> the overall control mechanism. I guess ideally I would like a couple
> of wireless touch-screens that could display information about the
> house and allow me to control various functions.
>
> I can see that homeseer could be used as an interface. It has plugins
> for most of my components.
>
> Are there any other options I could look at?
>
> Ben
>
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