Re: Anyone tried these AEI wireless units? **Long!**

[Doogie Brodie <ukhad@xxxxxxx>]

vectra999uk2002 wrote:
> I am looking at automating lights etc, and altough x10 is popular,
> its a bit expensive.I also like the idea of being wireless!
>
> I write software for PIC micros, so I thought I may be able to
> interface these particular units to sensors etc.

In the dim and distant past I thought about devices similar to these,
but ended up plumping for X10.

I'm just going to have a bit of a brain fart, so excuse me if it gets a
bit rambling ;>

***Yes, it *is* long and rambling!***

First, I'm surprised that there's a computer interface available for
these - it does instantly provide more possibilities, but what is the
software like, can you change it for something else, can you write your
own if it doesn't do exactly the things you want?

*Everything* is RF based..... what size and construction is your house?
You might find issues with getting signal from your remote to a specific
device if it's at the other side of your house.

PC interface says it's limited to 64 devices, whereas X10 is
"limited"
to 256 but you have the option of giving multiple devices the same address.

There's nothing like an IR interface, which means sitting in your living
room you'd need at least a Pronto, plus their remote (which IMHO is not
particularly attractive!) - I don't know if the Pronto's that have RF
functionality can be persauded to operate these or not, but if not
you're stuck with 2 controllers. That also means you can't have a system
power up macro to do your video output device, AV amp, video source
device and lighting all with one button push.

Their lightswitch replacement idea seems to involve doing something at
the ceiling rose end and having a stick on switch, so you'd either have
that beside your existing switch, or replace that for a blanking plate.
>from
light from the doorway, or from their remote, not both.

Their devices are "Site Code 8 Bit Factory Preset" which I guess
means
you can't do code sharing on multiple devices to behave at the same
time, but also that you need the particular controller for a device to
operate it..... ie if you have remote control ceiling rose and table
lamps in the same room, you'd need *2* of their remotes to operate them,
unless you can do something with the PC interface to simulate scene
lighting....

Infact, looking at the PC interface again, it says nothing about
receiving, only transmitting, therefore you can't send commands to the
PC and have it send different commands out, and you can't have commands
trigger things on the PC. There isn't even the mention of executing
timed events from the PC! This may be a shortcoming of the synopsis or
it might be a feature that just isn't there.

No mention of a web interface with the PC software, therefore limits
flexibility of using web pad/ tablet/ ipaq etc as a control device

They have a PIR light switch, but the PIR is *in* the lightswitch, which
means its probably OK for entering the room (well, not for my hall the
way my front door is) but doesn't give you the flexibility to position
and angle it where you want to best detect occupancy.

There is no immediate scope for integrating with, say a burglar alarm
system etc without you developing something yourself.

There is no scope for controlling IR devices, like HomeVision does out
of the box, and HomeSeer can do via a cheap interface (actually I must
get around to doing that... soon!)

Just to give you an example..... I'm sitting here in front of the TV
with the laptop and the Pronto. I have the Pronto setup so I can control
all the lights in this room directly, and initiate a couple of scene
setting/ going out macros, which affect both TV/Amp etc and lights. From
my laptop, I can control any of the lights/ appliances on X10 anywhere
in my house (ok, its a small flat, but the principle is there!) and I
can view a log of what has changed recently etc. I have a PIR in my
kitchen, which not only switches on my kitchen light, but when it goes
off, it switches the hall light off too. The hall light is switched on
either manually, or by triggering the PIR on the inside front door.



So! There you go.... apologies for the length of this..... in short I'd
say if you feel that, given some of the shortcomings I've pointed out,
it still feels like the right solution to dabble with, don't let me/
anyone else stop you, I could be wrong, and you could be not as
"techie"
as most of us (but from your comments about PIC programming, I doubt
that!) but IMHO once you start getting into playing with these things,
you'll start hitting walls left right and centre, and will be looking to
upgrade to X10 or another solution.

Whether you feel that this set of products will totally meet your needs,
or feel its right to dabble with one of these sets and then sell it on
ebay while upgrading to X10, or just go straight into X10 is totally up
to you.

One of the vast advantages of going X10 is the sheer knowledge in this
group, both of the variety of different hardware available, and the
different software packages/ stand alone controllers which can be used
in conjunction with them. Basically almost any scenario you can think
of, there's a huge chance that *someone* in the group has thought of it
before and come up with an X10 solution, more than likely several people
will have solved it in different ways, giving you different viewpoints.


--
Doogie