New User with wish list -- can HS do this stuff?

[mrplatts]

New user with a few questions:

So I've been reading up on Homeseer recently and it seems like it is something I want to go with insofar as getting started with HA as a hobby. I made up a wishlist, pretty much in priority order & figure this will be a more or less eternally ongoing process.

Can Homeseer be the basis for ALL of these "wants"?

(1) Lighting control
(2) Gathering & Displaying various temperatures (using DS1280s via a serial device.
(3) Web / visual interface
(4) HVAC Control
(5) Keyless Entry
(6) Whole house Audio
(7) Security system
(8) Cameras?
(9) Touch screens in the house (down the road)

I realize that the entire project involves Time & $$$ but I want to start simple & build up.

[Msekelsky]

I am not 100% about the DS1280, but all the rest is a definite "yes." And I'm 98% on the DS1280. Why not download the demo and give it a spin?

[karls]

Mr.Platts

For the temperature monitor, it is a DS1820 temp sensor ( I have about 15 scattered around the house), tied into the server using a serial 1 wire interface DS9097u and controlled thru the MCSTemp plugin(software).
There is also a USB version of the interface that works as well.
Software wise, you could also look into the XAP thread.

The more time you spend browsing these forums, the more ideas you will find to automate.

Enjoy & Welcome Aboard.

Steven

[Rupp]

Richard Platts,
It can do all of this and more. For the temperature reading the DS18S20 and a TEMP08 serial unit is idea. See the TEMP08 specs at http://www.medondesign.com

Holler when your ready to start.

[JimCirillo]

Richard Platts,
It can do all of this and more. For the temperature reading the DS18S20 and a TEMP08 serial unit is idea. See the TEMP08 specs at http://www.medondesign.com

Holler when your ready to start.

Note - there's a typo in the link - it should be: http://www.midondesign.com/

[mrplatts]

Cool, thanks for the quick replies!

Rich is fine, Mr. Platts is what my students call me.

Here's what I"ve got for the DS1820s so far.

I have a serial-connected board ordered from www.phanderson.com -- the TM#125. It connects via the com port and each time a character is sent to the comport it reports data back to me.

Currently I'm getting this:

00 10.37 10D0D057 00080049
01 16.68 10321558 00080064
02 18.68 1043D057 000800A1
03 3.81 1007FC57 000800D1

Which corresponds to: 00 - Basement 01 LIving Room 02 Office 03 Outside (almost)

Then, I am currently using a program written through liberty basic to feed the data to a text file each minute.

I guess my questions right now are:

I need a "Good way to mount the sensors, right now my test system involves wrapping the wire around the corresponding leads from the DS1820. (I've piggybacked the Black/yellow wires from my telephone to run the 1-wire system (is this bad?)

What should I do with the data. Graph? Web upload?

Maybe I need to D/L Homeseer's demo and take a look....

[Rupp]

Note - there's a typo in the link - it should be: http://www.midondesign.com/

Whoops sorry for the typo.

[Michael McSharry]

Like this?

[Michael McSharry]

Here is one that is from the xAP mcsEnvironment application. It shows that over the week the furnace was ON for 340 minutes with the light green area showing how it accumulated., actual ON times in dark green, control band of 1 degree in vioilet, and the temperature at the thermostat in orange. One can see that on the 21th the thermostat was turned down a few degrees. It also showed the thermostat was overshooting the 1 degree control band during the week.

[dsmith]

I use RRDTOOL to graph Homeseer device status/values.

Allows me to build up composite graphs like this...

Which similair to Michael above, allows me to compare actual vs thermostat temperature with the heating status overlayed on top.

[mrplatts]

Pretty much exactly what I was looking for...

I'm sure I will have many more questions!

I'll look into those tools...

:-)

[mrplatts]

so, I've been messing around and it loks like the TM#125 from www.phanderson.com, though a nifty little device can't really be realisticly used alongside existing software. Am I wrong? I know there are more supported solutions for this out there.

I guess where I'm lacking is my knowledge of homeseer and/or other programs for gathering this data. I guess I could write a program, or just tweak the existing one I have to grab data from a file, but I'm not sure if throwing data into a text file is really waht I need.

----------------

Ok, second point.

If I wanted to get started with homeseer, pretty much the bulk of my start up cost is Homeseer itself. I realize from reading about it it is actually really powerful. How much programming does it take to get this to do everything you want? I suppose people use a lot of plugins.

Also, I need to get an interface. And some devices...

I was thinking x10 since I've heard of it. That is pretty much the only reason. It seems cheaper too.

Any tips on where to get the best deal for a starter kit with homeseer?

Wow, that was rambling... Thanks, Rich

[smoothtlk]

mrplatts,

Welcome aboard!
For an interface, you can use the standard Homeseeer web pages, or the Touchscreen plugin (in the Homeseer Updater).

There are some folks using xAP messenging with XLobby. Don't think this is too mature yet.

There are some folks using NetRemote and Girder to interface with Homeseer. Search for NetRemote and you will see some posts by JWilson of neat things he is doing with NetRemote. There is some expense (not much), and reported a fair amount of work to get things working as slick as JWilson's setup is at.

The majority of folks that are looking for a high end user interface purchase MainLobby (www.cinemaronline.com) and the MLHSplugin (in the Homeseer Updater). There are 30 day demos of both. This combo is well proven now and best of breed. It is also the premium priced combo but I haven't found anyone that has taken this jump and regretted it. Check out Krumpy's (author of MLHSPlugin) MLHSPlugin thread on this forum for some great examples of what Homeseer folks are doing with this combo. If Media management and Home Automation are both important to you, this is the way to go.

From a electrical device perspective, I would go with Insteon or UPB and not put emphasis on X10. I got a bunch of X10 stuff to sell you if you insist!