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Linux MCE Home Automation Revolution

post #1 of 5

6/14/11 at 9:50am

Thread Starter

189 Posts. Joined 7/2006
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Well...after many months researching home automation systems for the new house looks like Linux MCE was the way to go. I was looking into Crestron for the longest time but with the highest prices and have to be 'certified" to program drove me away. In my current home I have already hooked up all my systems including:

Security
Lights
Therms
Home theater
Whole house audio
All TV's
All Receivers
HTPC to all TV's

Controlled by:
PC
Any Android device
Any web pad
Any touch pad

Oh I forgot to mention this is all FREE if you know what you are doing. I have attached a video of a demo, don't pay attention to the GUI's as all of them can be skinned and changed. They key here is you can control EVERYTHING from one remote for the entire house from home or via web browser. Once I have the final touches done, I will write a guide for the forum describing the steps to install, configure and how to make your own GUI's and buttons etc.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...5602905109829#

If others are using Linux MCE feel free to post questions and I'll try and respond. Welcome to OPEN SOURCE HOME AUTOMATION.

post #2 of 5

6/22/11 at 9:05am

3 Posts. Joined 4/2007
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I've been using Linuxmce for awhile for z-wave and x10 lighting control with an android tablet as an orbiter. It's true that you need to know your way around linux which makes it a bit difficult for the average user. It's not perfect but it seems to work fairly well once it's set up properly. This biggest drawback I see is Linuxmce tries to do too many things. I for one would love to see them concentrate on the automation part since I believe that is where its strength lies. I'd prefer that they seperate out the media/mythtv software as perhaps an added module. This way one could run linuxmce 24/7 on a low power (Atom) core rather than a power hungry core for mythtv. Don't get me wrong, I love mythtv and have a seperate mythtv htpc box that works really well. It shuts down automatically when not in use and wakes-up automatically when it needs to record something, and could probably be remotely controlled by linuxmce. The other issue I see is the developers have fallen behind and still haven't released a non-beta version based on kubuntu 8.10. They're also working on a version based on 10.10, which I think would be more in line with what most people are using.

Thus my ideal linuxmce system would have only the software required for 24/7automation and be able to control a seperate more powerfull htpc box, ideally running xbmx for a music server and mythtv for a video server.

As I said, just my two cents. I would love to hear others comments on linuxmce.

DwayneS

post #3 of 5

6/23/11 at 3:44pm

309 Posts. Joined 12/2006
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Not to thread crap, but for windows users here's a full fledged home automation program that's free:
http://www.cocoontech.com/wiki/Premise

It's free and has many user built modules to support thinks like z-wave, elk m1g, weather, etc...

Premise could make a great companion to linuxmce if someone wanted to write a driver...

post #4 of 5

12/10/12 at 11:52am

1 Post. Joined 12/2012
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Hi,

could you provide any further details ? I just bought a house and want to implement the following.... I am looking for products etc

Security
Lights
Therms
Home theater
Whole house audio
All TV's
All Receivers

Controlled by:
PC
Any Android device

thanks

post #5 of 5

12/14/12 at 7:56am