Getting Started Project, advice please

Hi

If using a pc based HA system i would suggest having a look at CQC......

Ditto on the CQC idea

I use a Fujitsu 3400, but I don't use it for video. I hear one of the guys on the forum is [his kids found out they could watch TV on it], but i've never personally tried it.

FWIW, I'm documenting as I go on

Ok here's the thing.

I have looked at Charmed Quark, and in fact various other systems but I am hitting a more fundamental problem.

Being based in the UK, my options re budget home automation are somewhat limited.

We seem to be some distance behind the US in this area, and as such X10 is still very much the obvious choice for budget HA installations.

There are others but they are either too expensive or not quite available yet (take Z-wave, looks like it will be 2007 before we see any modules for that)

So I'm a bit stuck because I want to get started, I don't really want to run cables everywhere (awkward retrofit) and I dont' want to spend a lot of money on this, hence X10 being the obvious choice.

But then I read about X10 being "dead" and notice from a few threads on the Charmed Quark message board that this is the general sentiment and that they are reluctant to support devices like the CM11 (or CM12) as it is known over here.

Given that I'm pretty much stuck with X10 and the CM12 for the time being, this makes me nervous and somewhat unsure what to do.

I had decided to go for Homeseer but notice there are many problems with V2, I have looked at Charmed Quark but without CM11 support it's not much use to me, and all the time I have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I shouldn't be using X10 anyway.

A hardware controller may be an alternative option, I saw an Ocelot on Ebay for about =A360 but let it slip through my fingers.

Any ideas?

While those who frequent a nmessage board dedicated to a (non-budget) software package that does not support X-10 may proclaim the death of X-10, I think it will be a bit harder to kill because of people like you who want a low cost retrofittable solution for HA.

You might try to get some advance information from Insteon. They obviously plan to offer Insteon in Europe but when that might be is unknown.

Hmmm. Z-Wave started in Europe and it's going to be another year before they will actually offer products in the UK? I suspect Z-Wave will be dead long before X-10.

There is a contemporaneous thread here where a rather complete line of (future) Zigbee HA modules is cited. Hawking Technology plans to release their "HomeRemote - Wireless Home Automation" line in a few months. I have no inkling about prices but Hawking tends to price all of their products at low budget levels.

An Ocelot still uses X-10 for lights/appliances and requires other modules and hard-wir>Ok here's the thing.

Hi

I use xPL ( UK based) which is a free pc HA software ....But at this stage doesnt have a nice front end like CQC ...

Well, there's dead, and there's dead. X-10 is obviously still around and lots of people use it. But, it's hard to justify investing more time and effort on a supporting a new X-10 controller, particularly a less than straightforward one like the CM11. It's just not a technology that many of our customers and potential customers are interested in anymore, and we have to put our efforts where they make the most customer happy.

------------------------------------- Dean Roddey Chairman/CTO, Charmed Quark Systems

New? The CM11A has been around for 8-9 years and the European version (CM12) for nearly as long. I believe the CM11A protocol documentation dates to about 1996.

ftp://ftp.x10.com/pub/manuals/cm11a_protocol.txt

"Dean Roddey" wrote:

HI

Well I accept that you are running a business and need to focus your efforts appropriately, however I would point out that the UK/Europe market is a big one, and my impressions are that X10 still has a long time to go over here (due to a lack of viable alternatives) and unless I'm missing something we don't have many alternatives to the CM12.

I managed to write a basic serial driver for it myself (using vb.net), it did the basic functions but I haven't gotten round to finishing it yet, but it surely wouldn't take that long to implement, the protocol is easy enough to find.

The thing is without this support I am left with no choice but to look at other HA software/controllers.

Meaning doing a new driver to support it, i.e. new to us in terms of a supported device.

------------------------------------- Dean Roddey Chairman/CTO, Charmed Quark Systems

At the low end there may not be anything for you, that's true. C-Bus would be an option in Europe of course, and we support that. It's a pretty big step up from X-10 though.

------------------------------------- Dean Roddey Chairman/CTO, Charmed Quark Systems

Hi,

We are an Israeli company and we installed quite alot of X10/UPB (

We work with HAI Omni which is a good controller ( you get the alarm system and you can define integrated scenes).

We also use Ocelot which is a bit limited but very cost-effective.

X10 is the best option now , sinceUPB ( much more reliable) use only one phase.

Try the new inwall ( LW11) for lighting ( note that its no more than

It will work fine.

Oren

Let me know if you need any help

snipped-for-privacy@sophya.co.il

Try the Addicon solution- Leopard(

Oren