Re: Recommendations for newbie?

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Gary,

Sounds to me like the best fit for your stated requirements would be 
Comfort. - looking through your list, there's nothing at all there that
could not be handled by a Comfort/Homeseer combination.

X10 is "ok" for communication purposes, but far from ideal, -
there is a 
noticable lag caused by the propogation delay of the X10 signals over the
wire, and of course, there is the very real possibility of transmission
failures, as X10 is not a resilient protocol.

If you were to use Comfort, you could (should) install a type 1 UCM, and
connect that to the Homeseer PC and use Patrick Lidstone's plugin to get
them talking. This is a lot faster than X10 signalling, and Patrick's
plugin 
is free... :-)

WRT sensors, - pretty much anything is compatible, any contact closure 
device can be connected to Comforts zone inputs, and the only thing I 
imagine that a qualified installer might be a requirement for is if you
want 
to have DEOL resitors fitted, (which I couldn't have done myself).

However, TBH, I'm less than impressed with the knowledge/expertise of the
comfort installers that I've used/heard other people talking about. If I
were doing it again, I'd DIY it, - save a shedload of cash into the
bargain, 
and gain a lot better experience of the thing to boot.

Oh, and one final thing, - Home automaters aren't *too* hard to find, - I
think there's quite a high incidence of them on this list... ;-)

HTH

Paul G.



>From: "garygfx" <garygfx@xxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>Subject: [ukha_d] Recommendations for newbie?
>Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 19:33:40 -0000
>
>I'm hoping I could trouble you guys for some advice please? I want
to
>automate my home to a certain extent without going OTT. I need a
>reliable alarm system, motion detectors (some wireless, some
>hardwired), and for it to have a computer controlled interface
maybe
>via X10 and Homeseer. I have a few X10 modules at the moment.
>
>I'd like the motion sensors to also activate recording of video on
to
>hard disk from 2 or 3 security cameras. Everything should link
>together and be programmable via a PC and ideally send security
>alerts via email and sound a siren if there's a break-in.
>
>I'm looking at Comfort but have no idea what else is available or
how
>it compares, what motion detectors are compatable with Comfort, or
>how tricky it is to wire up. www.comfort.org.uk says it needs a
>qualified electrician to install. I can change light switches and
>mains sockets and install a LAN - is that enough?
>
>Recommendations are warmly appreciated. If you have a really good
>system then I'd be interested in hearing about it. I want to get
>something up and running within a few weeks and I need your help.
>Home Automaters are hard to find!!!
>
>Thanks guys!
>Gary.
>
>




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