Re: Comfort and X10

[Raymond <Reb.barnett@xxxxxxx>]

> I am seriously considering Comfort as a HA controller. Do you find it
> able to do all the HA tasks you want, or do you find it too security
> orientated in practice? Do you programe it via a pc and s/w or a
> Komport?
>
>
A difficult question to answer objectively, and perhaps one worthy of
wider discussion by people in the group who use other HA controllers.  I
chose Comfort primarily because it is a security device - I needed a new
alarm and didn't want to pay twice for an expensive alarm and HA
controller. The HA applications I have created have grown up along the
lines of Comfort's particular strengths, I don't know what avenue they
would have gone down if I had a different controller...

>From that perspective, it strikes me that HA and security are
intrinsically related since they both take inputs (such as movement)
from the house, and provide outputs to lights and sirens. I don't know
in detail what uses others have put HA to, and I'd be interested to
hear, but mine have centered around automating mainly lighting control
based upon our activity in the house. To this end Comfort is ideal since
it integrates inputs from all the PIRs around the house, a light sensor,
and it knows whether we're in, out, or in bed depending on what state
the alarm is in.

Thus I suppose I do find HA development with Comfort to be security
orientated, but I find this a benefit, not a hindrance. For example,
it's nice to have the lights turn on as you wander around the house, but
Comfort also makes it easy to ensure that they don't turn on if a
burglar wanders around the house. (Even better you can set the lights to
flash which along with the siren is fairly disorientating).

I started off programming using the keypad/telephone interface, which
was fine so long as you don't get too ambitious and you keep a written
record of reponses that you develop. I now programme using the PC which
although I still find it best to develop applications on paper first, it
does give a number of advantages: you can backup and easily restore your
existing proven programme; you can see all responses more or less at a
glance, and hence spot any adverse interactions a bit more easily; you
are less prone to introducing typo errors; you can cut and paste
applications and settings between saved programmes.

The PC interface still isn't perfect: notably it doesn't do quite enough
to help you keep track of what uses you have already put timers and
counters to. However, a lot of the difficulty stems from the fact that
event driven programming is hard, and more so still when it is events
occurring in a house. There are a fair few states that a room/house can
be in and the required behaviour of a single light varies considerably.

The final point is to say that Comfort does not provide all the HA
functionality I dream of adding to the house. However, of all the
controllers I looked at, Comfort comes closest in terms of total
functionality, and functionality per pound. Where it falls down is in
features such as voice control and touch screen support - I would love a
smallish touch screen to provide the user interface to home automation,
that would double as a web interface for providing features such as a
quick overview of traffic conditions in the morning, weather reports,
and recipes in the kitchen. I think though this is moving away from the
core definition of home automation and is more about a centralised user
interface for house information. There is no reason that Comfort cannot
provide these in conjuction with another device such as a PC...

I initially shied away from the idea of using a PC, chiefly because I
don't want my alarm dependant upon something as flaky as a PC - there
are also a number of security concepts not easily possible with a PC.
When touch sensitive flat screens become a little cheaper I may
experiment with a PC interface to Comfort using X10 as the messaging
protocol (a bit messy but about the only way at the moment). I also
intend to look at voice control using the Microsoft Agent sometime
sooner. But, the list of projects I have is huge and growing and I still
have to earn a living so don't count on it... The point is more that
Comfort is probably the best thought out and implemented centralised HA
controller I have come across. However you have to get your hands dirty
to install it yourself, and it takes some programming effort for
anything more than the simplest HA. If you are interested or prepared to
tinker there are few limits when it comes to what you can plug into
Comfort.

Bear in mind too that internal features of Comfort are very easy to use:
you don't need to worry about configuring a modem to interpret tones
from from a phone to provide remote control by phone: Comfort does all
that for you easily...


Sorry if this has been a bit of a brain splat. Hope it helps.

Ray.






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