Another protocol to look into...
Well, I finally made it to Automated Outlet today over my lunch break. I tried to call them over the weekend, but they're not a retail outlet as I had originally thought, so they're not open on the weekend. I did manage to take up half an hour of Jim Houston's time (and Martin's too), and they mentioned that I should definitely look into UPB, a powerline protocol like X-10, but 10x more powerful, plus reliable two-way status acknowledgement (which apparently the other protocols haven't perfected yet). My main reason for not looking into UPB earlier was it has a higher price point than either Insteon or Z-wave.
They also showed me what the Elk M1 hardware controller is, and HAL, a software controller. Jim Houston says he has both running side-by-side at his house. This was good for me, because I really had no idea what the Elk M1 did, and it wasn't all that clear reading the cocoontech posts what it was useful for. Turns out, it's capable of doing everything a software controller running on a PC can do, but you don't have to leave a PC running all the time, and you don't have to reboot it like you would a PC. It's something to consider down the road for me if I start placing too much strain on a software controller.
The first thing I need to do before deciding what protocol to use is check the wiring in my home. Jim said he had a home built around the same time mine was, and it used aluminum wiring which nearly caused his house to burn down. The solution to this was to piggy back a copper wire (via non-oxidizing wire nuts) onto the ends of his aluminum wiring, and hook the copper wire up to each outlet and switch, but this would have to be done for all outlets and switches.
The other thing I need to check is whether or not neutral wires have been wired into my house, as UPB switches and Insteon switches would both require neutral wires. If I have no neutral wires, then I'm practically forced into using Z-wave. I'll post more when I get around to checking my wiring.
posted by Adam @ 12:05 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Just to let you know, I've been using UPB technology for some time now.
I to have been toying with the PIR situation myself looking for a clean solution. Being a Hardware Eng. It wasn't dificult to find what I needed to get something together. Although I think the UPB manufactures could come up with a cleaner solution for doing this right out of the box (like x10 and others do). Like others, I followed threads on Cocoontech's forums to do this.
UPB Status & Control - I acheived this by getting lighted swithes by HAI and PCS. I made a multi-device control panel with HAI controllers to controls switches, modules, outlets throughout the house. I used The PCS controllers installed in each Room/Bedroom because of the ability to use a all-in-one remote control (GOD BOX). From the control panel any one of these device can be controlled.
Using the UpStart to configure the links between each device to be controlled and monitored took some thinking. Especially with the HAI devices. These devices can not be dragged and dropped in to the link editor as with PCS and Simply-Automated devices. This makes it a bit more difficult to follow when creating complicated links (Take notes when creating these configurations). HAI devices will display in the link editor once you manually enter their link in each of the devices, But you must modify each device for each link. :(
Recently I found Simply-Automated devices sold in a retail store (Fry's) under the name HAL (Home Automated Living). I bought a few of these devices to play with. I single rocker switch (truely is a single rocker switch, Not A can-be-a-double on/off switch), A couple lamp modules and a appliance module. The difference in these modules from the warehouse version is that there isn't a pass-thru plug. So this mean only one controlled device no pass through in the module. But the price is about 1/2 that online or at the local wharehouse supply (Hometech Solutions). Also when you scan these with UpStart they are recognized as Retail devices.
I've been using HCA for my PC's Home Automation Software. Allthough I like the software (Same maker of UpStart) it needs a better UPB interface. UpStart plugs into this software flawlessly to configure your devices. But the HCA Software was originally designed for X10 and leans more towards X10 like technologies. I beleive this will change in future versions but time will tell.
UPB and HCA has done everything I inteded it to do. From Alarm notification of garage door/windows to controlling the coffee pot or even web interface control. The technology is stable and I highly recommend it.
--RDunaway
Thanks for the tips RDunaway... As you can see from my posts subsequent to the one on which you commented, I have already chosen UPB as my standard of choice. Also, there are a couple of posts (and a thread on cocoontech) detailing my decision-making process on the PIR solution. I think (at this point anyways... my thoughts have been known to change half a dozen times, and thus, the point of this blog, to document my thoughts) I'm going to use a PC-based solution using Misterhouse at this point in time. This way, I can use the W800RF32 with Misterhouse and the cleaner out-of-the-box solutions given by X10 as you referenced.
I know there are some more experienced HA users that would question my use of a HA PC and suggest instead that I use an Elk or Ocelot as my HA controller, but at this point, the computer is free and I'm not ready to shell out that much money on what is still just a hobby for me.
Again, thanks for posting the comment and reminding me to update my blog :-)
-Adam
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