PC solution like Crestron

Looks very interesting. Have you used it for long?

It has a 30 day trial and a reasonable cost ($69.00!) and an interesting corporate philosophy of supporting machines as old as WIN95 and small devices like the Pocket PC and things running Windows mobile. I've got a gaggle of touch screen tablet PCs running at 400MHz that would have great potential with a system like that. In fact it appears to support a lot of the HA HW I own, which is a very big plus. Even supports the ADI line of equipment, but not HomeVision, it seems, which is too bad, IMHO, as I feel HomeVision is a much better product. Plus, HV's designer is still quite active in the HV support group. The last time I checked on ADI's site, it had pretty much died the same slow death this newsgroup has. I imagine it can support HV via RS-232, though, as it seems to be pretty strong in that area. Just DL'ed the 22MB demo and will soon load it on a test PC to see how it goes.

One thing that spooked me was this item on the sales page because I am not even sure what they are talking about when they offer this item:

Extended Download Warranty This product is eligible for our Extended Download Warranty, for an additional cost ($4.95 per year) we'll keep a back-up copy of your digital files should you need to re-download them for any reason.

Another problem is no Paypal. )-: Well, nobody's prefect.

-- Bobby G.

If what you are looking for is a system that may cost on the order of $1K rather than the $10K+ of Crestron, either Charmed Quark

or HomeSeer can what you want.

HomeSeer right now has a sale for the upgrade of the base configuration to HomeSeer Pro that includes all of the add-ins that are normally separately priced for only an additional $150. The new, included HSTouch is dynamite in my opinion -- but with its flexibility comes the need to do much configuration/programming/design yourself.

If 'free' sounds good, investigate Premise System that used to be the premier PC-centric HA software -- until it was sold to Lantronix, and then to Motorola, who abandoned it. Last I knew, one could still download the software for free. There is an active community that has kept up with the latest and greatest such as iPhone support. Start here:

HTH ... Marc Marc_F_Hult

Smart-HDL Introduce The SMS Module

1 - Powerful: By SMS messages controlling your home Lights, Curtain, Modes, Music, Appliances, Air condition, security, gate and motors, sprinklers irrigation system.

2 - Secure: for each SMS message, it can verify up to 10 phone number to accept the SMS, and can set as public Message to accept SMS from any numbers in the world.

3 - Informative: for each message you can set the Module to send you feedback by the successfully execution SMS.

4 - More control: can send up to 99 different SMS, each to control up to 20 commands.

5 - Easy: it is SMS messaged are not case sensitive, that make your SMS typing easier.

6 - 2 ways: in case of ALARM or any other problem in the house, Panic, Emergency call, health Request, it can send up to 24 different SMS to different 10 Phone numbers for each Message.

7 - Green, it is Bus connection that saves your wiring, and Low current supplied.

8 - Integrated, can be integrated to any system by RS232 module to send and receive any ASCII or HEX strings in all baud rates

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