Automated house visitor Kevin Warner has been building a detailed house automation system based on a HomeSeer backend managed from touch screens utilizing Cinemars MainLobby system. inspect out the pictures of his lovely installation together with his opinions on what works finest as well as his thoughts on future additions.
Submission by Kevin Warner – Over the past few years I’ve been building a house Automation system based on two industrial applications, Homeseer as well as Mainlobby. Homeseer supplies the majority of the interfaces as well as the backend processing. Mainlobby supplies a flash based front end that I screen on touchscreens around the house. This enables for complex events to be quickly managed trough a graphic rich front end.
It likewise enables for the debt consolidation of different bits of info into a single source. An example of this is the primary front page that’s normally displayed on each touchscreen, this shows todays as well as tomorrows weather, the present electrical usage in the house, the last caller (with date as well as time) in addition to a calendar as well as the present time.
All the info is updated in genuine time. The front page likewise supplies a menu bar along the bottom which links to other screens that supply a lot more manage as well as information. These are grouped into ‘Media’, ‘Weather’, ‘Lights’, ‘Energy’, ‘Internet’, ‘Enviro’ as well as ‘Security’.
Description of Scenes:
‘Media’ is a popup menu that links to either ‘Music’, ‘Radio’, ‘TV’ or ‘Mixer’.
‘Music’ supplies a Jukebox like interface to choose from a big library of ripped MP3’s utilizing ‘Musiclobby’ which is a plugin for ‘Mainlobby’
‘Radio’ supplies a similar ‘Jukebox’ like interface to enable choice of different radio channels. The source for the radio channels is a devoted sky digibox found in Node 0, managed by Infa red with Homeseer.
‘TV’ enables any type of of the audio/video sources to be sent to any type of of the spaces in the home utilizing a Matrix switcher managed by Homeseer. The video sources are currently sky HD, sky digital (Multiroom), Blu-ray player, a Popcorn hour media player as well as the video output from the primary automation server showing a cut down version of the primary house screen in addition to the MP3 audio.
‘Matrix’ enables full manage of all the function of the Russound whole home audio controller.
‘Weather’ utilizes a combination of the ‘Weatherlobby’ Mainlobby plugin as well as the weather condition station I have found in the back garden. This supplies present info as a 5 day forecast.
‘Lights’ provides manage of lots of lights throughout the home which are X-10 managed with Homeseer.
‘Energy’ screens present as well as previous electrical usage for the house. The data shows up in Homeseer with a present expense system providing near genuine time usage in addition to historical data.’
‘Internet’ introduces Web Explorer on the Airpanels.
‘Enviro’ provides present temperature of each space in addition to the whole home Mechanical warm healing Ventilation system. The data is from a 1-wire network of temperature sensors feeding into Homeseer. The next stage is to integrate heating manage as well as info which will be with the comfort alarm/Homeyell Smartfit system (in development).
‘Security’ will likewise provide details on the alarm system as well as CCTV cameras, at the moment it’s extremely much a work in development so nothing to see yet!
Description of Hardware – The majority of the hardware is housed in a central place (Node 0) where all the cabling termintates. In Node 0 is are the patch panels, the
Alarm panel as well as a 22U 19″ rack housing 2 sky digiboxes, 1 sky HD box, the Russound whole home audio controller, the whole home video Matrix, the Blu ray player as well as Popcorn hour media player in addition to the Automation server, a CCTV server and a Remote Desktop (RDP) server which holds the screens for the Airpanel touchscreens.
Cabling – during substantial restoration as well as extension works I was able to set up a great deal of cable. The final result is that the home is ‘flood wired’ with Cat5e cable, with at least 2 ports per room. The Cat5 has several utilizes as well as in addition to the typical computer network connections, is likewise utilized for phone points, distributing audio as well as HD video (using Baluns), Russound keypads, ABUS audio zones†and some power over CAT5.
Day to Day usage – The “always on” availability of the touchscreens makes it extremely practical to gain access to typical functions such as weather condition forecast, present temperatures throughout the home as well as choice of music or radio to listen to. one of the most prominent utilizes is this capability to listen to music, radio or TV feed in a lot of of the spaces with a single button push, excellent when you’re moving from space to room. utilizing theMusiclobby plugin a big centrally found MP3 library is instantaneously offered to choose as well as develop playlists etc with a simple, sophisticated front end that matches the look as well as feel of the other scenes.
The energy screen showing present electrical usage has potentially had the biggest effect as well as has verified to be a huge behaviour modifier. It provides a constant tip exactly how much power we’re utilizing as well as encourages the turning out of lights as well as other electrical equipment. Of program the irony of the power utilized to screen the info is not lost as well as I’m actively trying to find methods to minimize the power usage of all the house automation devices without compromising as well much on the action time. one of the methods I’ve been believing is by utilizing the alarm condition (which feeds into HomeSeer) to switch off a few of the equipment. i.e. “Night” or “Away” mode turns of all the unnecessary kit.
The whole system is always growing as well as altering as new advancements come along. currently I’m working on integrating heating manage utilizing the Honeywell Smartfit system which talks to the Alarm system which in turn talks to Homseer. The plan is to add controls onto the Mainlobby scene which screens space temperatures. I have a lot of of the backend for this working now as well as I’m completing off the scene.
The possibilities are essentially limitless however I’ve always tried to focus on really beneficial features, rather than running great deals of additions just since it can be done. Although I will admit to producing something just for the benefit of it ! ?
Kevin Warner’s Setup : Our Node Zero Gallery : HomeSeer : MainLobby
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