Sunday, August 3, 2008
Home Automation Forum : Now Open!
Related entries: Announcements, Home Automation
I get a lot of email daily asking me about my home automation system and the types of control, wiring, devices, etc. I use. I’ve decided as part of Myro Control to open up a forum that will allow for this type of discussion to happen in an easier and more efficient way than me replying back to hundreds of people. So if anyone has any questions about home automation please post them in the newly formed forum.
P.S. If there isn’t a forum topic that suits your question, please post it in the “General Home Automation” forum and I’ll create forums based on the questions.
- MAVROMATIC/MYRO FORUM
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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Cartell CP-2 — Automation with Driveway Detection
Related entries: Home Automation
Here’s another key outdoor automation component, the Cartell CP-2 Self Contained Driveway Sensor Probe. This is pretty self explanatory, your bury it about 6” away from your driveway, 18” deep and it senses when a car, motorcycle or other vehicle comes onto your driveway. This is a nice feature to automatically turn lights on, switch/record a video source (camera) or do something when a car approaches your driveway. The CP-2 is self contained and comes with a 4-conductor cable in lengths from 100-500’. You can even power it from your HAI OmniPro II since it takes low power 12v (via two conductors) and the other two conductors go to a zone. The CP-2 starts at about $200 for a 100’ version and goes up.
- Cartell
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Automate Your Irrigation/Sprinkler System with Rain8!
Related entries: Home Automation
Lots going on at the house this summer… landscaping is finally underway. When the house was being built I focused on all the interior automation but also ran as much cabling outside. I’m happy to report that I ran enough conduit under driveways and walkways and wire to satisfy all my needs. Landscape lighting and irrigation requires a lot of wiring especially if you want it to integrate nicely with your home automation system (HAI OmniPro II).
Because I don’t want another controller, I’m staying away from the standard sprinkler system controllers and going with the Rain8net by WGL Designs. This device interfaces your irrigation valves with your OmniPro II so you can easily control the irrigation system via programs. There is also an optional rain sensor that plugs into the Rain8 to keep you from looking like an idiot.
Best part is that is costs the same as a mid-high-end programable 8-zone sprinkler controller… about $100.
- Rain8Net
- KB: Intergrating Rain8 with HAI OmniPro II
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Saturday, July 26, 2008
Myro — The new name for my Home Automation Control Interface Software
Related entries: Home Automation
Scratch “Pick a name for software” off the list. Myro is what I’m calling my home automation control interface. What does it mean? Well, it’s an open vessel, meaning it’s a made up name, like Tivo, Drobo or Roku — I can turn into anything.
In this case it’s a noun and describes a clean and simple home automation control interface that will hopefully become a household name ;) I wanted something that is short and easy to say to someone — “Honey, can you arm Myro before you leave?”
The weird part is that I woke up with the name in my head. It stands for “My” “Ro”bot. Home Automation is a few short steps from artificial intelligence — still very primitive at the moment but soon software and hardware will be able to do more than close blinds and adjust your lighting and temperature. Hopefully, Myro will be there to help make it all easier to interact with.
The url to the main website is: http://www.myrocontrol.com (my:ro — home automation control, simplified!). The site only asks for your email address so I can notify the folks interested when I release the software and the real site. This is also the site where you will be able to see a demo video.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
HAI: Home Automation Interface Software PREVIEW #4
Related entries: Home Automation
It’s been a while since I have given an update on the progress. The interface is completely tied into the .NET code. It has been running perfectly on a Nobu Embedded Window XP touchscreen for a couple weeks with no issues — no memory leaks — no performance issues at all! I’ve got a name and website URL, I just need to spend some time designing the site. I also have the licensing key system/server ready to go. So what’s left is figuring out a fair price for the software and some legal work. I will be offering a trial version for those that want to test out before you buy.I’d love to know what you guys think “fair” pricing is… I want to keep it at a price point that every HAI install has my UI software running. I’m also looking into offering a bundled UI/Touchscreen that’s “certified” to run my software. Trouble is keeping costs reasonable.
I will be posting a video demo and launching the website (with product name) in the next few weeks. Cheers!
Here is a screenshot of the climate status panel:
This screenshot is of the controls panels:
The UI response is pretty much instant (if on a wired network). If you’re using wireless, it’s only as good as your connection link.
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Monday, July 7, 2008
HAI: Home Automation Interface Software PREVIEW #3
Related entries: Home Automation
Here are a few more screenshots of my UI… The following screen shown is of the messages viewer. Now, using your OmniPro you can easily have your family select messages to display. You can also record and playback voice memos if you have it wired that way (I’ll be posting a video on how I have it working in my house/touchscreen). To access the message panel, you just tap on the arrow and the panel slides up and down.
This next screen shot is of the Status panel and shows how easy it is to bypass and restore zones… tap on the item, the appropriate options display — wife tested!
The last screen shot of the day is from the Events panel. Now you can easily see all the system events with easy to follow status icons and text.
I will be posting more screenshots and a video demo so you can see the animations and the performance.
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Thursday, July 3, 2008
HAI: Home Automation Interface Software PREVIEW #2
Related entries: Home Automation
Here’s another preview of my UI software. Things are progressing… my battle right now is, do I support older than 2.16 firmware? Firmware 2.16 adds Omni-Link II which is better, but I don’t want to leave the folks with 2.15 and earlier out (of course they could upgrade their firmware). I support both, but the logic required gets tricky — I’m worried about future updates and how I’ll need to support legacy if I decide to support older firmwares now. What do you guys think?
Performance is pretty good but anytime you add a graphical user interface CPU usage will be higher than boring native UI controls — overall I’m happy with how it’s performing. I will be optimizing some things a bit later to improve things.
I have also received great input from users and I will try to incorporate as much as I can into this product, so keep sending requests and suggestions!! My next product will offer a lot more and will service a higher-end market. All this has spawned from a need for an easy to use, cost effective, great looking interface for my home automation system (HAI based) and from the reactions so far, I think other feel the same! I hope to have an actual trial version as well as a product name soon. More to come!
- View Larger
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Monday, June 23, 2008
HAI: Home Automation Interface Software
Related entries: Home Automation
The previous beta testing went well, I had many folks download and test the software and even found numerous bugs! I’m now hard at work finishing up the UI portion of the software. The interface will work with all common aspect ratios and resolutions. Here is a sneak peak at the progress…
View Larger
Please send me your comments/suggestions…
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Monday, June 16, 2008
HP iQ504 TouchSmart: Great Home Automation Controller?
Related entries: Home Automation
HP is releasing a new line called the TouchSmart which is an all-in-one multimedia PC with integrated 22-inch touchscreen. This looks like a great control device (if you have the right software) for your living room or kitchen… the best part, it’s about $1300!
Here are some quick specs:
- 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 processor, 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM (max), dual-layer DVD-R drive
- Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 graphics (up to 358 MB shared memory)
- Tri-mode Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, 5 USB, 1 FireWire, 1 ExpressCard, 5-in-1 memory card reader
- Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit version); includes wireless keyboard and optical mouse
Amazon.com has it available for pre-order
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
HAI TESTER: Please Help Me Beta Test!
Related entries: Home Automation
Hey folks! I’ve been getting a lot of requests on the status of my home automation interface/software. Well, huge progress has been made! As most of you know, I’m a huge fan and supporter of HAI and all their products! So, it only made sense to support their product in phase one. I have completely written the HAI Omni-link Connection Protocol in .NET (Omni-Link II being added now), which was a great exercise (now I know exactly what it takes to port to OSX, iPhone, etc). Before I release my front-end application I would love if any HAI user can test with their system.
I have stripped out the graphical (Flash) UI from this version, so it’s not really pretty, but that’s not the purpose of this beta release. I’d like to test for connectivity, commands, and memory leaks on as many systems as possible, so please download and let me know how it runs. I have some very cool features planned for the next release (which will be a smaller group — contact me for more details). If you have any questions please send an email or post a comment below. Enjoy!
- TESTING IS OVER, THANKS!: HAI Tester v1.0.0.4 (Requires .NET 2.0 CLR)
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