Have you looked at QSS? It should allow you to change the default device via command line (and therefore from CQC). I don't have either, so I can't be sure, but it looks like it would work:

http://www.toflo.de/Downloads/Tools/Soundcard-Switcher/

And, I just got IronMan working. The basic process (for me) is:

- Rip DVD with AnyDVD-HD. ~1 hour (it's 43GB)
- Find the biggest .m2ts file above, see if it works as-is, if so you're done.
- If not, use tsmuxer to DEmux (aka, extract) the audio & video tracks. ~10 mins
- Use eac3to pull out the DTS audio track. ~25 mins
- Use tsmuxer to re-combine the video & DTS track (from above). ~10 mins.

So either 1 hour or 1:45 from end-end, and now I can really distribute BluRay. Bada Bing!

Oooh, life gets better - the latest HD200 firmware fixed the audio stuff. The new process is:


- Rip DVD with AnyDVD-HD. ~1 hour (it's 43GB)


No need to muck with audio track extraction. Good job Sage!

Did I say I'm using the NuVo & inceiling speakers for TTS, hence requiring a 2nd PC or audio source? Nah. Thanks to AceCannon for nudging me, I went downstairs and remembered that I've actually got an extra Elk 32Ohm speaker as I miscounted on my very first Elk order 2 years back. I just put that up behind my Elk single-gang keypad in the MBR, ran the wiring, and put it via an Elk relay so I can turn it on/off independently (mainly so I can have morning weather announcement only on that speaker, and not on all Elk speakers).

The good thing is that this means that since TTS and doorbell can play via the same source run to the Elk-800 amp, I can take that 2nd server offline (from CQC anyhow), and run the whole dang thing from the 1 PC.
The bad thing is that the TTS sounds much worse on the Elk speakers than on the Niles in-ceiling, then again look at the price difference and you'll understand why.

Of course, now for some reason the keypad cuts off the left 2 characters, not sure why that's happening, but it's really not that big of a deal. I'll look into that "one of these days".

And, in an attempt to get myself ready to try zWave via the Elk at a cheaper price, i just moved the Aprilaire back to being controlled by CQC directly. this means I can free up the serial expander that it uses, and use that with the Leviton zWAve thingey. I don't actually own that thingey yet, but soon.

I'll update that architectural diagram shortly, I just need to move a few more wires first :)

Grrr. I got excited about my earlier success with HA stuff, and moved the Intermatic USB stick to the thin HP client in the middle of my house. it now has damn well near line of sight to some of my harder to reach modules.

I'm beginning to wonder if I have switch hardware issues, because I have 2 switches that used to work just fine now acting up. Moving the USB stick didn't help at all.

I have to admit, i'm souring on zWave. I dunno if that's fair or not, maybe it's my lack of neutral, but at this point it certainly ain't distance or mesh strength. I don't really feel like swapping out zWave light switches that work manually but don't communicate well for other zWave light switches.

I may do my annual "what is the bare minimum cost for RadioRA I could try", and have both my legacy zWave and new RadioRA in the house. I would like to continue using fluorescent bulbs in many of the rooms, which might mean researching what the hell "Lutron Fluorescent Tu-Wire" is.

I may do my annual "what is the bare minimum cost for RadioRA I could try", and have both my legacy zWave and new RadioRA in the house. I would like to continue using fluorescent bulbs in many of the rooms, which might mean researching what the hell "Lutron Fluorescent Tu-Wire" is.


I wish Lutron would hurry up and come out with a RadioRA dimmer that works with dimmable CFLs, I am afraid that here in California we won't be able to buy incandescents much longer. I am not sure if Lutron has anything in the works but this story gives me hope. http://www.electronichouse.com/article/lutron_has_cfl_led_dimming/C96

I wish Lutron would hurry up and come out with a RadioRA dimmer that works with dimmable CFLs, I am afraid that here in California we won't be able to buy incandescents much longer. I am not sure if Lutron has anything in the works but this story gives me hope. http://www.electronichouse.com/article/lutron_has_cfl_led_dimming/C96

That is interesting. Well, except for the bit where they mention drivers being built into the fixtures, hopefully that's not required in the future. It was painful enough selecting fixtures the wife likes the first time.

I guess I have the zWave angst to thank, but I wanted to make some progress on a long-outstanding task which is to fix my personal website. I opted to use Joomla so I don't have to go months without updating it again; i used notepad to write HTML when I set it up, and not only was that a PITA to write, I don't actually know much HTML so it took me even longer.

I just finished overhauling it, i've now got:
- Screenshots of all my stuff.
- Complete equipment lists with estimated costs, both PC & non-PC, including a newegg wish list
- My architecture diagram
- My wiring suggestions for both AV & HA.
- Level of effort

I'm sure there's other stuff i'll think to write up as time goes on, but at least the staleness is gone.

The URL is myhometheaterpc.com, let me know if you find something wrong or want more info on anything.

i went to lutron training back in October and they were showing dimmable cfl via RA except it was for a specific manufacturer. i don't remember the details but they state that they are only going to use specific manufacturers to support since it is such a delicate technology to incorporate and they do extensive testing to make sure the product is rock solid with their lighting solution. i can ask who it was if you are interested.

i went to lutron training back in October and they were showing dimmable cfl via RA except it was for a specific manufacturer. i don't remember the details but they state that they are only going to use specific manufacturers to support since it is such a delicate technology to incorporate and they do extensive testing to make sure the product is rock solid with their lighting solution. i can ask who it was if you are interested.

Yes, please. That would certainly be awesome.

Grrr. I got excited about my earlier success with HA stuff, and moved the Intermatic USB stick to the thin HP client in the middle of my house. it now has damn well near line of sight to some of my harder to reach modules.

I'm beginning to wonder if I have switch hardware issues, because I have 2 switches that used to work just fine now acting up. Moving the USB stick didn't help at all.

I have to admit, i'm souring on zWave. I dunno if that's fair or not, maybe it's my lack of neutral, but at this point it certainly ain't distance or mesh strength. I don't really feel like swapping out zWave light switches that work manually but don't communicate well for other zWave light switches.

I may do my annual "what is the bare minimum cost for RadioRA I could try", and have both my legacy zWave and new RadioRA in the house. I would like to continue using fluorescent bulbs in many of the rooms, which might mean researching what the hell "Lutron Fluorescent Tu-Wire" is.

Does Elk/CQC support UPB? If so (which I assume to be the case), is there a reason why you wouldnt use it, rather than RadioRA? The reason I ask, is from what I've seen UPB is considerably cheaper.

Just curious...???

EDIT: I checked the Elk site, as well as CQC and both show that UPB is supported, so I answered my own question there...

Interesting discovery about my zWave stuff, as it's been doing a death spiral reliability wise. I bought the Leviton handheld controller and RZCOP, got it yesterday, started reworking my network.

Turns out the Leviton won't recognize 3 of my 22 switches, and another 4 have "FAILED to INCLUDE - see instructions". That means that 7 of my 22 switches may not be working right, which would certainly explain my issues. There's no "test" that I can find, i opened up a ticket with Intermatic and it seems pretty straightforward & easy to do a warranty fix. They may not even want me to return mine, not sure as the instructions are rather cryptic. Step 1 is to fax them my receipt, so i'll do that.

Oh, and my brand new Highpoint RAID card may be dying. Between fri night and Monday arm, my server went from "fine" to "won't stay up for longer than 2 hours". I'll be pulling some drives & cards & stuff tonight to test that hypothesis. Ugh.

OT, but what naming convention do you use for music files?

Someone suggested to me:

artist/year - album/track#_title.flac

Also, do you know if the Nuvo GC can play FLAC natively? Converting shouldn't be a big issue, but just an extra step (and library). I've searched online extensively for the answer to this - no love.

Edit - sorry about the unrelated questions sounding related. I know you use the CQC repository for your music, not WMP/iTunes.

Actually, I no longer use the CQC repo - as soon as I found out Amazon had DRM-free downloads, i've been buying more online music. And, since i hadn't yet finished re-ripping my repo and still had 200+ cds that were in mp3 format but not in .wav format, i ditched it.

For the naming convention, honestly, i have no idea; i just took the default JRMC ripping structure. I never actually look at it, so it's not relevant.

I also ended up buying some iTunes videos for a few parties, so now I do need to use iTunes for synch'ing with the iPods. But I just point it at the JRMC rip location and it's fine.

No clue about the GC media server as I don't have one, i just have a regular concerto.

The new Sage BluRay support works awesome. I ripped X-files/IWantoBelive in BR last night using AnyDVD-HD, had a crapton of .m2ts files. I'm on the latest Sage beta plus HD200 firmware beta, and got lazy and just pointed it the movie import directory. By lazy, I mean i didn't feel like using any other software to strip out audio streams/merge .m2ts files/etc.

Bada bing, it worked fine with the s/pdif hooked up to my Denon3805. I didn't check which audio track it was on, didn't watch the whole movie, but it sure as hell sounded like surround sound. (the bass is awesome in that movie, but the subwoofer was shaking the house a little too much at 10:30pm to watch the whole movie).

i'll try it tonight with the analog outputs to make sure that's also okay.

The new Sage BluRay support works awesome. I ripped X-files/IWantoBelive in BR last night using AnyDVD-HD, had a crapton of .m2ts files. I'm on the latest Sage beta plus HD200 firmware beta, and got lazy and just pointed it the movie import directory. By lazy, I mean i didn't feel like using any other software to strip out audio streams/merge .m2ts files/etc.

Bada bing, it worked fine with the s/pdif hooked up to my Denon3805. I didn't check which audio track it was on, didn't watch the whole movie, but it sure as hell sounded like surround sound. (the bass is awesome in that movie, but the subwoofer was shaking the house a little too much at 10:30pm to watch the whole movie).

i'll try it tonight with the analog outputs to make sure that's also okay.

Well, the analog outputs are a no-go; there's no standard 2ch audio track on this DVD, the only options to select for audio are DTS-MA and AC3 5.1. Not the end of the world for this particular DVD, i'd only watch it in the H/T anyhow which can decode the AC3. But it is a bummer that there will be certain BR DVDs that I'll want to watch in the MBR via the analog audio out, so i'll still need tsmuxer for that.

Ugh. I plunked down $200 for the Leviton serial controller & remote, hooked it up to the Elk, turned out to be a dead end.

Turns out that the Elk doesn't actually poll switches to check their status. No idea why Spanky told us in this post that there was 2way status (http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12132&st=45&gopid=111508&#entry111508) to the Elk when in reality it's only if you use Leviton RF switches, that's the first time i feel like i've been misled.

Hence, my RZCOP is a 1way integration as I can't poll my non-leviton devices, so i've got a decision to make about whether I
1) beg mikla to upgrade the rzcop driver to have polling, that's not trivial though.
2) go back to the Intermatic USB stick which didn't work so well in my house
3) stick with 1 way integration of lighting

I can't do 4) plunk down $1000 to rip out perfectly good $35 Intermatic switches for $65 Leviton switches, as they require a neutral and none of my switches have a neutral.

So, other than #1, none of those seem like good options, seriously makes me regret going with even bothering with automating my lighting.

5) beg Spanky to address the issue - lighting control from the Elk will be <slightly> faster than with CQC.

With the continued rise of z-wave (despite the hiccups), this will be a significant problem.

yeah, just did that on the Elk forum on Cocoontech here (http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12132&st=45&p=111547&#entry111547). I'm not holding my breath though, upgrading firmware takes MONTHS.

And FWIW with the latency, i currently have my RZCOP via the Elk, but lighting rules inside CQC. It is way subsecond from the time i open my door to the time the light is on, certainly <0.25 seconds. In that time:

- Elk senses door is opened
- Elk broadcasts that via protocol
- CQC picks up on broadcast
- CQC looks through rule engine, finds a matching rule
- CQC tells the Elk via the protocol to turn on the closet light
- Elk picks up on the request
- Elk tells RZCOP to turn on light
- RZCOP turns on light.

Switching the RZCOP to be direct via CQC will only affect the last step, and I can't imagine by that much.

Interesting findings on my zWave issues, looks like dead devices that I didn't know about were the issue. As mentioned in another thread, 7 of my 22 devices weren't discoverable by the leviton remote (ie, zwave communication wasn't working).

1) Upon further research, they weren't "exclude-able"/"include-able" with my Intermatic remote. Sure would be nice if I had some way of telling with the Intermatic stuff which pieces were dead and which weren't.

2) Mikla is writing a go-between app to do polling, so we can get the ViziaRF/CQC driver to have that. I used that with my Intermatic USB Stick, and found out that it thinks I have 40 devices in my network. Odd, as both CQC & ThinkEssentials don't see all that garbage. I blew away my whole Intermatic HA07 network, started over with just 8 devices that I know work. Holy crap, this network is really fast now.

So the question is: Stick with Intermatic and sell off the ViziaRF, or sell off the Intermatic and stick with ViziaRF.

I think i'm leaning towards ditching the Intermatic as soon as the ViziaRF driver does polling. It is newer, and replacing stuff with ViziaRF, although more expensive, would at least keep me at latest gen.

all zwave devices can be polled. that is not vizia specific nor do they have any special polling rights over any other zwave device. the piece they support is an out of band auto-update feature for vizia devices. that and the + line has the newer firmware which is faster. in order to have the auto update feature on the rz or vrcop you have to create associations between the devices which is a pita.

Well this news about CQC pricing seems pretty intriguing...

Since version 3.0 is looming, and that of course will be a big deal, if for no other reason than I've not had a heart attack yet in all this time, we are going to be doing a pre-3.0 sale. In an effort to be probably overly clever, it's all threesie.

There are three deals:

1. From now until the formal release date of 3.0, the DIY version will cost $333.

2. There is an option to buy 5 years of maintenance fees for $333, which I think is a savings of $142, for those folks who would prefer to pay ahead and save the money.

3. Being of the Vulcan race, I just named our new remote viewer product, ummm.... the Remote Viewer. We'd like a better name. So we'll have a naming contest. The one we pick will get three free years of maintenance fees.


The first two are already in effect on the web site. In the Try/Buy section, in the About CQC sub-section, there's the usual link for the DIY version (though it's been moved slightly and made more obvious than it used to be.) The purchase button has been changed to reflect the $333 price, and there is an extra button down the maintenance fees area to do the 5 year deal. We'll set up a naming contest thread later today or tomorrow.

IVB,

Can you tell me if you can program the RZCOP with the Intermatic remote/controller?
I just got an RCZOP, several intermatic switches, and the table top programmer and have been trying to initialize it with the programmer. I'm having no luck. Any ideas?

I've never tried, i'll see what i can do tonight.

Great. Thanks. Let me know. What device did you use to set up the RZCOP?

I bought a Leviton handheld programmer (the $120, discontinued version. AutomatedOutlet still has it).

It is a hell of a lot nicer than the Intermatic HA07 one, that's for sure. It allows you to name your devices, is much smaller, has a "test network devices & network" function, and other stuff too.

Thanks. I was looking at that one, but didn't want to have to spend another $100+ just to set up the RZCOP. Any luck using the Intermatic one??

Also, can you recommend a wall switch to use with compact flourescents? We are almost 100% CF around the house now and unfotunately have a bunch of X-10 dimmers....that now don't look like the play nice at all with CF's. Trying to decide between X-10 or Zwave at this point.

The one big downer is that the M-Audio Delta 410 won't work on WHS. I'm not sure how crushing a defeat that is, I may explore USB audio options to see how that works. Obviously i'd love to find drivers that work for it, but i'm not holding my breath. I tried the XP and the W2K ones, no love.


I think I have the solution to this.
I need to reboot and test, but I finally got the driver to install using Microsoft Application Verifier to trick the XP SP3 driver into thinking WHS was actually XP.

I'll keep you posted.

On the reboot, it seems to have an issue with ntdll.dll, I'll plug away at it.

I worked at it some more, and got the driver installed. I need to collect my thoughts to see if I can do it again. I will post instructions once I remember exactly what I did.

Hmmm. I actually did get the M-Audio Delta 410 working on the WHS machine, but of course right now I completely can't remember how I did that. Damn, i should have logged that in this thread so i could refer back myself...

Thanks. I was looking at that one, but didn't want to have to spend another $100+ just to set up the RZCOP. Any luck using the Intermatic one??

I must be doing something hinky, as Hightest just posted on CT (http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12132&pid=112890&st=45&#entry112890) that he can do this. I *think* that's what it means, anyhow.

Also, can you recommend a wall switch to use with compact flourescents? We are almost 100% CF around the house now and unfotunately have a bunch of X-10 dimmers....that now don't look like the play nice at all with CF's. Trying to decide between X-10 or Zwave at this point.

I'm using the intermatic HA06 with my CFLs, although they do randomly glow slightly.

Turns out the Leviton won't recognize 3 of my 22 switches, and another 4 have "FAILED to INCLUDE - see instructions". That means that 7 of my 22 switches may not be working right, which would certainly explain my issues. There's no "test" that I can find, i opened up a ticket with Intermatic and it seems pretty straightforward & easy to do a warranty fix. They may not even want me to return mine, not sure as the instructions are rather cryptic. Step 1 is to fax them my receipt, so i'll do that.


One good thing: I emailed Intermatic support to tell them about my 7 dead switches. All they needed me to do was to fax a letter and the order receipt to them (easy since automatedoutlet keeps that order history). I sent it in, and 2 weeks later with no muss or fuss my 7 new HA06 switches just showed up.

I'm massively hungover from too much tequila last night after our company offsite, but some day soon i'll replace the switches. That'll be nice.

I'm going to (give credit? blame?) this HA progress for one more quasi-related thing.

I was having a conversation with my kids about gardening a few weeks ago as I guess they're doing something like that at school. I figured I could buy a planter at Home Depot/etc and have them grow stuff at home.

Well, one thing led to another, and the next thing you know i've spent $600 on parts to build a big-ass planter in my backyard and hook it into the irrigation system. I blame HA as, well, I'll come up with some reason. But I do have CQC controlling the watering. I only run it for 1 minute as it doesn't need more water than that.

In 20+ years of attempting to do physical stuff with wood, this is easily the nicest thing i've ever done. And if you look at the joke that is my inwall speakers, you'll realize how much I screwed that up. Even the wife was shocked by how nice this turned out.

Well, there are TONS of imperfections, but i'm sure i'm the only one who'll notice. Check it out...

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/stories/planter/planter-angle.JPG

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/stories/planter/planter-front.JPG

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/stories/planter/planter-irrigation.JPG

1. Really nice looking planter.

2. Most people hide the 'stuff' they grow inside the house, and use grow lights. I guess it's different in CA. :D

j/k, IVB. I really like the redwood stain.

Hey IVB, that is a great planter, but hate to change topics.

I have the nuvo essentia w/ the standard volume controls (e6dkp-dc), i came across 2 of the the (e6gcp-dc), those are the ones w/ the small digital screens.

Can they work with my system? I'm assuming you still have the nuvo system, i'm on page 8 of your thread trying to catch up

sorry man, no clue; i have the NuVo Concerto and use the Concerto keypads. I have now exhausted my knowledge of the subject :-)

Hey IVB, that is a great planter, but hate to change topics.

I have the nuvo essentia w/ the standard volume controls (e6dkp-dc), i came across 2 of the the (e6gcp-dc), those are the ones w/ the small digital screens.

Can they work with my system? I'm assuming you still have the nuvo system, i'm on page 8 of your thread trying to catch up
Quickest solution: call Nuvo.

Hey thks guys, i will give them a call. Hey ivb i have a couple of old pc layng around i am going to setup my security system as you did.

I just finished the trial version of ML and now about to try cqc.

ML is completely different than CQC, so don't expect the same thing. ML is more of a pre-canned application, CQC is more of a toolkit.

If you're more of a MAC type person where you don't mind somebody else's opinion of what a screen/etc should look like, you'll prefer ML.

If you'd rather custom-fit your solution for a better fit, you'll prefer CQC.

Unfortunately, lessons learned with one are NOT transferable to another.

Here's a peek at what my new event management via the front-end screens look like. This one is just my irrigation, the screens got to be so busy that I created an overlay on the right, menu buttons on the left.

The upside of this, indeed the timeliness of this, is that my wife is beginning to harass me about the watering schedules. Esp with that planter I built. Now, she doesn't have to use the Admin Interface (she wouldn't) to modify the schedule, and my old way didn't let me alter the days, which you can now.

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/HA/overlay_timers.JPG

I'm still not done, only the first two zones are complete. This is taking me ~ 2 hours per event to fully complete, and you'll notice both a stop & start event. But, for what i'll get, and since this wasn't possible before and still isn't with most HA packages, I don't mind the time investment.

ML is completely different than CQC, so don't expect the same thing. ML is more of a pre-canned application, CQC is more of a toolkit.

If you're more of a MAC type person where you don't mind somebody else's opinion of what a screen/etc should look like, you'll prefer ML.

If you'd rather custom-fit your solution for a better fit, you'll prefer CQC.

Unfortunately, lessons learned with one are NOT transferable to another.

Using both, and developing software for both....IVB's comments are inaccurate. There is no difference from what one can customize ie: precanned vs. toolkit. The main difference (on that single dimension) is that MainLobby comes with a set of prebuilt scenes that you can start from. You can also purchase additional setups. CQC does not. But, MainLobby (like CQC) you can throw out the provided setup and start from a "white piece of paper" using the "toolkit". Users from both CQC and the ML community share their custom built graphics and setups. There is always modifications needed to tailer any default (or other user) setup to your house as the hardware and personal choices et al will always be somewhat different.

For example...I could readily duplicate the scenes that IVB posts above in MainLobby. I would just need his graphics and some time. It is not as easy to "duplicate" a MainLobby scene in CQC as ML supports Flash and CQC does not. This allows MainLobby to provide features that CQC cannot support from a UI perspective. MainLobby supports all graphical formats that CQC does. You can create very polished UI's with either system. Your creativeness and UI expertise will be the limiting factor with both.

The lessons are very applicable from one to another. There are definate differences, but the general ideas are very similar. This is subject to opinion on what constitutes similar vs. different.

From what the former MainLobby converts who are now using CQC tell me, CQC has a much richer toolkit and hence it's a lot faster to create new screens with much richer functionality. I can't speak to the accuracy of that statement, but given that it comes from folks who actually own both licenses and now use CQC, I don't see what reason they'd have to mislead folks. I don't think i've ever seen an ML screen that diverges greatly from the base, whereas CQC'ers have layouts that are all over the map, extrapolate whatever you want from that.

But as always, their opinion and mine should be patently irrelevant - it's not what's easier for us, it's what easier for you. Do what you're doing, download both packages, attempt to build screens using both, and see which one makes sense to you. For CQC, you'll want to attend one of the monthly/bimonthly User Group webinars. We typically spend the first little bit training the newbies on how to use CQC, then move on to how we're doing advanced stuff.

Anyhow, this thread isn't to debate ML vs CQC, there's plenty of threads to do that. I'm just here to explain the path I chose, and what the trials & tribulations I had there. If you want to use CQC, this thread (or the 115 page equivalent on the CQC forums - CQC'ers really are into HA (http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=1314)) will certainly help you understand what's really required, no marketing sales speak. Just look at the dates of the posts, you'll see how long it took me to do <whatever I'm posting about>.

Thanks for the info IVB, did not mean to cause so much uproar on cqc v. ML. I just finished reading your entire tread, it was great. I learned so much from your thread as i am a true newbie to all of this HA. I am constantley googling words and products you mentioned in your thread. I will be heading over to the massived thread on the other forum to start reading that. For lighting i went w/ insteon need 7 more switches and my entire house will lighted by insteon. I been having them for about 2 months and they work great. I am also getting the aavatrix soon and have started wiring each room w/ cat 5e and 2 cat 6. I bought the nuvo essentia real cheap and will installing it today. Your tread has been so helpful. I have learnd about sage tv, M-Audio Delta 410 PCI pro audio card and much, much more. I like the ML trial verison and will try cqc next but i am leaning towards ML. Please keep your thread going i love reading your post. Also i have watched a couple of your webniars. there are great.

well guys off to read the 115 page thread see next year.

If you're leaning towards ML, you may want to save your time and confirm that path. That thread has mostly CQC-centric guidance, I don't think it'll add much value if you're using a different solution.

I think i am leaning that way b/c i tried it, i'm sure i might change once i go through the trial version on cqc.

Geez, at the urging of my wife, I consolidated my various parts locations into the basement. I needed to build 2 more shelves b/c I had so much random crap.

Here's a pic of the shelf dedicated to "toys I've bought but not yet installed, and want to install". There's a whole other shelf (shelves) dedicated to "stuff I'm not actively using or need, but I might so let's not throw it away".

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images1/parts.JPG

In case you can't see it clearly, from left->right, there's:

- 1 Betabrite sign
- 2 zWave external lamp modules
- 2 zWave dimmer switches still in packaging
- 1 zWave outlet still in packaging
- 3 zWave dimmer switches out of packaging
- 2 zWave appliance modules
- 2 zWave 3way master switches, 2 slaves
- 1 Heat detector
- 1 600# maglock
- 2 CCTV baluns (go from cat5->BNC)
- 4 wireless Elk window sensors
- 2 Fire Alarm pull thingeys for the elk, with backboxes
- 1 Paterson USB->Serial adapter (for DirecTV box)
- 1 Elk Strobe light w/Wallmount box
- 1 Elk-800 amp
- 1 Water Sensor
- 1 CCTV
- 3 Bosch Motion Sensors
- 1 Brultech power monitoring thingey
- (in plastic bag) 5 recessed wired window sensors, 2 surface mount window sensors

Man. No wonder my wife gets bugged when more boxes arrive.

Well, I'm nearly done taking jkish's awesome squeezecenter screens (http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=8323) and modifying them to better fit my look & feel, and needs. I'm finding that there's a few things that can be deleted as my system doesn't need as much functionality as his.

I put all my screenshots here (http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=4), but this is a sampling. You'll see the biggest change is swapping the location of the track/album listings from the right to the left. I also deleted some of the list navigation elements as I only have a handful of playlists, and only 16 genres.

There's still a few things I want to change/add/delete, but i'll sit with this for a while to see how it feels. The wife is really happy about being able to create playlists in iTunes on any laptop, and view them from inside CQC.

http://myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/AV-CQC/overlay_music_albums.JPG

http://myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/AV-CQC/overlay_music_album.JPG

http://myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/AV-CQC/overlay_music_playlist.JPG

http://myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/AV-CQC/overlay_music_search.JPG

http://myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/AV-CQC/overlay_music_search_results.JPG

I'm going to (give credit? blame?) this HA progress for one more quasi-related thing.

I was having a conversation with my kids about gardening a few weeks ago as I guess they're doing something like that at school. I figured I could buy a planter at Home Depot/etc and have them grow stuff at home.

Well, one thing led to another, and the next thing you know i've spent $600 on parts to build a big-ass planter in my backyard and hook it into the irrigation system. I blame HA as, well, I'll come up with some reason. But I do have CQC controlling the watering. I only run it for 1 minute as it doesn't need more water than that.

In 20+ years of attempting to do physical stuff with wood, this is easily the nicest thing i've ever done. And if you look at the joke that is my inwall speakers, you'll realize how much I screwed that up. Even the wife was shocked by how nice this turned out.

Well, there are TONS of imperfections, but i'm sure i'm the only one who'll notice. Check it out...



Oy, glad to see that I can screw up non-HA projects by lack of research too. Turns out I didn't know about the chemicals in pressure treated wood, i knew they had removed the carcinogens but there's still wacky stuff left.

Dang. The garden is positively exploding too. So now, I gotta dig out all the dirt, pull out the pressure treated wood, put in redwood, buy new dirt, and start all over. Thankfully this is CA, so we'll get good sun for months, and it never gets that cold.

It is interesting how 'incidents' can suddenly reprioritize your life. I've barely spent any time on HA lately as work has spiked, plus other obligations like helping kids school prep for upcoming year, etc.

Fri night, a sign in front of my house was 'tagged'. I pulled up the video footage, and got some entirely too grainy and unable to make positive ID pics & video. Regardless, i distributed it to the neighborhood yahoogroup as it seemed to be a local kid; it was 3am, and walking towards the entirely residential district (the other way is where the businesses are). The kid seems like he's ~16ish, white, skateboarder, heavyset, with 2 scrawny friends, and there's not too many of those around here.

Well, someone is pretty sure they know who the kid is, gave me the address. I filled out an online police report, and this upcoming Thursday is the monthly community policing meeting that I normally attend so i'll have our local police rep pay the suspect a visit with the pictures, to see the reaction.

But, before that happens, i now suddenly need to reposition two of my cameras so that they'll catch any punk kid acts of revenge.

On the one hand, I still don't have time to attend to HA, but OTOH I best make time to act as a deterrent. I'm putting both cameras in patently visible locations, so the punk kids know they're on camera.

Sure wish I didn't get cheap cameras, though, if I had a hi-def one in the front I could have made a positive ID.

I just got my qkits QK011 temp board & sensors in the mail (get temp over RS232 - CQC driver exists). My god these things are TINY!

Here's a pic next to a business card. Honestly, the wiring is going to be thicker than the damn sensor, now I have a whole different problem to solve (how to patch up the hole in the wall without the sensor falling through).

Bye bye big ugly elk temp sensor on the wall of the MBR that the wife hates, hello tininess!
http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/temp/qk011_sensor.JPG

I hate to dredge up this >2yr old post, but any update on how these Qkit 1-Wire sensors have been working, if at all?

This bump might get him up to 200,000 views. Is that a record in this section?

He's Famous!

I'm sorry I didn't get your autograph at CEDIA, but it was great meeting the man, the legend.

I'v been using one of those Qkits in conjunction with CQC for 6 months with no issues. I have a couple sensors in the house, 1 in the attic and 1 outside. For the first little while I found myself at work wondering what the temp was in the attic....

Install a RIVA client at work, and open up the ports at your house and you can monitor your house from work.

Sorry for the delay, i'm on a mini-sabbatical until I get some stuff straightened out @work. I'm hoping to be back online & doing HA stuff by 1/1/2010.

The temp sensors are working like champs after all this time. I sold off my Aprilaire remote temp sensors as they were huge, these work much nicer.

BTW, i also use them via the cellphone client so I can check out the temp remotely, and turn on the HVAC if need be.

As mentioned above, I just took a little HA vacation to focus on the real world. It was very illuminating as for the first time in a long time, I didn't touch a damn thing on my controllers, indeed didn't want to touch anything. I learned that I hadn't designed for uptime as much as I thought.

Here's the primary things I realized:
1) The SqueezeCenter software manager for my SqueezeBox receiver isn't 100% reliably starting up on a system reboot. There's some form of race condition going on, and if it starts up too soon it'll never actually connect with the SqueezeBox receiver. I need to learn how to start an app when Windows starts up, but wait 5ish mins after bootup so everything else works fine.

2) The Intermatic USB controller really sucks donkey butt. It started degrading massively, so I ripped it out and am now using the Vizia one. That's rock-solid and super-fast, but the CQC ViziaRF driver doesn't poll for non-Vizia devices so I don't really have automated lighting. In my book, you need true 2 way to have automated lighting so you can trigger things based on manual modification of light status.

On the upside, the rest of the setup works like a champ. Then again, it's only been in the 'untouched' state for 2 months, so I can't crow too much. If it's still 100% stable in 6 months, then maybe I can say something.

CQC is also on the verge of releasing V3.1, and for the first time, I've not installed a single Beta version, and I think I'm going to pass on installing the release version. My system works the way I want it to, and since it ain't broke, I ain't gonna fix it.

I wonder if mentality that gets me kicked out of the DIY club..

Man, I wonder if I should be happy or sad that CQC now has a native iPhone client. My wife has an iPhone (I use an HTC), and her desires are different than mine. I've been up until 2am the last few nights tweaking a GUI that she would be willing to use.

I'm not sure she'll use it inside the house, she's been leaving her phone on the charger as the battery life is bad so otherwise it'll die during the day when she actually needs to use it as a cellphone.

But, we are about to cancel long distance on our landline since we have a bazillion rollover minutes, so I wonder if she'll be carrying that iPhone around more and just buying another 1-2 chargers for alternate rooms.

post some screenshots of your iphone gui. that would be awesome.

Well, the interesting bit is that i will soon have another handheld touchscreen that's 240 x 320, so i'm currently planning to embed those screens into the iPhone ones so I don't have to fully reinvent the wheel plus I can get some recognition for the screens. Familiarity will hopefully generate more usage, as the wife will feel more comfortable using it.

Once i'm done and actually using these screens (aka, seeing if they're any use or not), I'll post the screenshots.

Well la dee da, i guess drunken mobile CQC adoption is better than no adoption at all.

My wife went to happy hour with her former co-workers, so I stayed home with the kids. At 8:45pm, random lights were turning on/off, I thought it was the automated lighting rules going hinky.

Turns out she decided to pull out the iPhone & putz with CQC while on the train home, and was pressing random buttons to screw with me. But hey - at least she didn't have any issues using CQC/the screens.

How maddening. I got 1 expensive toy fixed and 1 new expensive toy, but in the act of re-installing the fixed toy another toy broke. MF'er I hate this stuff sometimes.

Specifically, after 9 months I (http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=8004) finally got my RAID card working again. That was the one that gave me a 3.8TB RAID5 and 1TB RAID1. I've been limping by on a 2x1TB JBOD. The only real-world impact was the DVD library. Between work & the kids and other stuff, the DVD library was a distant third. But it's fixed now, so i'm back up to a 7TB server. Well, 1TB is a 100GB partition for OS, 900GB partition for other so I try not to use that hard disk much if at all.

The PITA is that in the act of installing that, my USBUIRT that SageTV uses to control DirecTV has all but stopped working. Again. (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46079&highlight=USBUIRT) Not sure why. I even have a Paterson Tech cable running to it (had 2, only sold 1) but I couldn't get serial tuning to work on it. This is a pretty big deal and horrid timing as all our USA & my SciFi shows are starting up again. I might get another H21 DirecHD receiver @BestBuy today to see if that'll work with serial tuning.

But now the new expensive toy, which is always fun. A few days ago I got one of the Vidabox customized Nevo S70 remotes (http://www.mynevo.com/html.php?page_id=344). If you haven't seen it, here's a pic:

http://www.cepro.com/images/slideshow/NevoS70.jpg

The cool thing is that it has 19 hard buttons (note the 4 below the touchscreen), which is key to me as I hate touchscreen only whilst i'm watching TV.

The one hassleis that i've now got 4 different resolutions for touchscreens:

Nevo S70: 240 x 320
iPhone: 320 x 480
My HTC phone: 480 x 640
Wallmount TS: 800 x 600

As the iPhone & HTC are rarely used devices, I designed screens for the Nevo, and used overlays to render them into the iPhone/HTC. It's not that pretty, but hopefully it'll work as the wife will be used to seeing those screens on the S70 so recall & cross-training will occur on the iPhone. I really don't want to create custom screens just for the iPhone, as it's only used 1x/month or so.

I haven't had a chance to put the Nevo through it's paces due to the above SageTV issue sucking up my time, but hopefully this weekend.

Here's the first draft of the screenshots. These have barely been used, namely because i've only had the S70 working for 1-2 days, and haven't even gotten the hardbuttons working yet.

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/small/S70_Home.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/small/S70_Sage.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/small/S70_Heat.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/small/iPhone_Main.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/small/iPhone_Heat.jpg

Well, I had to decide tonight between going to the gym and installing the USBUIRT that showed up in today's USPS for usage with the VS70. I was tempted to go to the gym, but I went yesterday, and am going on Wed & Thu.

Other than a few hassles (emitter means you use Z3; the 1/8" extender cable doesn't work), it's all good to go. The wife isn't terribly happy about yet another cable hanging off the plasma, especially as I had to use a USB powered hub due to the extender cable not working so the emitter wire is on a seperate run due to length issues. But for now, it'll do just fine.

I used the VS70 tonight whilst watching BS:G via Sage. I had CQC open next to me so I could tweak the screens as need be for no-look operation. Here's where i'm at, although I think I'll peel off the channel #s and put onto a different screen so it's not so busy.

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/small/S70_Sage.jpg

The play is actually a checkbox widget, so it alternates between play & pause based on whether the extender is playing a show or not. Also, since there's hardbuttons below those Back2/Back1/etc text fields, the play/stop buttons extend all the way to the bottom. This means all I have to do is feel for the bottom right or bottom left of the screen, and I know i'll be hitting the button.

I think I can also intelligently hide the DVD-Menu button, and only show it if there's a DVD actively being played back, but i'm not positive.

And now, it's 1am, i need sleep. Maybe I should have gone to the gym tonight after all...

Pics as of 2/5, very much still a work in progress.

This is my revised GUI for the S70. Honestly, i'm not wild about the music layout, but the wife really digs her iPhone so I opted to clone that. The cool thing is that since the S70 has a jogdial on the right side, plus the 18 hardbuttons, I didn't have to waste screen real estate on up/down or alphabetic shortcut keys. Navigating through 530ish artists & albums is pretty damn fast.

Main Screen:
(The high & forecast on this screen show N/A since i'm taking the screenshot at 10pm, so it's no longer a relevant field.)
http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Home.jpg


SageTV Screens:

This screen shows a play button, so SageTV must be in pause mode. Note also that the concerto (in-wall) speakers are off. Those are both checkbox widgets.

The "TV" and "Sage" buttons are IR controls to power on the devices, so they're not colored since I can't tell current state.

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Sage.jpg

And now note that the speaker is colored green, and the play/pause button has changed.

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Sage2.jpg


Channel selection....
http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Sage3.jpg

Heat...
http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Heat.jpg

Security Screen:

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Security.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Weather.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Lights.jpg

Music Screens:

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Music_Main.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Music_Albums.jpg

this screen shows the dialog box that confirms the addition of something to the queue.

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Music_Album_Queued.jpg

http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Music_Artists.jpg

this screenshot looks a little dark, but it's actually pretty easy to read on the physical device.
http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Music_Queue.jpg


Finally, here's a pic that I photoshopped onto the actual remote, so you can see how the GUI would look on the remote and tell how the hardbuttons come into play.
http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/images/galleries/screenshots/S70/S70_Full_Pic.jpg

Had a power outage. All worked as designed. My design skills suck. Had 3 different battery backups all chirping at different 30 second intervals at 1am. Didn't put my DSL modem or NextAlarm Broadband adapter *on* the battery backup so the alarm company didn't know about it until power came back at 4, cell went crazy. And the Elk battery is dying, it reported low battery within 3 hours, should have lasted 28.

Long engrained behavior is hard to change. I got that Vidabox customized Nevo S70 to replace my aging MX800. Wife *loves* it, but forgets to put it back on the charger. It dies within hours, then she gets pissed off and blames the remote when she wants to watch TV. But she doesn't blame her iPhone when it dies for the same reason.

You know what really sucks? Constantly shifting business requirements.

After my experiment in '06 with PDA-based touchscreens inside the house, I was sure I would never want to do that as the real estate was just too damn small.

My girls are now almost 10, and have gotten really into the two things I like: Playing soccer, & playing gin rummy. I played one with 1 this morning, and in the afternoon the other wanted to play the other. I'm sitting in the dining room for an hour playing, so I put on some tunes. I was in a pretty mentally unsettled state and kept changing my mind about what type of music I wanted to listen to. (okay, she was kicking my ass, so I was trying to find something that would calm me down and get my rummy mojo back). I had to keep getting up to go to the touchscreen, so I went & got my HTC PDA cellphone which has the CQC viewer on it to control the system.

Thing is, the music selection templates for the S70 are 240 x 320, and my HTC cellphone which is almost the same exact physical size is 480 x 640. It's a damn PITA to use the S70 screens on the HTC, so now I need to decide whether to suck it up or scale my screens up for something I won't even use 1x/month.