Home Automation Roundup

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?…Well mainly because I have been working my way through the Crestron certification process, and what better way to learn a product than to use it every day.  I haven’t lost sight of my DIY roots (that is where the “sort of” comes in), I am still working on my Crestron/MainLobby bridge, but my focus has changed.  Before it was so I could use the MainLobby front end for easier development, but now I will just be using the server component to leverage some components that are not available (at least affordably) for Crestron.  A perfect example is to use the TZwave component available through Tallus Inc, to control lighting.  The Crestron RF lighting solution is great, but doesn’t make sense for me financially.  I have a few of their switches for learning purposes, but I will still continue using ZWave going forward.  So here is a run down of my new setup

3 Crestron Pro Processors

Adagio AES Processor/Multi-Room audio processor

2 Crestron ML-500 RF Remotes

Crestron 12 button keypad

Crestron  infiNet RF Gateway

Crestron infiNet dimmer and Keypad.

Crestron CEN-IDOC iPod Dock

I will be recycling my Samsung q1s and other In wall touchscreens, but now run XPanel on them.

Stay tune for the second post in my How to Wire a Rack series for detailed pics.