by Tyrael on Mon Jun 07, 2004 9:05 am Ok here goes:
This is my first post on this forum and also a very large question.
As a first thing:
Well done Steven for this program. It does what I needed for a program like this to do. I hope you keep on making updates and upgrades for it, because I've seen loads of other programmers quit.
Keep up the good work!
I'm living in The Netherlands.
I just recently got my girlfriend enthousiastic (sort of) for some sort of home automation/audio.
I wasn't allowed to build a pc in my car, so this is even better.
We haven't bought a house yet, but I want to start and find if it is going to work out in the end.
So I am thinking of all the things that need to be implemented and how they need to fit into eachother. I will test small scale before actually buying the expensive items.
We are going to buy a normal house so that means inputscreens have to be added there:
Kitchen (hopefully a somewhat large one)
a livingroom
and 3 bedrooms.
The items I probably need are the following:
1 large server for running music, maybe movies in all different rooms simultaneously as a worst case scenario, it also needs to be able to change the lighting and such. Preferably with a 6 pci slot motherboard.
1 PDA/Pocketpc or xDA for calling home and checking the webcam, but this will be for later use.
I was thinking first of adding 5 Tabletpc's, but the problem is that they are very expensive. over 1000 dollar each. So I will have to settle with loads of cabling to add 5 touchscreens in each room, and on the other end I will need 5 low power Micro ITX pc's. These don't have to be very fast, so they could be as cheap as possible with the smallest HD available.
The cabling should be around 10 to 20 metres. The touchsensitive part is USB, so I need to figure those out too.
The lighting could be done with Marmitek (x10) if their software is able to do what I want to do. Otherwise I need to figure out some other option.
I probably will be using Wlan, or maybe 1Gbit Ethernet.
Wlan would be good because of the PDA, but maybe also a laptop.
I need either 3 or 5 soundcards for the sound in each room. My interest goes to the SB Live! cards, which have 2 outputs, but I haven't figured out yet of those can be used simultaneously.
I am thinking of not letting this set up be able to use the internet for safety reasons. So it will be a stand-alone network. If you guys have ideas for this, I would be glad to know.
what I am thinking of is the following:
I would like to automate my home as far as:
Switching lights on/off and dimming them. Maybe it is possible in three steps:
On/off and 25%, 50% and 75%.
I also would like to be able to view and hear what goes on in the room where the baby sleeps.
So a webcam will be installed there untill a certain age has been reached. (We don't have children yet).
This is as far as home automation goes for me.
I would also like to be able to have sound in each room seperate or simultaneously, not sure when I will ever use that though.
The screens in each room should see their own room by default, but would also be able to switch to every other room with a little work around.
I think that the PDA should be able to switch everything eassier, but my guess is that it would just be another kind of skin in Xlobby. Which PDA is able to do this?
The Xda should only have to see the webcam, so that should be somewhat eassier and shouldn't need Xlobby for that.
I hope you guys and gals have some ideas or helpfull hints on how to realise this.
I will post a pricing list below this for an indication on how much it will cost in the end.
It should be as cheap as possible.
Thank you all in advance.
{edit}I've rebuild the text so that it is more clear{edit}
|
i'm also busy with that 
*drool!*