For those of you into home automation

ryanjoachim
ryanjoachim Posts: 2,046
edited April 2010 in The Clubhouse
Cheap home-built home automation

Extremely cheap (although in no way easy to create) way to automate much about your house. Luckily it looks like he'll be trying to commercialize it for us laymen.
MrNightly wrote: »
"Dr Dunn admitted that his research could also be interpreted as evidence that women are shallower than men. He said: "Let's face it - there's evidence to support it."
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Best Buy is for people who don't know any better. Magnolia is for people who don't know any better and have more money to spend.
My System:


TV: SAMSUNG UN55B7000 55" 1080p LED HDTV
HTPC: Chromecast w/ Plex Media Server. Media streamed from Media Server.
Post edited by ryanjoachim on
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Comments

  • maximillian
    maximillian Posts: 2,144
    edited April 2010
    X10 home automation isn't new, and it's also not that reliable.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWoncP5-sX0

    And this is only the amateur stuff. I have seen some really expensive setups on TV that is far beyond this. They can tell which room a person is in and even which kitchen drawers someone opens.

    The system in the Youtube link above is probably from:
    http://www.automatedliving.com/

    I bought an old version of this software a while back as a clearance item from Lowes for about $10. It works but is far from perfect. It also lacks the WAF factor.

    There is much better control options out there beyond X10. Over-AC automation can be somewhat reliable. There are other competing technologies for communication such as proprietary wireless and ZipgBee. X10 is cheap but unreliable. More reliable methods are more expensive.
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  • bobman1235
    bobman1235 Posts: 10,822
    edited April 2010
    The point of this wasn't at all the X10 hardware (which is, as mentioned, basically garbage and has been around, unchanged, for over a decade... just look at their website which also hasn't changed since 1999).

    The point is the integration and UI that this guy created. Voice commands and information easily accessible via many different input methods.
    If you will it, dude, it is no dream.
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  • maximillian
    maximillian Posts: 2,144
    edited April 2010
    Voice commands are available with Automatedliving's software. I bought it 6-7 years ago. It kind of worked. You could say, "turn living room light on", and it did just that. It also has a web front-end so you can control it via a smartphone.

    He merely wrote some scripts to make it a little more automated, i.e. timing the cook time of his hotdog. Still cool (kind of). I say kind of because cooking a hotdog using this UI is more cumbersome than just flipping the grill on. Also, it lacks WAF approval.
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  • Sherardp
    Sherardp Posts: 8,038
    edited April 2010
    I like the Lutron toys, very nice. The Spacer system I have in the theater room is superb.
    Shoot the jumper.....................BALLIN.............!!!!!

    Home Theater Pics in the Showcase :cool:

    http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showcase/view.php?userid=73580
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