Home automation in Europe?

[Veidit]

Hello

I am looking for home automation hardware that work with 230V and something that I can buy in Europe (hopefully Sweden) that either I or an electrician can install? It also needs to work with LinuxMCE or that can easily be added? Perhaps totallymaxed knows something?

[Veidit]

X10 hardware is avaliable to buy in sweden (and also something called waveman) but is ZigBee or Z-Wave better?

I am looking to dim the lights when I turn a movie on or turn on all lights as soon as I come home (perhaps turn off all the lights from the bed)

[Marie.O]

Hello,

have a look at the European-Installation-Bus. Lots of companies to choose from. Not cheap, but very versatile.
See http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/EIB.

rgds
Oliver

[Veidit]

Yes but it seems a bit overkill or am I wrong?

[hari]

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/PLCBUS

[Marie.O]

Yes but it seems a bit overkill or am I wrong?

It depends on your wants and needs. It sure is more expensive than things like X-10. I recently priced EIB just for kicks.

Starting with the needed stuff is about 300EUR, plus around 100-150EUR per device you want to control.

rgds
Oliver

[ddamron]

Looks like I'll be implementing PLCBUS next...  It seems to be in the right position for 50Hz countries..
It's 2-way, designed for 50Hz 240V.. seems to be a good fit.

Dan

[Amathus]

A.CS are relasing 220 / 230  / 240V / 250V / 50Hz UPB March 2008  :- contact Mario Papas / A.CS mariopapas@optusnet.com.au

[nite_man]

Looks like I'll be implementing PLCBUS next...  It seems to be in the right position for 50Hz countries..
It's 2-way, designed for 50Hz 240V.. seems to be a good fit.

It'd be nice. Since you already have a big experience with similar INSTEON implementation. You can find the protocol description here - http://x10-hk.com/store/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=11&products_id=165&osCsid=79a25bd5130ce6e1e994760b29ef9f1b

[totallymaxed]

Hello

I am looking for home automation hardware that work with 230V and something that I can buy in Europe (hopefully Sweden) that either I or an electrician can install? It also needs to work with LinuxMCE or that can easily be added? Perhaps totallymaxed knows something?

Well you have the following options currently;

lmce-0704 & lmce-0710 both have X10 and z-wave drivers build-in but in both cases communication is only from the Core to the device with no data returning to confirm status of a device etc.

Then you have the option of waiting for Dan's new X10 or PLCBUS drivers which will be full two way drivers. It looks like Dan is close to having a stable release of his X10 driver.

[totallymaxed]

X10 hardware is avaliable to buy in sweden (and also something called waveman) but is ZigBee or Z-Wave better?

I am looking to dim the lights when I turn a movie on or turn on all lights as soon as I come home (perhaps turn off all the lights from the bed)

Waveman is based on a proprietary protocol developed by Aurex Industries in Taiwan.

As to whether Zigbee or z-wave is better... I'm not sure thats the right question to ask. At present we do not have a driver for Zigbee - it would be great to have one though. The current problem with Zigbee though is that as far as I can tell there are no companies out there manufacturing devices you can actually install in a home - there are plenty of companies selling the zigbee radio modules to build into devices but thats about it.

We need to make it easier to add drivers for new home automation control technologies to LinuxMCE - LinuxMCE is 'agnostic' about which standard or protocol is actually used already but adding driver support is not as easy as it could be. Partly that is because of a lack of documentation and partly because we need to have a more developed framework into which protocol specific drivers can be quickly added. Work on this is underway.

[ddamron]

Hello

I am looking for home automation hardware that work with 230V and something that I can buy in Europe (hopefully Sweden) that either I or an electrician can install? It also needs to work with LinuxMCE or that can easily be added? Perhaps totallymaxed knows something?

Well you have the following options currently;

lmce-0704 & lmce-0710 both have X10 and z-wave drivers build-in but in both cases communication is only from the Core to the device with no data returning to confirm status of a device etc.

Then you have the option of waiting for Dan's new X10 or PLCBUS drivers which will be full two way drivers. It looks like Dan is close to having a stable release of his X10 driver.

Totallymaxed,

I haven't written a X10 driver as yet..  the Insteon driver I'm writing ALSO does X10..
Unless there's a HUGE petition for it, I doubt I will write a replacement X10 driver.. the spec is just too old..
Especially when there will be  PLCBUS and Insteon drivers available...

Regards,

Dan

[totallymaxed]

Hello

I am looking for home automation hardware that work with 230V and something that I can buy in Europe (hopefully Sweden) that either I or an electrician can install? It also needs to work with LinuxMCE or that can easily be added? Perhaps totallymaxed knows something?

Well you have the following options currently;

lmce-0704 & lmce-0710 both have X10 and z-wave drivers build-in but in both cases communication is only from the Core to the device with no data returning to confirm status of a device etc.

Then you have the option of waiting for Dan's new X10 or PLCBUS drivers which will be full two way drivers. It looks like Dan is close to having a stable release of his X10 driver.

Totallymaxed,

I haven't written a X10 driver as yet..  the Insteon driver I'm writing ALSO does X10..
Unless there's a HUGE petition for it, I doubt I will write a replacement X10 driver.. the spec is just too old..
Especially when there will be  PLCBUS and Insteon drivers available...

Regards,

Dan

Thanks Dan for clearing that up... I realised that detail but forgot to mention it ;-)

I agree there is little point in breaking out X10 into a separate driver if the Insteon code will do the job for both.

[hari]

I haven't written a X10 driver as yet..  the Insteon driver I'm writing ALSO does X10..
Unless there's a HUGE petition for it, I doubt I will write a replacement X10 driver.. the spec is just too old..
Especially when there will be  PLCBUS and Insteon drivers available...

plcbus also has X10 support with some cheap gateway (additionally includes an appliance plug).

I went through the CM11A device code yesterday. It's not that complicated. But i don't have any X10 devices..

best regards,
Hari

[Veidit]

PLCBUS seems to be the right choise, now I just need to find shops/sites that sells is (if even possible in Sweden)