Re: Software feature set for automation

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"E. Lee Dickinson" <lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> A week ago, I hurt my back and have just now been able to get off the
couch,
> yesterday.  That was the motivation I needed to finally start building my
> "full" system.

Yes!  When I was bed-confined for a few weeks I began to realize how much
more useful HA could be.  Remote door locks, CCTV cameras, intelligent
alarms, etc.  I don't think we're very far away from robotic companions for
the elderly that are capable of monitoring the health of their owner and
making decisions based on that information.  It's clear from the NYT link I
posted the other day that people bond to things that  respond to them in
human-like ways.  When a robot can go into the kitchen and bring back
anything you select from the fridge, we will have arrived.

The sorry truth is that whatever we're thinking about doing now is probably
not enough.  Who would have thought there would be a WWW 20 years ago that
could tie in video, alarms, telemetry and so much more from anywhere in the
world for a small monthly fee?  In 2025 we'll all be encased in Robo-cop
like titanium exoskeletons.  We'll need housewide microPEX tubing to feed
nanobots to all the devices within the home. And there will be Cat 27 MPT
and Cat 27E MPT arguments breaking out on the net about real-world nanobot
throughput . . .

> The things I want controlled:
>
> Security:  intrusion detection (motion and magnetic), door cams, door
> intercoms accessible from a number of locations, and an electric door
strike
> or two.

When I was stuck in bed, especially when I was alone in the house, I became
keenly aware of every noise in the neighborhood.  I learned to hear the
approach of the mailman when the windows were open thanks to a variety of
neighborhood dogs.

> Lighting:  Scene lighting in kitchen, master suite, living room, and
> outside.  More basic control in guest room, office, and hallways etc.

I agree that guest access areas need to be as simple, and that still seems
to be:

1-click up for on
2-down for off
3-if it's round, twist it!

What I've settled for is simple *everywhere* and the Wizard of Oz whizz-bang
stuff by radio control NOT near the expected switch.    We tried
sticka-switches and even the more expensive Leviton controllers and it all
really failed the MIL spec test.  And that's not MIL for military, either!
As bad as the old X-10 paddle wall switches were, even MIL could figure out
you had to toggle it up and down to get it to turn on if it had been turned
off remotely with the paddle up.  It's remarkable, in fact, how many more
people can make sense of the paddle than the pushbutton.  I guess it's just
naturally to flip it again if it didn't catch the first time.

> Lighting must respond to rules:  "If it's dark, and the bedroom light is
> off, when the bathroom light is turned on, ramp it up gently to 20%"

I've begun to wonder about this part of HA.  Local actions should be
consistent and virtually automatic.  I thought that neat Intermatic timer
mentioned here recently really drove home the point that simpler may indeed
be better.

Compare the house to a biological "housing unit" like a human and it seems
the basic functions are hardwired at a primitive level in us and almost all
animals.  If we had to think much about blinking, we would all be blind.

Anyway, if there was a PIR wallswitch available that ramped at night and
didn't during the day, that's probably a better solution than involving the
house's higher brain functions and communication channels.

Would it be intolerable if it always ramped?  I think a plain old 2-way X-10
lamp module will do this without needing to poll a central controller.  I
only offer this because anything that operates more slowly than "almost
instantaneously" is perceived by the end users as "too slow."  When I
changed the PIR to operate through the CPU-XA based on rules, it slowed down
just enough so that users would hit the wall switch almost at the same
moment the motion triggered on command was coming down.  I probably could
have sped things up had I spent time trying to debug the problem, but I went
back to the direct control of an X-10 light through a Hawkeye and it's been
quite workable.  I only wish it would turn OFF the light when the occupant
left the bathroom.

> AV: Control projector, 100 disc DVD Changer,

Get the Sony 400 disc player.  Modulate the video output to an unused cable
channel, get some remote IR gear like powermids and you can relay commands
back to the changer from anywhere in the house and see the results displayed
on a local TV.  Plays MP3's and SA-CD's, too, and you can input title
information from a PC keyboard.  $400 or less.  Since it takes 5 minutes to
burn MP3's to a CD, I gave up on using a PC as a media center.

> MP3s, etc. Provide ability to distribute any media to any media
> center. System must be able to learn IR codes (roomba, fans,
> other gadgets).
>
> User Interface:  8" touchscreens in kitchen cabinet, and on each side of
> master bed. PDA-sized touchscreens in light switch locations in guest
rooms,
> office, living room, etc.  Touch screens should be able to display media
> (TV, MP3s, news feeds, door cams) as well as be able to access lighting
> control and arm/disarm the security system.

Is there a woman in your life?  There might not be if you implement this
plan without her *significant* input. :-)

> So that's sortof my hardware listing.

<stuff snipped>

I'll respond to the SW issue separately.  Implementation issues await.
That's the real problem with HA.  It really doesn't work well unless you
understand *some* sort of programming logic.  Believe it or not, in the US,
the Bond film "Licence to Kill" had to be renamed from "Licence Revoked"
because a survey showed that more than half the respondents didn't know what
the word "revoked" meant.  Do you think those folks are going to know a
"while loop" from a pile of hoops?  Nyet!  So, HA's gotta really evolve to a
"plug and play" state to become a "crossover" hit.

There are some efforts underway to achieve that.  It's much easier to
control an iron that's got $1 worth of on-board smarts remotely than it is
to control that same iron with $100 worth of aftermarket temperature, status
and current sensors.  When SW can rope all of these appliances into a
house-wide mesh network and generate a "default program" based on simple
end-user questionnaire configuration screens, HA will take off.

Fortunately, we see the seeds of such built-in capability sown all around
us.  The chip prices are falling, the standards are pretty well established
and the manufacturers will fall all over themselves to add it once a certain
critical mass has been reached.

What I want are nanobotic alarm installers that can swarm over the house,
analyze all entry points and then install the appropriate hardware and
cabling to protect it.  When they finish, they write up a report, I round
them up in a can and send them off to their next job.

--
Bobby G.