My Journey Through Home Automation

[tpolito]

I'm interested in hearing other people's stories.

In 2005, I graduate college, and moved in to my first house.  I always had a fascination with tech stuff and making things work, and home automation seemed like a natural path.  As an electrical engineer by degree and and instrument engineer by trade, I really knew very little though.  Somehow or another I stumbled upon HAL2000 right at the advent of Insteon, and that was my introduction into home automation.  Found an old Windows computer and installed HAL2000.  I feel like it required Windows 95, but I'm sure it was more likely Windows XP.  I don't remember if it had to run on a PC, but back then a raspberry pi was a desert I didn't eat, and I assumed Arduino was a character in Mario Kart that I hadn't unlocked yet.  And pythons... I was scared of pythons.

Bought a handful of the ICON line of Insteon switches because, I was on a budget, and other than the amber leds, they seemed to be just as good.  Hello Home Automation!

Installation was a bit clunky, and I didn't know what link management was, but I knew HAL2000 didn't do it.  From what I remember, my "scenes" were just programs that sequentially turned on or off lights in order.  Integrating the alarm system took my down the HAI Omni path.  And I am pretty sure the thermostats were controlled through that as well.  I had a thirst for connecting devices in my home that otherwise couldn't talk to each other.  And back then, turning on the TV to watch a DVD required about 9 or ten button presses on 3 different remotes.  In came the Ocelot.  "You mean I can program this thing to simulate all those button presses?  That is awesome".  "And I can set the sleep timer without having to find the TV remote, scroll through the menus, and select how long I want it to stay on???"

It became an obsession.  And looking back on it, the architecture would stress me out today.  Different random components and a whole lot of solder and electrical tape.  Logic run in multiple different places all talking to each other... most of the time... But what was cooler than having friends over and showing them I could pick up my cordless phone, wait for a dial tone, press #, and speak commands, start all over when I did something wrong, and a couple of minutes later, my house would respond.

I lived on the HAL and Smarthome forums.  I didn't really know how to do anything on my own, but could follow direction.  It became an obsession.  Somewhere in there, I found out about the ISY.  Keeping that old Windows computer running 24/7 wasn't ideal, so the ISY seemed promising.  And I was blown away at how awesome it really was.  Setting up scenes became actually feasible.  And wait... all the lights turn off at the same time... Unbelievable.

Somewhere in there, my A/V set up got out of control with devices, HDMI matrixes, and multiple rooms, and I came across OnControls which introduced me to Global Cache.  Then learned about these things called Network Resources.  That just fueled the obsession.  Anything in my house with a network connection, and a topic on the forum, and I was connecting it.  Having Sonos play a welcome or goodbye track when i arrived or left felt like I was living in the future.

Fast forward to Google Home.  Now I had a useful voice interface with my house.

Since then, of course, the world has advanced.  What back then was something no one had and took alot of work and knowledge to make happen, my 70 year old parents can set up by just plugging in a device and adding a skill to Alexa.  Took a little of the specialty out of it, but the obsession still remains.  Last night I added Home Assistant to my eisy to start my new journey.  And today, I will connect my Roomba to it.  Not because I ever plan on needing it, but just because I can.  And just connected my printer to Home Assistant.  I have no idea what use that will ever be, but I did it.

Edited January 19 by tpolito

[paulbates]

In my first house in the 90's it was controller-less. I had wall switches that were timers for premise lights, and wireless sensors that could mount anywhere and operate light switches that I put on my garage because my late wife would come home late from work. It wasn't called x10, but the switch packaging was close, just not dials for house/unit code

In the 2000's started with X10 using an x10 module that plugged into a serial port and had schedules.

Put in a phase bridge in the panel. Eventually WGL (forget model) x10 rf module and an antenna in the attic. Upgraded to Ocelot X10 and RS485 sensor controller that had simple if-then programming and supported RCS X10 thermostats.. TX10 and TX15B. Used the x10 version of the iolinc to monitor my 2 furnaces runtime. Did my best with the house's tiny 1950's aluminum  jboxes.

Around 2005 migrated to homeseer. Started using their plugins.  Automated sprinklers with easy flora. Worth noting out of everything I've automated, the payback has been with sprinklers via lower water bill. Ironic, in that I'm surrounded by the largest freshwater cache in the world, and my detroit water bill was super high (old infrastructure maint cost). The weather and rain gauge informed automated sprinklers have paid for the lot of my automation projects.. as evidenced by summer over summer water bills. Started installing Insteon in X10 mode and then got a PLM. There was no x10 by the time I was done

I had done the bulk of my homeseer sprinkler automation with vb interface "coding". Around 2013-ish homeseer significantly changed their interface and my sprinkler programming broke. Looked at the ISY and to me it was less work to re-invent here then re-write what I had already done. The appliance nature of the ISY reminded my of the Ocelot, powerful programming yet no server upkeep, maintain or worrying if it / homseer  would lock up.

I was given an echo at Amazon reinvent in 2016. Voice control was helpful for my late wife, especially with me traveling 100% for work, mostly for thermostat control.

Also, automation played a huge role for me as a traveler and caregiver by seeing when the SimpliSafe alarm was turned off (or not) or the garage door open (or not) at expected times, I was able to know and ask family or friends to check in without reducing her dignity. As much as I enjoy home automation day-to-day, it was the most help, most important there.

Made the transition to rainmachine and got an even lower water bill. Soft integration to SimpliSafe alarm,, I could know its armed state, alarm other notices and take action. All notifications and logs in pushover.

Long time user of Venstar colortouch and ioguy's x link interfaces. I was a Venstar product tester and ended up on the 7850's. These are a more technical solution which I needed.. being able to tweak stage 2 calls and humidity mode made a difference in comfort at my older house.

I had big life changes and sold the last house this past summer and moved in with my new wife. Her late husband built the house and did a masterful job on the electrical system. By comparison to my Dearborn house, I can crawl into these jboxes 😂.  And from an insteon perspective, everything just works, I never worry about it. Loving the i3 products

It's "eisy-er" this time.. started with a few insteon viritual circuits and no controller. That was well received and got high WAF points. She's liking things being automated, notices and appreciates it. An enabler, I suppose 🤪😂.

New to me was the ring doorbell that was already here. I installed an ecobee thermostat in December and also yolink this year, as sensors are Insteon's kryptonite. Also in the house and new-to-me are the myq garage controls.. i give them side eye every time I'm there 🤪

I have the paid versions of Benoit's ring, Jimbo's notification and ecobee, and panda88's yolink. ecobee was fine for this house.. newer, sealed and insulated better. The unit is more attractive and easier to install.. the instructions and interface made it easy and my new wife likes the looks of it. It's smart and will do things to work around our 3pm - 7pm higher electric rate... and the occupancy sensor does slightly adjust temps to save more energy and $$.

My refurbed ecobee came with Alexa capability, I'll probably turn that on next.. if she likes that, then will come the requests leading to more switches and modules... I've decided not to visit that on myself .... yet

 

[larryllix]

I first started with BSR units and remote control keypads. The branding was X10, and later the products were bought by a company naming themselves X10. I still have a few of the big brown BSR lamp dimmers from, as a guess the late 1970s or early 1980s? My avatar contains a photo of one lamp device.

Later, some software came out to operate the X10 modules via a computer with X10's very basic control boxes, (can't remember the name, Radio Shack CP290?) that had a capacitor or software time base and had to be corrected every week or so.

Following that, I discovered a guy in T.O., Canada (Baran Harper company) with software HC2000? that could automate things based on some logic and timers. Ran that for many years on an old 486 PC, and it did well.

On that note, I have a story that I likely posted years back but some may find it quite amusing again....
  I set up routines to operate when we were on holidays, mostly during the summer. I included routines in the middle of the night to sequentially turn on a bedroom lamp, the stairway lamps, the dining room and kitchen lights, through to the front living room, and then the front porch. Then I reversed the off sequences to appear after somebody looking out the front windows,  went back up to bed and turned off lights as they went.

About two weeks after our summer vacation away, a neighbour approached me and told me the story about how the neighbourhood people on our court style street, had a meeting on our front porch, discussing whether to kick in the front door. Several neighbours knew we vacationed that week every year, saw somebody walking around in the house, by lighting sequence, but nobody would answer the door after several attempts to get an answer.
One neighbour finally convinced the mob to call the police and get a sanction on kicking in the front door.

The police arrived and told the mob to all go home, and they would handle it. Nothing ever happened, and no sign of entry was ever found by us....of course.

That was a close call, and a lesson about making it look too good, a credit to home automation though. Tell a trusted neigbour. LOL

From there I went to an ISY994, and it's talents exceeded previous boxes. Then came an RPI with PG2, and my own custom MagicHome software.

Polisy came next,  and that is where I sit at this point, with it all ported into the one polISY box. I only have a few Insteon modules running, and now mostly WiFi based MagicHome RGBWW/CW bulbs.

I tried Zwave 700 and a few modules, but aborted then into a junk box, some never opened. I didn't like the way it was implemented on ISY994 or the way they communicated.

[EricBarish]

Got started on home automation in 1985 reading byte magazine. Steve Garcia  had a project were you could build a circuit board to control your lights with x10 modules( radio shack). Bought the kit he offered and put it together.  Working on my PHD at the time in chemistry, used the oscilloscope to get this thing working correctly.  It was advanced for its time with if them/else control in the programing to control devices.

  Used this into the early 90’s had a lot of x10 items from x10.com.  Moved to a larger house and children added to family.   A lot of problems with communication to the x10 devices, capacitor across breakers on each 120 legs in circuit box fixed for a while.   Wife not over happy with system and quality of wall switches.   Purchased another controller that was stand alone not sure of the brand.

Moved again in 2002 and wife asked why I was not adding home automation (she wanted me to have a hobby) so I moved to the Ocelot  system with a IO Ocelot  module and started buying smarthome controls using x10 communication.  Had the HV system connected and whole house fan with relays controlling damper valves in ducts and thermocouples going to the IO board.   System reliability still not great purchased two XTB ?  smart bridge with amplification for both circuit breaker panels.  Went through the smarthome micro switch problem, wife very unhappy.  Changed out the micro switches in the icon wall modules.  Had this system through early 2010’s   and then decided had to switch to Insteon communication so purchased an isy994 and slowly switched out all the x10 devices.   The system worked much better and wife is happy. Added a CAI web control for my input/output devices and a PI computer to start using apps, IO-GUY Nodelinks.   Changed out the three thermostats for Ecobee, house water cutoff valve with leak detectors and many other projects.

Constant problems keeping the PI working correctly with both nodelinks and PG2 and Michel talked me into buying a Polisy (good move), now have wireless tags, Zwave devices and a lot of apps, still running the PI with Nodelink.  System reliability is excellent these days and have not had much trouble with the newer dual band smarthome devices, still have a few old ones with the amber lights working.

Still playing and doing new thinks, latest project has the garden cold frame setup with wireless temp devices to check temp, open/close status of cover and heater and fan on zwave modules to control the temperature (handled 11 degrees low this week).  Ring devices and just added tailwind to replace MYQ problems.  No app yet but controlling through variables for light and motion with Alexa.

Semi-retired  so one of my hobbies to keep me busy.

[asbril]

I started with X10 in the late 80's and then in 2014 I discovered the wonderful existence of the ISY994i, which allowed me to evolve to a few Insteon devices. Unfortunately my Insteon PLM broke soon afterwards and then I decided to experience with Zwave. Eventually my whole home became Zwave, dropping Insteon.

Of course I realize that Insteon is the core of almost all ISY-Polisy-Eisy users but the IOX programing and the out-of-this-world customer support of UD kept me, even with only Zwave, and of course I evolved to Eisy.

The stength and weakness of Zwave is that there are multiple manfacturers. That means that one is not dependent on one source, but it also means that the quality and features between products can vary significantly.  I often heard the criticism that Zwave can be slow, especially when different devices are linked (such as a virtual 3-way). However I discovered the Zwave Association feature and that makes this immediate, just like with Insteon.

While I have Google Home and Alexa throughout our home, and use voice control,  and also use my Iphone,  I am more of a computer guy with 3 computers in the home. That is where I discovered Home Assistant which allows  me to keep HA open all the time, unlike IoX which is not made to keep open contimuously. With @shbatm 's  ISY Integration I had the best of both worlds.  Over time I added Zigbee and numerous  Integrations to  HA and,  because I no longer have Insteon, I ported all my devices to HA.

However for all you Insteon users the news that HA can now be added to Eisy is excellent news. You get HA but also the IoX programing and more than anything the top UD customer support.  There is zero customer support with HA and  only the forum.