Messages

76

Users / Re: Nice system for monitoring home energy efficiency

« on: January 16, 2011, 10:47:13 am »

Try the Brultech Mono 100 and other models.  Starts at $176.

http://www.brultech.com/store/

This is AWESOME!!! I'm buying this kit ASAP for one energy efficiency project I'm also working on. Hopefully this gear could also be made lmce compatible?

77

Users / Re: Nice system for monitoring home energy efficiency

« on: January 16, 2011, 10:42:30 am »

works fine: http://www.aeon-labs.com/site/products/view/4/

This device in on top of my shopping list. I can't wait to start playing with power monitoring. But most of devices that I found so far have 1-3 current clamps.

That is why I got really excited when I saw this system from Powerhouse Dynamics, it is the only one that provides that many inputs to measure each circuit in your home separately.

That gives you much greater granulation when you want to drill down and see where is your power being used and what are the opportunities for saving.

78

Users / Re: New power controller: Tellstick

« on: January 16, 2011, 10:22:53 am »

Most any equipment in the lower price range will work; Nexa, Proove, IKEA, CoCo, Bye bye standby, Elro, Sartano, DIY, Waveman. The local brand may vary.
I tried to add a link, but I'm prohibited by the forum software...


/Joakim

Hi Joakim,
if forum prevented you to post links you can send me links via private message and also add the links in the WIKI.

If you send me links in private message I'll add links to Tellstick WIKI page.

Thank you in advance.

Valent.

79

Users / Re: Chromoflex RGB LED controller supported in 0810

« on: January 16, 2011, 10:19:55 am »

Thanks a bunch for pics Hari, I connected it ok then, but I'm missing only the resistor. I'll get it on monday when shops open. How many Ohms do I need to get? Do you know if resistor is a must or can Chromoflex receive signals without it?

Hari in what kind of setup and in which scenarios do you use Chromoflex? How many meters of led stripe do you use? Do you use one or multiple Chromoflex devices?

UPDATE;
If I read the resistor correctly (brown, black, black, brown, brown) then this should be 1k Ohm resistor. Going to the show later today.

Cheers,
Valent.

80

Users / Re: Chromoflex RGB LED controller supported in 0810

« on: January 15, 2011, 07:33:00 pm »

Hari can you please tell me which how did you connect chromoflex to RS-232 port? Which pins did you use and how you connected them.

Thanks.

81

Users / Nice system for monitoring home energy efficiency

« on: January 14, 2011, 11:38:18 pm »

I found this nice video about really nice system for monitoring home energy efficiency:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4h93XregQc

And it is not too expensive when compared to other solutions out there. It costs 500$ with 12 current clamps that monitor 12 power circuits, for some 44 circuits it costs around 900$.

From video it looks like it works only with their web service that costs 7$/month but they say that the device has also internal web server (but not too nice one). Still if somebody wanted he/she could scrape info from that web ui.

Really impressed with this company, hope they do well.

If anybody knows of some similar products feel free to post a reply or send me a direct message.

Cheers,
Valent.

82

Users / Re: Z-wave woes - Everspring door/window sensor not behaving

« on: January 14, 2011, 11:25:22 pm »

Have you checked out my previous post and caveats that I have stumbled across? I have only limited experience but I can suggest you do the same as I did.

1. Unplug ZWave stick
2. Delete ZWave device tree in lmce webui
3. plug in ZWave stick
4. test if now your device shows tripped state when magnet is moved

it that doesn't help then un associate all devices from ZWave usb stick including door sensor.
Then include ONLY the door sensor and send associate command via lmce webui

Check which channel us your door sensor using, I got mine working only after it changed and used a new channel.

Hope this helps.

83

Users / Re: Z-wave woes - Everspring door/window sensor not behaving

« on: January 14, 2011, 09:24:59 pm »

I have only AeonLabs USB stick, currently no remote so I can't help you in that regard, but I would almost 100% bet that you bought a faulty device and need to replace it for a new one.

84

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: hdmi cec

« on: January 10, 2011, 10:41:23 am »

Regarding HDMI-CEC, as pointed out elsewhere in the forum. There is a USB2HDMI-CEC device available. If anyone is willing to do dev work on integrating it into our system, or sponsor other people to do so, lmce has all the plumbing in place to control devices via HDMI-CEC.

I'll be glad to sponsor dev work regarding HDMI-CEC feature for lmce. But as my budget is proabably not enough alone has if some lmce dev says how much they would need to get this done maybe we can try setting up an pledge bank or something like that? What do you say?

85

Users / Re: Remotec Z-URC - zwave capable universal remote

« on: January 09, 2011, 08:40:41 pm »

It looks like this remote can be included and associated with Vera, which uses Aeon Labs stick, so I guess it could also be made to work with LinuxMCE, no? But they are also having some issues, for details read Vera forum:
http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=4697.0

86

Users / Re: Wall mounted light control - Any ideas

« on: January 09, 2011, 08:19:29 pm »

Why not just use a ZWave wireless light switch...

Andrew

That would also be mine first suggestion. Orbiter is an overkill for such simple task.

87

Users / Re: PLCBUS/Z wave and rocker switches

« on: January 09, 2011, 08:09:42 pm »

Hi All,

Considering either the PLCBUS or Z-wave for Australia and I'd like to keep my current external light switches and add the in-wall modules. Makes WAF better if she can still operate the light switches.

Does anyone know with the rocker style switches or open/close switches whether either PLCBUS or Z wave will detect the position of the switch and send back the required info?
I asked www.smarthome.com.au if the light switch was open or off if the module would still operate the light and their answer was 'it should' but I'd like to be a bit more certain before buying. What about with the PLCBUS?

Any pros and cons with Australian users? The Z wave market seems fairly small here.

Thanks Josh

Why not try to get your question answered in writing, so that you can return any gear you buy for a refund if it doesn't work as you expected.
Just my 2c.

Cheers,
Valent.

88

Users / Nice article comparing different home automation technologies

« on: January 09, 2011, 08:04:07 pm »

Home automation project, part IV:
http://www.arktronic.com/cms/blog-entries/2009-11-15/home-automation-project-part-iv

"I've found four software solutions for Z-Wave control that look at least a little promising: ThinkEssentials from ControlThink, HSPRO from HomeSeer, Web-Link II from HAI, and the open source LinuxMCE project. HSPRO is the first to go, as it costs a whopping $600. Hell no.
Web-Link looks pretty interesting, but apparently it can't "configure" or "program" the HAI system, which in this case would be a Z-Wave system - I'm not even sure what the difference between "configure" and "program" is in this context. It's certainly cheaper than HSPRO, but it's still around $300, and I couldn't use it to do system setup or to extend its functionality (as far as I can tell), so it's out as well.

ThinkEssentials seems to be a nice program, pretty cheap (around $50-$90), and ControlThink provides an SDK as well. Unfortunately, any program using the SDK cannot run at the same time as ThinkEssentials on the same hardware, plus the SDK has some severe limitations, both control-wise and licensing-wise. Since SDK-based apps have to be separate from ThinkEssentials, I'd pretty much end up writing my own Z-Wave control suite using their limited SDK, which I don't really want to do. ThinkEssentials is, therefore, out.

All that's left now is LinuxMCE. It is extremely powerful, with many features ranging from PVR to home automation to telecommunications. It has its own Z-Wave driver that is compatible with many PC controllers and many devices. It even has a specialized interface for Windows Mobile. Oh, and it's free and open source. The problem is, I'm not sure I'd be able to extend it easily. This software is so complex that I'd have to understand very many aspects of it before I could do anything useful to it. In addition, the documentation for the software - a wiki - is perpetually incomplete and/or out of date, something which open source projects are notorious for. So while LinuxMCE is the most promising software, I don't think I want to go with it considering its issues."

Too bad he didn't contact lmce devels

89

Users / Re: Startup options for mplayer

« on: January 09, 2011, 11:03:19 am »

try searching and see if there are other config files "hidden" somewhere.
try like this:
sudo updatedb
locate config | grep mplayer

hope you find right config file and fix your issue.

Also when you fix your issue please write a wiki tutorial page so others also can get mplayer setup as they wish.

90

Users / Re: Hardware acelaration with HD videos

« on: January 09, 2011, 10:59:55 am »

Sorry for my lame question, but isn't Xine used for video playback? I haven't gotten to multimedia part in my LinuxMCE exploration yet but from what I have been reading so far I got the impression that Xine is used and not mplayer.

Is there a way to pick which video player is going to be used for video playback for each MD separately?

Thank you in advance.