Why No Great End-User Interface?

[ccclapp]

However, we are in the process of creating a "Friends and Family" round ... available to accredited investors

 

 

...very interesting

[firebladeRR1k]

What would constitute an "accredited investor"?

[Mike Ippolito]

Edited my post to contain a link for official SEC definition of accredited investors

[bpwwer]

I know HomeSeer HSTouch works with the ISY since I developed that. Cinemar's MainLobby product has some ISY support (in addition to the plug-in I write for it years ago), the now defunct CodeCore Technologies Elve has support, I believe Charmed Quark CQC has support. There's probably a few others that I'm not aware of...

 

...I'm really curious to know what you think is missing given the above software packages? Would you like a package that does all the GUI elements that the above HA products do but only interface with the ISY? Are you thinking it should be a tablet based product that allows custom GUI design and interfaces only with the ISY?

 

 

These are great examples. Years ago I used MainLobby and Charmed Quirk. Recently I have investigated HS Touch. Correct me if I am wrong, aren't these GUIs primarily for other products, especially HS Touch, which have SOME ability to integrate with ISY, VS GUIs we can use to serve as the full ISY GUI?

 

For me, I could likely live with HS Touch if I could buy only that and use it to FULLY control ISY.. However, I believe I would need the full homeseer and then get at ISY via Homeseer. That is very roundabout.

 

Isn't this fundamentally the same with MainLobby?

Yes, HSTouch is just the GUI interface to HomeSeer so you need the whole package to do anything. These are full fledged home automation software packages. They provide solutions that anyone can purchase and create systems that rival those from Creston and Control4. With Creston and Control4 the installer does all the programming and integration.

 

Essentially with the examples you gave, we get to use the ISY "add-ons" which offer limited integration with ISY's full capabilities and need to do so via another system (would hate to have to learn Homeseer just to get at ISY).

 

Maybe I am mistaken.

Almost everything with a HA software package is an "add-on". You purchase only the components you need. This is how they keep the price somewhat reasonable. (this is a generalization, what's included with each package varies).

 

I've created an ISY "add-on"/plug-in for HomeSeer, Elve, and MainLobby. The MainLobby plug-in is for an older version of MainLobby and I believe Cinemar has created one themselves for the most recent version.

 

One of the design choices I made early on was to not support ISY administrative functions. So if by limited integration you mean you can't administer the ISY, then yes, limited integration. I think it's pretty important to separate out the administrative functions from the general day-to-day end user functions of the automation system. It's probably worth enumerating what I consider administrative functions:

 

1) Create/Edit programs

2) Add/Remove devices (including adding/removing to scenes/folders)

3) ISY configuration (Ex: NTP time, Location, etc.)

4) Module configuration (Ex: set weatherbug station / polling time, etc.)

 

These are things that are normally done once or very infrequently (at least in my case) and the existing ISY console works well for performing these task. The HomeSeer plug-in is the most complete and the only non-administrative capability not supported by it is the ELK module, some of the recent z-wave work and things like portal integration. Z-wave device support for the plug-in is in development.

 

However, I believe I would need the full homeseer and then get at ISY via Homeseer. That is very roundabout

Yes, you would need a full version of HomeSeer. But it's not really any more roundabout than running something like MobliLinc on Android. The main difference is that HomeSeer adds an abstraction layer between the GUI elements and the device interface so that it can support user designed GUI's.

 

In my opinion, the more flexibility you want for the GUI, the more abstraction you need to add between it and the device. It would be very hard to justify writing a GUI designer and client like HSTouch but then limit it to only talk directly to the ISY. As soon as you add one device that the ISY can't control, you'll need to replace it with a more generic solution. Now I'm not trying to discourage Mike from investigating something like this, just trying to help clarify what's important.

 

I'm currently using Elve and it interfaces to not only the ISY, but a Russound whole house audio system, a DCS alarm panel, a couple of Roku media streamers, and a custom whole house energy monitor system.

 

Question: Did you actually develop HS Touch? If so, aren't you the man for this job

No, I've only developed the ISY plug-in for HomeSeer. But I am interested in pretty much anything that interfaces to the ISY.

[arw01]

Nuts I missed the accredited investor by this much ...

[kgividen]

FYI I'm looking for some beta testers for a mobile app.  Specially android beta testers.

 

http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/17870-beta-testers-needed-specially-android/

[ccclapp]

FYI I'm looking for some beta testers for a mobile app.  Specially android beta testers.

 

http://forum.universal-devices.com/topic/17870-beta-testers-needed-specially-android/

 

I would be very interested but am iOS.  Best wishes on the effort!!

 

Am I correct there has been little other activity on this front, of have I missed stuff?

 

Thanks

[kgividen]

I would be very interested but am iOS. Best wishes on the effort!!

 

Am I correct there has been little other activity on this front, of have I missed stuff?

 

Thanks

Well I'm also looking for iOS testers if anyone is interested.