Home automation with INSTEON and xlobby + girder?

[laumansm]

Home automation with INSTEON and xlobby + girder? Anybody done it?

Marius

[hvs69]

Haven't done it yet but done a lot of research. I am still a few months away from buying Insteon devices. This is what I have contemplated:

Initially, I thought about using Homeseer and integrating with XL using XAP3 plugin. But I decided against it due to following issues
- Cost ($$$ for homeseer and not to mention that plugins are sold separately)
- Integration with XLobby too convoluted. It will be difficult to get everything working with so many interfaces and was not sure if it will be stable in the long run
- Homeseer Insteon plugin still in beta and has a lot of stability problems as evident from various postings on homeseer forum. This, however, may change in the future

This is when i came across a program called PowerHome (http://www.myx10.com). It provides full support to Insteon devices. The application is being developed at a frantic pace with a lot of new features being added (sort of like XLobby). It has fully programmable interface with support of VBscript, JScript etc. This means that I can probably use it with Xscript plugin to tightly integrate it with XLobby. You can also use the web interface to integrate it with Xlobby. It also appears to be very stable. Last but not the least, is the cost. It is priced right and currently provides unlimited upgrades as the new versions come out.

I did not consider Girder since it was way behind in developing the Insteon plugin when I was doing research. Also not sure if you can integrate it with XLobby with bidirectional communication.

Hope this helps.

[Marbles_00]

It does say that it can interface with X10. I suppose one would require a control module to do that, but I'm wondering if using Xlobby/Girder with an appropriate X10 plugin, you could send commands to control Insteon devices. Not too sure about getting feedback though.

[Aaron]

Before you buy any software check out Cocoontech.com

There is a FREE Open Source (ArchonHA) home automation software being developed that just when into Alpha testing but looks very stable:
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?s=3 ... topic=3176

It already supports Insteon, X-10, and several hardware devices. Plus it has a built-in floorplan view... very cool! Watch his video demo here: http://www.ArchonHA.com - the app has been upgraded a lot (like adding VR) since the video was shot.

It looks like it will trump anything I've seen. I've asked Vaughn (the coder) to contact Steven to see if they can work on seamless integration... XL &

[Vaughn]

ArchonHA is called Virtual Crib (http://www.vCrib.com) now. I know that name is not much better but names are hard to find these days =)

I would think interfacing to as many systems as possible would be a good thing and you are not forced to choose 1 HA system to support.

I have been contemplating seperating my Floorplan offering from the core HA software so perhaps you could use my Floorplan controls from different HA apps and media centers like XLobby too.

vCrib is based around MySQL database, and the Floorplan controls simply reads that automation table. So any system simply has to get its devices and their status into a table that the Floorplan software can read. Or use the included models to adminstrate those tables and link to the HA hardware.

Honestly it is kind of confusing to me. Initially my model was an all-in-one solution, but with the amount of efforts out there like XLobby, Pluto, Mr. House, it is silly to try to put everything in one package. At the same time, when you are just making a couple little pieces that everyone uses in their packages, it is easy to lose your identity.

So I am contemplating all of the development options and have also started on a new .NET map only version that perhaps could be developed with Xlobby in mind. I will try to get XLobby working on my HTPC and get a better feel for it and how possibly we might integrate.

XLobby is futher along than my project though and depending on timelines, perhaps Mr. House or something would be a more logical way of getting XLobby to interface with X10/Insteon equipment.

Thanks for the interest in my software and I hope to be able to spend a little more time here.

Vaughn
http://www.vCrib.com