Re: Bye Bye Standby kit experiences / comments?

[Rob Iles <rob.iles@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Lee,

1st - I'm slightly biased - as I work with the BBS Team; have been involved
with the "PC-Interface" (online controller), wrote the Online
Site
(live.domia.eu), wrote the Harmony-BBS Component (To link it to Harmony
2007). I also share an office with the BBS Team - whilst working on
Harmony/DomiaLifestyle!

With that said - I don't gain anything from "positive reviews",
I'm not on
comission, don't receive a salary from BBS. I *do* get heavily involved in
support - particularly on the BBS Forums.

BBS + Domia Lite are the same thing (different plastics). Domia Lite is, I
believe, being phased out. (bargains to be had??)

So, my experience:

Range: Generally "as advertised", 20-30M not a problem.

Reliability: Excellent - as long as you stick to the rated wattage (Hint -
no, you can't plug your washing machine, tumble drier and dishwasher into a
4A/1KW socket! :s )

Inteference(1): The appliance/dimmer modules, used with the remote
controls,
do no seem to suffer at all with radio inteference.

Inteference(2): The "Online Controller" *IS* suceptible to RF
noise - if
located to close to a wireless router, laptop, microwave etc - it won't
send
a signal. (It waits for "quiet" before sending).  I've yet to
come across a
scenario where relocating the controller (using a longer cat5 cable) didn't
solve this issue.

Controller - early firmware versions had issues with non rfc-compliant DHCP
Servers/Routers. All is well in 2.9 (current release). Also, pre firmware
2.7, firmware update was a return to factory effort - it's no end user
upgradable (only relevant if you somehow buy an old one!)

HA Integration: Harmony has a dedicated component for it. :)

"roll your own" is easy enough - either UDP / TCP Socket based -
see the BBS
Forums for documentation. A number of users have written their own - -
there's even a fledgling hardware hacking scene.

Biggest gripe (from HA point of view) - the Dimmers.  Not HA friendly,
IMHO.  They turn on (soft start) as expected. They turn off as expected.
when turned on, they turn on to last level. All OK.  To dim them, you turn
them on, hit on again (to start them ramping up/down*) then press on for a
3rd time to stop at desired level.  (*) whether they go up / down depends
where in the up/down cycle they stopped last time, as far as I can tell.
Thus, keeping track of dim level in software is nigh on impossible (I've
not
even attempted it!). As none of the devices report their status, remote
control of dimmers is, IMHO, best avoided. (You could work around by always
sending an off before an on, if you want them on, but this is messy. If the
dimmer was already on, any you switch it on again, you end up with rising
and falling lights - amusing once or twice - - zero-WAF long term).

So, dimmers aside - very good replacement for X10.

I've requested "pre-set dim" be included in future versions of
the dimmer
hardware, but can not say for sure if / when this will happen.

You can see the Controller in action at online.domia.eu/demo/

Hope this is of some help,

Rob


2009/2/17 Vargster <vargster@xxxxxxx>

>   Chaps,
>
> I'm thinking of replacing all my X10 kit with BBSB kit, due to recent
> issues
> with X10.
> It's been working fine for years, really fine, but lately there have
been
> just too many glitches and the WAF is starting to slide.
> Given that all I use is the PC interface, three remotes, four lamp
modules
> and a dozen applience modules (none of the weirder kit), it could
easily be
> swapped for a BBSB controller, several starter kits and a few lamp
modules.
>
> The $64,000 question is - Is this a wise move? And what's the real
world
> range of the remotes and the controller? Does it cause/suffer from
radio
> interference? Is it reliable in operation? Is the hardware reliable?
Etc?
>
> Lastly, am I right in thinking the BBSB kit and the Domia Lite kit are
> compatible?
>
> Cheers,
> Lee
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>



--
Rob Iles

Harmony - www.domialifestyle.com
Software Development - www.rob-iles.co.uk/rmidevelopment

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Rob_Iles
Skype: rob_iles
12seconds: http://12seconds.tv/channel/rmi


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