RE: Suggestion for a project

["Keith Doxey" <ukha@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Frank,

Having similar features to an existing Hi-End system is something that we
all aspire to. Crestron, Lutron, Panja(Phast/AMX), LinnKnekt QED Systemline
etc. Everyone gets ideas or at least some form of inspiration from existing
products or concepts that they see, but as John said, to deliberately
reverse engineer a competitors product to aid the design of your own is
leaving you wide open to all sorts of legal action etc.

Its a slightly different situation if your business is installing and
maintaining equipment, whether White Goods, AV Equipment or Air
conditioning
etc. If during your daily work you consistantly attend/repair faults caused
by bad design and you decide to design your own system deliberately
avoiding
those pitfalls then you should be free of any comebacks unless you copy
someones design except for the weak link.

Whilst it would be nice to design the ultimate HA system that did
everything
I dont believe it is a realistic goal. We all have different desires and
budgets. I believe that what we design should fulfill the functions that we
desire of the unit, be it AV, Lighting, Environment Control(HVAC &
Power
monitoring), Security etc.

Each sub system should be designed to function without reliance on other
systems, but at the same time be able to integrate with whatever other sub
systems we design. We should also build in a mechanism for integrating with
other systems such as Comfort, HomeVision and other commercial and homebrew
systems via known interfaces such as Contact Closures, RS232, RS485, TCP/IP
etc.

To limit our designs to only work with other UKHA designs would severly
limit the appeal to a wider potential customer base. I would love to have a
high end system like Crestron. The starting price for the controllers isnt
too bad. I have a price list from a couple of years ago and a Crestron
MiniSystem was about £1500. The catch is when you want to expand it. Every
expansion card was either £389 or £549. Same for keypads. Even a simple IR
Emitter was £39 and was no different to the Xantech emitters or the one
that
I build for less than a quid (for which James kindly created the tutorial).
Just to buy the expansion cards to replicate the ports supplied on the
Minisystem would cost about the same as another 2 Minisystems. For a non
corporate environment I believe Homevision is actually a better solution.

We do have the required skills within the group and we are now geting
focused towards a common goal. I believe the next few months will see some
serious advances in the range of options available to the UK Automators.

Keith



-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Mooney [mailto:fm@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 22 June 2001 16:46
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Suggestion for a project


Hello all,

I do monitor the postings every day and would say that you are a
very active group.

I know you are working on a number of projects, But i think you need
to maybe create a system of your own for complete automation of homes,
because it is obvious that within the group you have some serious
talent.

I, In my line of business am always looking to add on, Services to
offer my customers. So in the process of this i have acquired a number
of Automation System CPU's. My query is would the group, As a project
like to receive one of these CPU's to carry out a post Morton and
possibly lead to you design your own. This i will provide to you at no
cost and then maybe after we could talk about sponsorship, etc..

PLEASE DO NOT THINK I AM TRYING TO DRUM UP BUSINESS.

I do not participate in the postings very much, But i do enjoy them and
think you could all do a lot more given the resource, All i am offering
is my 2 pence in the way i can.

If this is not appealing to the group then i will not be offended and
please do not be offended by my offer, I am only trying to help.

Frank Mooney






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Automated Home UK
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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____________________________________
Automated Home UK
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
____________________________________

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/