Re: Comments on My Basics

[Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 18:22:03 -0700, AZ Woody wrote:
> Chris Hackett wrote:
>> I hope I'm not inviting another "discussion" like my recent "Mentor /
>> Advisor" post.
>>
>> But, I'd like to get some comments / thoughts / ideas about how I think I'll
>> start my journey into HA.

>> CharmedQuark for the central software control, skins, etc ..
>> Elk M1 Gold panel
>> SageTV for AV
>>
>> Thoughts?

For Linux you have lots options, lots of them very DIY but here are
two:

ECS (for both Linux and Windows - commercial software) or
Misterhouse (for both Linux and Windows - GPL software)
I don't know if Elk is supported by either, but various controllers
are supported.
As for TV there's MythTV (you can purchase of the a complete system at
www.tvease.net - boards and MythTV installed ~ $550).

> For basics, one place to start is the "Smart Homes for Dummies" book,
> and maybe the "Linux Smart Homes for Dummies" book.
>
> (Neil..if he buys your book do I get a kickback? :) )

We'll have to have that discussion off line. :-)

> One of the authors posts here regularly....

Amd I hope to be posting more often now. I hope to be done with
another (paying) project soon.

> Also, another interesting place is the TV.  "This Old House" seems to
> doing some home automation almost every year.  It's only part of one
> show each season, but if you look fast you can catch brand names, and
> also a bit about special wiring.  First time they did it was a few years
> back - and it was about lighting, and good old X10 was discussed.

Actually one of the homes Bob Veal-la (moo ;-) worked on sued his show
for the disaster they did one a home. I don't think it was a "This Old
House" home.

> Actually, the lighting stuff is probably the most stable right now,
> IMHO.  I'm still using X10 modules I bought 15+ years ago!

And there are now lots of options, I hope most of them  are at least a
little better.

--
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.linuxha.com/                         Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/               Backup site