Archive for category Personal
The End of an Era, Well Sort of…
Posted by Dave in Announcements, DIY, Personal, Programming, Software on December 29, 2009
Well I finally decided to move away from a PC based automation system over the Christmas holiday. For the past 6 years I have used Cinemar’s MainLobby and have loved it. It has given me a strong foundation to learn on, and has served me well. I really can’t say anything bad about the product, it has served me well, with the exception of a few hard drive failures (obviously not Cinemar’s fault), it has been rock solid. I have now moved on to a Crestron system. Why?… Read the rest of this entry »
Wiring a rack, Part 1: The equipment and the problem
One of the biggest things that plagues a lot of us is keeping our wiring neat and tidy, especially once you start to have a large system. When I started wiring my rack, I had the best intensions, and it actually looked pretty good. Fast forward 2 years and it’s a different story. With various pieces of equipment being replaced or relocated, its become quite a mess. In this series I will document my entire process of getting it “show ready”. Each segment will be detailed through photos and a list of equipment I used. I will admit, I will be getting some help from Sean Martel of Martel Automation throughout the process. Click the read link to follow the rest of Part 1.
One more addition to the Family
It’s pretty sad when you consider electronics party of your family, but I’m sure all of you aren’t here to listen to me ramble about my dogs and wife. Although this definitely isn’t a home automation device I thought I had to at least share. 2 days ago I picked up a Palm Pre. I was really drawn to the iPhone with all the cool home automation apps (especially the Elk app…sweet) but Sprint doesn’t offer it so this was the next best thing. So far I love it, although its been a rough road. In 2 days I’m on my 3rd phone due to frozen touchscreens. Hopefully this isn’t a sign of things to come! Who knows what apps will come, we can only hope some of the nice ones such as the aforementioned Elk app, the Crestron app, or even a MCE app will come along. I’ve downloaded the MoJo SDK, maybe when I finish my other project I’ll give it a whirl!
The Newest Addition to the Family
Posted by Dave in Announcements, Hardware, Multiroom Audio (MRA), Personal on October 1, 2009
Today I purchased a Crestron Adagio AES to add to my system. I’m pretty pumped about it because I finally get to fill the MRA needs missing from the house. For those of you that are unfamiliar, the Adagio series is as close to “Out of the box” that Crestron offers. It includes 10 inputs going to 6 outputs, 12×45w amplifier, plus source pass through for zone expansion (max of 36) and zone line outs in case you want to use a larger amp or receiver to power your speakers. The model I purchased also includes an internal FM and XM tuner. Once it arrives and is racked, I’ll post some pics!
Announcing the HA Chunnel, my latest development project
Posted by admin in DIY, Personal, Programming, Software on September 2, 2009
Ok, so the name’s stupid, and not really what I’m going to call it, but I had to come up with something quick, and just like the Chunnel connects France to the UK, this initiative will connect two of my favorite things, MainLobby and Crestron. As I eluded to in my “First Things First” post, I am taking on a project that will allow me to leverage my already extensive MainLobby system, with my newly aquired Crestron system. My reasoning? MainLobby’s graphics and interface designer are just too good. In fact, MainLobby’s latest library is nominated for a 2009 CEPro Best award. Sure you could do something just as cool with Crestron leveraging something like PhotoShop and and their own VT Pro-e, but that takes a lot of time, and as we all know, time is money. My hope is to be able to use the MainLobby front end which I am already comfortable with for interface creation, but use the Crestron system for my mission critical items. I’m not going to go into specifics yet, but they will all unfold over the next few weeks. Many of you will probably care less about this project, but hopefully it will give some other savvy developers ideas on how they can leverage best of breed automation products to come up with the ultimate solution for their customers, while saving themselves some time and/or money. More to come….
First Things First!
Before I get things started, I thought I’d take time to introduce you to my own personal system. Eventually I will add some pics, but for now you’ll all have to use your imaginations. Currently I have everything centralized to an equipment “Closet” in our media room that holds two Middle Atlantic 43 space Slim 5 racks. Although they are far from full, they are getting there. The heart of my system is MainLobby by Cinemar. It has been the lifeblood of my my home since about 2003 and I couldn’t imagine not having it. The house currently has 10 zones of audio, four surround sound systems including a dedicated home theater with a 96″ screen. Everything is piped through a Neothings matrix switch. Windows 7 Media Center is the center of my audio/video distribution and is handled by a combination of Linksys dma2100s and Microsoft Xbox 360s. I still have a Toshiba HDA2 HD-DVD (I know, I know, obsolete) and a Sony DBP-350 blu ray. A Wii is pumped through the matrix swtich, and through use of several wireless sensor bars, you can play a game in almost any room of the house. I am relying on Z-Wave for lighting now as my other ventures have failed (ok, I really only tried UPB). I have a mixture of handheld remotes, samsung q1 umpcs, and 12″ inwall touch screens. An elk system acts as the watchdog of the house, and also monitors two HAI thermostats. Finally, as of this week I have purchased two Crestron Pro processors that I hope to migrate my system over to. I plan to still heavily rely on MainLobby for graphics and the frontend, but I will have the crestron do the heavy lifting (more to come on this topic!). Well that about sums up my starting point, and hopefully gives all of you a baseline for all of my posts. Trust me, this site is not going to be all about me, but I thought it would be best to let you know where I’m coming from.