Archive for August 11th, 2009
My night got me planning …
by on Aug.11, 2009, under Home Automation, insteon, lighting control, zwave
Last night was a killer house on the discovery channel which almost caused me to drool – It was crazy home automation and performed a so-so job making it all work. Almost every fireplace knew what the other was doing and things like the phones and shower steam generator were eerily controlled.
My passion has been Zigbee for what seems like forever but I had never seen automation so integrated, it was sensational and I’m still in shock.
I often day dream of letting my house do cool things like turning on the shower in the morning or reminding us of obligations as we leave the house. I’ll admit some stuff is most realistically a couple years in terms of general accessibility (regardless of this some people in the forums could do it) though items for instance environment modes which can be changed over the internet are ubiquitous and inexpensive recently. I really should sway my financial advisor... following which she can blame the page that helped me learn about this stuff: ISY-99i review
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XBee PRO S2 Whip Antenna from Digi Zigbee RF Module |  |
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US $27.50 | 13d 15h 39m |
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MC1321x IEEE 802154 ZigBee RF4CE Wireless Communications Development Kit | |
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US $399.00 | 6h 26m |
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BASYS Controls Superstat Communicating 365 Day Programmable Thermostat Zigbee | |
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US $155.55 | 9h 16m |
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XBee USB Development board Zigbee Sensor Remote USART converter | |
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US $22.99 | 13h 23m |
So many questions about remote control lights
by on Aug.11, 2009, under Home Automation, insteon, lighting control, zwave
It’s pretty well known that for items related to house automation I pay a lot of attention to all the new products for sale through vendors like Power Control Systems and the Z-Wave alliance.
Some of the new products for sale aren’t actually as much of a step forward as you’d think since this stuff was built previously working with currently accessible off-the-shelf devices but for beginners they are presented as a prebuilt set. One other thing is these kits don’t feel like you need a 6 page schematic to set things up.
Looking closer we see numerous similarities between the vendor offerings. One such similarity, almost none of them use portable products as message boosters, and almost all products use RF one way or another. With other differences however, it becomes more involved – I could try to explain it here and make a bunch of errors, this place Z-Wave home automation has good discussions showcasing the differentiators.
So if you have any thoughts on tricks to bring in a bit of cash to pay for the new obsession, please share!
