EtherDongles, LEs and home automation?

[Steve Gase]

In the back of my head I've been wondering if Lynx solutions might be applied to home automation...  remote control of lights, automated control of lights, ...maybe other electrical items that don't need to be 'ON' all of the time (in other words... no refrigerators).

I've not done this before, and I am aware of X10 solutions, but have never explored them.

Has anyone used Lynx in this way?

I am interested in using ethernet to carry my control data, and wireless would be part of the solution.

One thing that comes up is the software control...  sequences would not be very useful to drive channels and power up my home lighting.  Instead, digging into the xLights software to leverage its test capabilities seems like a potential solution.

Thoughts?

[rrowan]

Sounds dangerous to me since the Lynx equipment is not UL rated

I don't know if your home insurance company would be happy with that nor your local electrical codes

Rick R.

[tbone321]

X10 is an older solution and there are more reliable units out there but I use it and it works very well.  An advantage to X10 and the other more advanced units is that home automation is what they are designd to do and they do it quite well. The price per unit is low and they have a large selection of them for just about any situation.  You can get them in dimming configurations for resistive loads up to 20A and relay versions for inductive or resistive loads up to 40A.  They come as wall switches, wire in modules or plugin modules.  You can also get low voltage relay models and as sensors such as light or contact switch.  You can also find them in 120V and 240V versions depending on the required use. 

I almost never have to touch a light switch in my house.  Between my control units, sensors, and software, my house turns on the lights when needed and off later in the evening.  Whether I'm home or not, the house always looks like someone is home and if I or the wife gets in after dark, the house is lit up and ready.  It even controlls my Christmas and Halloween lights (both inside and outside) and will continue to control provide power to them even after automation.  And like Rick said, these components are UL listed.  While the Lynks components could be used for this, that is not what they are designed to do and would not look as good doing it.

[rm357]

+1 what tbone said... All of it... I also have an x10 alarm system that makes the house go crazy when it goes off.
X10.com

[Steve Gase]

sounds like a better option.

are there recommended forums on the topic similar to what is done here at DLA?

[taybrynn]

There is a universe of other Home Automation options out there.  X10 is pretty much cheap but terrible and unreliable for most applications.

I don't do any HA anymore, but I do have a computerized sprinkler system and it can even interface with homeseer software.  Wishing I had never done it, because its sometimes got a mind of its own.

It appears that the areas of HA has many mature protocols and technologies you can use ... both wired and wireless and an amazing array of interfaces exist.   Wide range of prices also, some pretty darn reasonable.

[tbone321]

sounds like a better option.

are there recommended forums on the topic similar to what is done here at DLA?

If you go to the Homeseer website, I believe that there are links there but you really don't need them.  X10 is a pretty simple system.  If you go to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login you will see many of the devices available. As taybrynn said, X10 is not the most reliable but it has the most bang for the buck.  Another one to look at is INSTEON which can also be found at this site.  It does cost more but is far more reliable. 

[chrisatpsu]

one of the side projects that i have on the back burner b/c of the projects on my plate already was a HA sensor array, that could monitor a variety of conditions in many areas and run by PICs. as I remodel the house, I'm placing extra RJ45 jacks in each room with a seperate color from everything else. that would be how the wiring would be run into that room.
The design i'm doing myself, b/c i don't really see any current projects that do what i want them to do.


whenever the system would interact with live power, it would most definately use something UL listed.

[jnealand]

I use a lot of x10 stuff in my house.  I buy my units from x10.com as they are the cheapest out there, but maybe not the best at giving you information about using it.  If you can run a light show you can easily figure out x10 use.  Very simple.

[tmcteer]

I've upgraded my 15 year old X10 system to INSTEON. The pluses over X10 is feed back of the status of a module and it's  hybrid mesh based RF supplement to the X10 protocol . I went with Perceptive Automation Indigo MAC based control software running on a MAC mini. It has a full iPhone app controlling 30 devices including my garage door and thermostat. Very easy to setup. One cool thing I implemented is a door bell sensor which texts my phone when somebody rings the doorbell.

Tom

[tbone321]

one of the side projects that i have on the back burner b/c of the projects on my plate already was a HA sensor array, that could monitor a variety of conditions in many areas and run by PICs. as I remodel the house, I'm placing extra RJ45 jacks in each room with a seperate color from everything else. that would be how the wiring would be run into that room.
The design i'm doing myself, b/c i don't really see any current projects that do what i want them to do.


whenever the system would interact with live power, it would most definitely use something UL listed.

What exactly do you want to do that is not available in either X10, INSTEON, or other existring system?  While I'm sure that you can come up with a design for your own equipment, reinventing the wheel just wastes time and money and you will find that wired systems are the least flexable of all.  To me, the creativity is in the system configuration and set up, not in building equipment that I can already buy, and for less money.  Some of the systems sch as X10 and possibly even INSTEON is that the control code is open source.  This allows you to buy components that exist and create the ones that you need that don't and still use existing software to control it all.  To me, that's the best of both worlds.

[chrisatpsu]

with something you build yourself, you can make it react and handle the way you like, not just hoping someone has a "module for that"

hvac, security, convience  are just a few items.
plus if i come up with some stuff i'm thinking of, i might be able to patent some of it.  (meaning it hasn't been done before)  i'm looking for more that just turn this switch or outlet on or off, i'm looking for a more complete package.