Home Automation Gadgets and News

NY Times - House on Autopilot - NOT?

2006-10-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

I was glad to see that Home Automation made it into today's New York Times. As bad as it was to see the lead image be of 30 year old technology X10 product, anything that brings HA to the masses is good! The killer application of the article? A switch that triggers a fishtank light to turn on. Exciting.

Lutron, SmartLabs, and Universal Electronics all had mentions in addition to X10. I was surprised there was no mention of Z-wave, Zigbee, Control4, UPB or any of the other technologies. Oh well - it leaves room for a follow up article.

Full article below.
NY Times Link

Halloween Video using Insteon technology

2006-09-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

I thought this was pretty cool. An end user posted a few videos of what he is planning for halloween. The catch is that the lights sync up to the music and they are all being controlled via Insteon technology. Click on the image above or Click here to view

No Updates for 4 Weeks!!!

2005-07-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have been out of home automation for 4 weeks now. I have lots of catching up to do. I have been swamped with work and moving into my new place. I did receive my first shipment of Insteon Switchlinc Dimmer's and will hopefully have some pictures of them up on the site within the next few days.

Control4 Gets 15 Million More Reasons to Expand

2005-07-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

According to this press release Control4 picked up another $15million dollars this month. Last August they secured $15 million and less than a year later $15 million more, not a bad burn rate if I do say so myself. I wonder what 1 million a month buys Control4 execs? I bet there offices are trick. :)

Smarthome Begins Pre-orders for INSTEON SwitchLinc Dimmer

2005-06-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

In some exciting news Smarthome is taking pre-orders of their next gen SwitchLinc 2-Way...Insteon SwitchLinc V2 Dimmer. I had called in for a bit of tech support and the guy mentioned SwitchLincs should be shipping sometime in July and that it went up on their website today. After some searching I found details on one of the pages.

The goods:
New design with "light pipes" instead of the green LED bar.
The set button is now on the bottom.
WHITE LEDS! This looks awesome.
Looks like the back is clear so you can see everthing on the inside.
Includes an ivory paddle if you just don't know what you want to buy. =)

The bads:
I haven't tested it yet.

I have to admit, I am a sucker and put in a pre-order for 2 of them. I got a starter kit a few weeks back and, on speed alone, it blows away X10. If these switchlincs work for me I might have to redo my whole house.

Have more info on these? email me... mike921 at gmail.com

Z-wave at Frys

2005-06-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

So I went back to frys to pick up an insecure bluetooth usb adapter (go figure) over the weekend and the Intermatic display looked exactly the same as it did when I went 2 weeks ago. The only change was the amount of dust on the products. The most surprising part was the fact that all of the prices were still the same. My bet is that Frys will start slashing prices in another month.

Bluetooth Secure? Think Again

2005-06-03T09:18:00.000-07:00

Just reading about yet another security flaw in Bluetooth over at Engadget. Please tell my why would I want this to control my lights and security sytem in my house?

"A couple of researchers at Tel Aviv University have figured out a way to get around one of the main limitations of a hack developed last year—namely that you could only gain access to the target device while it was pairing with another Bluetooth-enabled device—by developing a trick for forcing a Bluetooth-enabled device to pair."

The other problem that this brings up is that there are only 10,000 pin combinations. I have linux network scanners that can filter through 10k name combinations in about 12 minutes. Good job closed loop security!

Intermatic's line of Z-wave devices now at Frys

2005-06-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

Chalk one up for Z-wave. I was just reading about how Intermatic's line of Z-wave products called Home Settings is now available at everyone's favorite mail-in rebate store Fry's Electronics.

I was so excited I decided to make a trip down to Fry's in Westminster, CA and have a look. Turns out they have an end of an isle all to themselves featuring the full line of products. Lamp module, Appliance module, Wire-in switch, Outdoor module, 2 different remotes and a starter kit. Prices were $39.99, $59.99 and $129.99 for the kit. On the downside if I wasn't looking for them specifically I probably would have walked right by them. More news to come...

Bluetooth the next home automation standard?

2005-05-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

I just read a brief article this afternoon that the bluetooth standard has been revised, revamped and ready to go after the home automation market. Could we have yet another new technology entering the market? Bluetooth makes sense for cellphones and cars but I know from my own experience that security is an issue. Lots and lots of people do not turn on security to their bluetooth devices. =)

The good part is they have more than a headstart as far as partnerships and widespread acceptance. The bad part is that it is relatively insecure and the cheapest bluetooth product I have purchased was a $79.99 headset for my cellphone. I say the more technologies the merrier.

New from iRobot - Scooba Dooba

2005-05-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

I know I am a bit late on the roomba news but this made my day. Why have your robot vacuum when you can buy it a little blue buddy to have it mop right along side. This will be available just in time for the holiday season.

Cool factor: blue

Russound Color Touchscreen UNO-TS2

2005-05-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

New from Russound. This color touchscreen interface works in conjunction with their multizone systems to display realtime information on the screen including track, artist, . Notice the hard buttons on each side to control volume, track selection, pause/play, etc. I would hope that you can create custom skins for this guy or then what is the point of shelling out $1500?

Cool factor: Fits in a standard double gang box and available in 5 majestic colors... white, black, bone, almond, and the ever popular brown.

360 Degree Rotating Plugs

2005-05-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

360 Electrical just announced the introduction of rotating plugs. This is a pretty slick idea for home automation enthusiasts, now we don't have to plug appliance and lamp modules into one another and hope that they don't melt from the heat.

No mention on their site as to how much they are going to cost retail but I will definitely be in line when they start shipping.

INSTEON Ships!

2005-05-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

I got an email this morning with details that Smarthome began shipping Insteon. Right on the heals of Control4 announcing it was to begin shipping Zigbee products, Smarthome jumps into the playground. The price seems right,Insteon Starter Kit for $99, I believe the comparable Z-Wave starter kit is $129.

Control4 to begin shipping

2005-05-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

Wow did I speak to soon two days ago. According to this press release they have started shipping. I can't wait to see pricing on this stuff, how is anyone going to run cat.5 cable to all of their light switches? The products are awesome, I can't wait to see them in the real world.

The first post

2005-05-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first post on the future of home automation. How long will X-10 survive? It has been around 30 plus years but is starting to fade a bit. I have seen lots and lots of press releases about Z-wave and Zigbee lately. I have had the opportunity to play with Z-wave on several occasions and have seen Zigbee for the last year at some of the Electronic House trade shows. Looks like great stuff if Control4 ever decides to ship. That is the first post, hopefully I can post lots of new pictures and links to cool things coming up.