Re: What would you do differently if you were to automate a new home from scratch?

[Marc_F_Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 30 Sep 2006 01:35:35 -0700, "Grahame" <Grahame_Edwards@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote in message  <1159605335.020043.275380@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>Having Degrees and telling people that you have them the first time you
>talk is not very good, do you have any experience?
>
>Going wireless is not good due to reliability problems with
>interference and distance
>Using a laptop or any central system as main control is madness
>distributed control is the only way to give resilience.
>I am sure no one wants to wait for the laptop to reboot to turn on a
>light. Systems like Konnex and C-Bus have this distributed control

Hmmm ... Dr David Nelson -- who designed computerized instrumentation for
experiments in nuclear physics in the 1960's, was a designer of PRIME
Computers, co-founded Apollo Computers (later sold to HP) and then started
Savoy Software and designed and wrote CyberHouse IBM PC-compatible home
automation software -- states that he has installations that have run
continuously 24x7 from 1998 to date. Does his experience seem adequate to
you? Where is the "madness" in his MS-OS, PC-based solution?

Dr. Nelson  makes available an extremely lucid beginning of a book on
concurrency in computer applications and its application to event-based home
automation software design.  Highly Recommended (slow download):

http://www.savoysoft.com/Downloads/Concurrency.pdf

I have run CyberHouse from Fall 1999 with no failure that I know of ever from
the software or OS. I received a free, full-version integer (3.x to 4.0)
upgrade as recently as this February. It has been hands down the best
software value for a major piece of software in 25+ years of dishing out $.
Folks that listened to the hardware bigotry and hawking software vaporware in
this newsgroups beginning in 1999 missed out on a spectacularly good, long
ride ...

And this (Cyberhouse) software can be modified to add and subtract devices on
the fly, and change rules on the fly -- no reboot necessary. In contrast, it
*is* in fact the distributed systems that use (eg) ladder logic that *must*
be stopped to be reprogrammed and then restarted/rebooted. This applies to
Ocelot, security panels and most  "distributed control" devices. One of the
most hilarious  claims made here in comp.home.automation is that 'you program
the Ocelot _once_ '.

(Clipsal is a notable exception that allows devices to added or subtracted on
the fly. Was that your point?)

... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org