UK Home automation, z-ware and TV control

[3xca1ibur]

Hi,

I am still new to Linuxmce and am about to try a small scale home automation in the UK and have a couple of quick questions about suppliers and best items to get (at a reasonable price!)

I am thinking that z-wave would work well as I am in rented accomodation and want to be able to take it with me when I go!

For the controller i saw that the selix one is supported out of the box ( http://shop.seluxit.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=29&osCsid=165e82fdc1c50849dfc00aa6c1928bf1 )

 I can't see from the selix site that they do anything to work with the usb hub apart from a sensor though so will it work with these light switches and plugs?

http://www.letsautomate.com/12576.cfm?  http://www.letsautomate.com/11144.cfm?

The next thing I am interested in automating is the TV on and off options...  I know the usbuirt ( http://www.usbuirt.com/order.htm) is an option but to get one for every tv in the house would be quite pricey, are there any cheaper alternatives?  I have a toshiba 42wlt66 tv and a samsung LE32A436T1D, I dont think they have the rs connections but I am not sure exactly what to look for or where i would find the appropriate wiring to control them.

Ok now a couple of - probably super stupid - questions!  One of the things that i really want to use is the follow me functionality but i really don't understand how it works! can anyone enlighten me a little?  Are there any options for running a ASP.net (mono) web server on the apache setup that linux mce uses?  Also what options are there for bit torrents?  I remember reading not to use apt-get after setting up linux mce as it might mess up the packages that are needed/used so what should i use instead?

Cheers,
R

[totallymaxed]

Hi,

I am still new to Linuxmce and am about to try a small scale home automation in the UK and have a couple of quick questions about suppliers and best items to get (at a reasonable price!)

I am thinking that z-wave would work well as I am in rented accomodation and want to be able to take it with me when I go!

For the controller i saw that the selix one is supported out of the box ( http://shop.seluxit.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=29&osCsid=165e82fdc1c50849dfc00aa6c1928bf1 )

The Seluxit ViaSens Home Controller is a very nice product that we often use in installations; See the wiki here for info; http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Seluxit_viaSENS_Home_Controller

 I can't see from the selix site that they do anything to work with the usb hub apart from a sensor though so will it work with these light switches and plugs?

http://www.letsautomate.com/12576.cfm?  http://www.letsautomate.com/11144.cfm?

The two ZWave devices above will work fine with the ViaSens.

The next thing I am interested in automating is the TV on and off options...  I know the usbuirt ( http://www.usbuirt.com/order.htm) is an option but to get one for every tv in the house would be quite pricey, are there any cheaper alternatives?  I have a toshiba 42wlt66 tv and a samsung LE32A436T1D, I dont think they have the rs connections but I am not sure exactly what to look for or where i would find the appropriate wiring to control them.

The USBuirt or a standard MCE IR Transceiver will control any IR device that has an existing template in the system or you can create customer templates for devices that are not. As each TV (or other device) that needs IR control will need that control locally there is no way of avoiding the need for an IR Emitter/Transceiver in each location.

Ok now a couple of - probably super stupid - questions!  One of the things that i really want to use is the follow me functionality but i really don't understand how it works! can anyone enlighten me a little?  Are there any options for running a ASP.net (mono) web server on the apache setup that linux mce uses?  Also what options are there for bit torrents?  I remember reading not to use apt-get after setting up linux mce as it might mess up the packages that are needed/used so what should i use instead?

Look in the wiki for information on Follow-me; http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Follow_Me

All the best


Andrew