RE: Comfort vs HomeVision

["Dan Hoehnen" <dhoehnen@xxxxxxx>]

I have both HV and Comfort in my house.  Together, they form an unbeatable
HA system.

You have a few ways to make them talk.  I think HV supports assigning
inputs
to various security system states so that HV will automatically monitor
those inputs and update its security screen with the correct status.  I'm
not sure of the voltage levels, however, on COmfort outputs and HV inputs,
so connecting may be hard or easy - not sure.  You could always use relays
too (and you may have too anyway).

The UCM for comfort puts out very nice, simple ascii messages that HV can
be
programmed to listen for on one of its serial ports.  This would allow HV
to
know about zones opening, closing, security system changes, zones being
bypassed, alarms from comfort, basically everything.  I wouldn't worry too
much about the rs232 range specs.  Most houses can run 9600 baud rs232
everywhere without a problem.

So, you can have a direct rs232 connection from UCM to HV with no pc in
between.  Of course, I'd love it if you decided to put ACE in the middle :)

The rs485 protocol used by comfort is a constant flood of data and is not
in
a nice format.  So, having HV listen to this is not possible I don't think.

I can't help with which one you should start with, except that if security
is a main concern, then Comfort is the one to start with.

Dan


> The two systems that I have been looking into and am rather keen on
are
> Comfort and HomeVision.
>
> These devices obviously are aimed at different areas but have a high
> degree of overlap,  I would like to ask a few questions about these
> devices if I may:
>
> It seems that the ideal solution is to use both.  My plan is to make
> Comfort responsible for all security related issues and the HomeVision
> responsible for all home control.  We have a TV in nearly every room
and
> I think it would be ideal to feed HV screens, via a modulator, to all
> TVs for local control.  It seems to me that ideally I should connect
HV
> to Comfort so that HV can make use of the occupancy sensors connected
to
> Comfort, can be controlled remotely using the telephone and knows when
> the system is in Away mode for example. Comfort could also ask HV to
> switch appliances on as requested to give that 'lived in look'.
>
> As I see it there are several ways of doing this:
>
>  1. Use X10 signals to send messages between the two devices (not
keen)
>  2. Use RS232 to send messages( better, not sure on range )
>  3. Use the zone I/O lines of Comfort to connect to the I/O lines of
> HomeVision (even less keen)
> ( I had thought about using RS485, but according to Andrew Roberts the
> RS485 interface in Comfort is purely for internal use.)
>
> I think it is currently possible to use the second option with a PC
> in-between running the ACE software?  Can this be done, to a limited
> extent, without a PC, i.e. Comfort connected directly to HV and
> responses/events setup to send messages over RS232?  I have just
bought
> myself a TINI Java computer that I am hoping to program to control
heat
> boost and ventilation in our bathroom and shower room, I may be able
to
> use this (via RS232) to link the two devices.  One day I may even be
> able to use it to provide a Web interface!!?
>
> There are a couple of reasons why I would rather not use a PC in my
home
> control setup (at least initially), one I don't have one!, and two I
> don't really want a PC running 24hrs/day. (Don't really need a H/D for
> home control)
>
> I would appreciate any comments on my proposals:
>
> Is this overkill, should I plump for one or other device?  I feel that
> both devices could compliment one another rather well.
> Can anyone who uses both (Mark M?) comment on how they talk to each
> other?
> Which should I purchase first! (can hardly afford one, let alone both
at
> the moment!)
>
> Can probably sell Comfort to the Wife easier, due to obvious benefits
of
> security ( We currently have a cheap wireless job from Wickes that has
> just packed up!  Could try and fix it, but that may not be in my
> interest!! :) Apparently a capacitor has failed causing the keypad to
> eat batteries in 2 weeks.  Response want £47 to fix it, or £49 to
> replace it!!!!!!! ( Any ideas which capacitors are most likely to give
> this fault - electrolytic? ( Nigel? ) ) ) Sorry! for the excessive
> brackets!!
>
> However, I would be tempted to use it's home control features, which
no
> doubt the wife will hate! ( She hates technology/gadgets! ) This will
> make it very difficult to justify HV :(
>
> Any thought/comments would be much appreciated.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Chris Williams
>
>
>
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