Byron Home Easy - First Impressions

[Mal Lansell <mal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My local B&Q (Wellingborough) finally got their stock, and I've
been
playing with some of it today.

There are four ranges -

1) On-Off (simple switched devices, equivalent to X10 appliance modules).
2) Timer-Dimmer (various kinds of lamp dimmer, including dimmable
ceiling roses, and a remote that includes timer functions).
3) Outdoor - weatherproof gear for use outside
4) Ultimate - universal remote, base station and and heating controller.

I bought a plug-in on-off module, a pair of plug-in dimmers with
timer-remote, and the Ultimate-range remote control.
Warning: watch out for the pricing - my B&Q had a lot of differences
between shelf and checkout prices, none of which were in my favour.

The remote from each range can only control devices from its own range
and those below, so the on-off remote will only handle on-off devices,
whereas the dimmer-remote will control dimmers and on-off devices (but
not items in the Ultimate range), and the Ultimate remote can control
them all.

External build quality seems good (its too soon to report on
reliability), and devices are easy to pair with a remote (just press the
button on the device, and send a command from the remote).  Each device
can be paired with up to six remote controls.  Response is instantaneous
(a relief after X10).  Dimmers soft-start and fade quickly to their last
level.  The only downside with the dimmer remote is that you can't just
press buttons for fade-up and fade-down - instead you hold down a button
to start a fade-up/down cycle, and press it again to stop it when it is
at the right level.

The maximum range for me is about 50ft, as tested from my garden with
the signal passing through one wall, albeit a wall that is a very solid
three-Victorian-bricks thick.

*Ultimate Remote:*
The Ultimate remote controls everything from all four ranges, and also
lets you dim directly to a level (which means the protocol is different,
and does not yet work with RFXCOM - see below), but there are only 5
brightness settings when doing it directly from the on-screen brightness
scale.  There are eight icons on the left of the display for controlling
devices directly.  Four are for dimmable lamps, 3 for switched sockets
and one for heating.  To turn a lamp on you press its icon and then
press a big tick icon at the bottom of the screen.  It does remember
which item was last controlled, so you can come back and change
brightness or turn it off without first having to select the lamp.

There are four "mood" buttons (i.e. scenes).  The first is for
all off.
The other three can have up to 8 dimmers or sockets assigned to them.
Unfortunately, to trigger a "mood", you have to press and hold
its
button for around 4 seconds while it counts down.  This is probably to
avoid accidental triggering, but is an annoyingly long delay.  It also
beeps once a second while it counts down (in fact it beeps with every
key press), and I can't find any way to turn that off.

The remote itself is a bit chunky, and is made of heavy shiny black
plastic (but what isn't these days?) so it's fingerprint city.  On the
upside the monochrome LCD screen is clear with large icons and responds
cleanly to a light touch.

I've not tried controlling a TV/DVD etc yet, but it is a learning remote
so I don't anticipate any trouble.  I would assume that like other
universal remotes, it will not work with the old Pace/NTL cable boxes.

*RFXCOM:*
It seems that the Ultimate remote and the Dimmer remote use different
protocols.  The RFXCOM transmitter/receiver already works with the
dimmer/on-off protocols, (which appear to be the same as those used by
KlikOn-KlikOff and Domia Lite) and will control items from the on-off
and dimmer ranges in much the same way as with X10 RF - i.e. you can
dim/bright, but not to a specified level.  I've been talking to Bert at
RFXCOM and he's going to have a go at decoding the Ultimate remote
protocol.  With any luck, we'll eventually have a pretty useful range of
PC controllable devices at a decent price (for once).

HTH

Mal