HouseBot

I may sound like a troll, but I can assure you this is a sincere question. I'm 75 years old, so I learn a little slower, but I'm determined to keep up with you young whippersnappers.

I am working toward figuring out the best software control for my purposes. I'm fascinated with Housebot, but I'd like to understand more about it. I have never used any HA software, but I do use an Ocelot with c-Max.

Is is possible for anyone here to enlighten me a bit on what advantages Housebot has over Homeseer (besides cost). I assume there are many advantages, I'd like to learn what they are, since my inexperience makes it harder to figure out from the specs.

I want to do home theater control as close to what you might expect from Crestron as I can. I'm aware that I will need to work toward as much RS-232 equipment as possible to accomplish that. I do the normal scene lighting things which I believe is pretty basic to any software. Probably won't do a thermostat, not too much with security, nothing with remote access via cell phone and the like. Might like to try voice command, not sure yet.

After considerable study, I think I like Z-Wave to replace my current and frustrating X-10. I want off the power line.

In the future, I dream of a "couch tablet" with a 7" to 10" screen, to control my home theater. I'm thinking some possibilities will be on the market by mid-2010 at a reasonable cost. Right now I use a Pronto to control the Ocelot. I'd continue to use the Pronto with new software until such time as "couch tablets" become practical. It would be nice to get from IR to RF on the remote.

I've pretty much narrowed the choice to Homeseer or Housebot. I don't like the brands that look down on DIY folks. I place CQC, among others in that category, so I've drifted away from considering them. The other thing is cost. Housebot seems overly reasonable in cost. I hope they are charging enough to be successful over time.

Any thoughts anyone has are appreciated. I guess the question is simple: Why Housebot over Homeseer?

I've battled over that same thing over the years. I can can tell you why I've chosen to stay with Housebot over Homeseer.

1. Stability - Housebot never crashes with me. Some of that may be the fact that I run nothing but HB on a small dedicated machine. I tried the same with HomeSeer and had some 'hiccups'
2. interface - Personal preference but I don't like the web interface of HomeSeer, it looks too messy and jumbled - especially when you add a bunch of devices. I added a weather plugin and all of a sudden I had hundreds of things to scroll through. HB's tree view and logical separation of tasks, interfaces, and devices makes more sense to me.
3. SWremote - Yes Homeseer has the HSTouch app now but I had the cumbersome way in which it's deployed. I don't mean the app itself, but changes to the gui are painful IMO to transfer to the client. With house bot changes are transfered over the next time it connects.
4. Light weight - HB is written in C++ and that translates into a small powerful app with low overhead. You can write .NET stuff if you want, but you don't have to use it by default.
5. It's different - Again a personal thing, but HB feels different than the others and I guess I identify with it more so.
6. The forums - We'll never win "most active" around here, but there is always somebody there to help. Plus you don't see the strange bickering here like you do on other forums. We all get along pretty well.
7. Scott - Homeseer doesn't have him. I don't see how he does it - I'd like to stick a bendy straw in his head and siphon out some of the gooey goodness. (Figuratively, of course... )
8. Cost - Almost a 10x price difference between HB and Homeseer. I'm cheap. Actually I'm not, but HB gives me everything I need so why would I spend more...

You will find tons more plugins for Homeseer than HB may ever have, if you need one of them then it's an important distinction, if you don't then it's largely irrelevant. I do like the native iPhone/touch HStouch app for Homeseer (except for the deployment mentioned above). HB doesn't have that, but remote desktop on the phone to a server-side swremote works very well so that's what I use.

Why don't you tell us a little more about your environment and what you hope to achieve and we'll se if it's something that's a fit for HouseBot. Perhaps that will help you with your decision.

Hope this helps,
Terry

Thanks Terry. Very interesting comments. Tomorrow, when I'm fresh, I'll try to lay out more detail. I perfectly capable of getting wordy, but I know how people hate to wade through rambling posts, so I'll try to keep it to the point. That actually requires thinking, so I better get a good nights rest

For me, Scott made the difference.

When I was looking for home automation software, the thing I cared the most was support.
HB was in it's early days, with a very small community. The software however was stable and rich of features.
I also liked the small family-like community.

Above all was Scott who was always VERY helpful.
I was always impressed by the speed and the quality of his answers, and that bought me in.

Thumbs up for Scott!

Present Setup:

Ocelot triggered by a Pronto TSU-2000 using IR, along with the usual internal Ocelot timers, etc. The Ocelot C-Max program scans the list of code at a fairly slow rate in electronic terms and has some latency that is annoying.

Things it does now:

*Has macros programed to turn on the home theater equipment in sequence using IR emitters.
*Has typical control including scene control over PCS X-10 dimmers. Turns lights on at 5am, turns lights off at 9pm. Sets light levels for pre-movie, post-movie, etc.
*Has X-10 control of my motorized masking system (triggered by a button on the Pronto)
*Has IR control of my PowerRise motorized light filtering blinds, lowering them so many minutes after sunrise (varies daily due to trees blocking sun from hitting house and angle of sun changing).
*Raises blinds at same set time each day after sun leaves front windows.
*Controls blackout motorized blinds for home theater room darkening. Blinds are 24v DC, so relays are used (Adicon Relay 8 ). One position of the relay is up, the other down. Stops are built into the blinds.
*Adicon Secu 16I coupled to Xantech LS-1 light sensor prevents Ocelot from turning on BFD sub equalizer if Velodyne Sub is already on, thus preventing loud thump. If sub comes on and BFD (X-10 controlled) is not already on, Ocelot turns sub back off.

What do I want in the future, both near and distant, that Ocelot doesn't do well, or can't do:

*Allow conversion to Z-Wave dimmers and removal of most X-10.
*Allow addition of some sort of small touch screen (couch tablet). I'd like to have something 7 to 10 inches. Pronto is too small. Could be tethered, but free standing is always nicest. RF would be preferred. I don't think the right thing is on the market yet, I'm thinking of the future. I'm willing to wait until the time is right.
*Get rid of the latency of the Ocelot when controlling equipment. I'd like instant response.
*Work toward a Creston atmosphere where it makes no difference what the existing status of the equipment is, the automation will take it to where it should go. In other words, it makes no difference what the receiver is set to do, when you push a "watch movie" button on the remote, the equipment is prepared for that function. It doesn't have to start from a known point as it now does with an IR macro. I realize this will require the eventual upgrade of things like the receiver to something like RS-232, or at least discreet IR. My Marantz SR-780 is getting a little old and obsolete in this respect.

At age 75, I'd like the GUI to be reasonably intuitive. If I don't use something regularly, it's easy to forget procedures.

*I don't do much with security, but might want to add motion sensors if something reliable is available.
*I have no need to communicate with the HA system by cell phone, or other remote device.
*I probably won't run a thermostat.
*I probably won't be installing control screens on the wall, that is unless they communicate wireless and come down in price dramatically. Paying $1500 to $2500 for a little screen on the wall is not my style. Paying $300 for a 7"-10" screen might be. I have a feeling that the future will bring a lot of touch screen possibilities to the market.

The Ocelot can remain in the mix. It's a great piece of gear for the money. The problem is that ADI isn't advancing. Something may be wrong within the company, I don't know. They promised the replacement for the Ocelot, the Firecat, over two years ago. They were supposedly testing the software at that time. but nothing has happened. So, I want to think about the possibility of forced life after Ocelot. In other words, I'd like to be able to do everything with Housebot.

I promised not to get wordy, but I lost my way. Sorry. When I get on this home automation stuff, I don't know where to stop.

Deane

Hi,

I came around just when HB was sold to Meedio. Scott was still around but it was different back then. Homeseer only had a web interface back then which I didn't like. I guess I never looked into cost. I just needed the best software to suit my needs and found that in HouseBot. I already had much going before switching to HB on windows as well. I had to port 10 years of work on an Amiga and a few years using Linux to a windows PC. It took me 3 weeks to get all the pieces together and HB was the most imported of them all. Now five years later HB has grown to something which is able to cover all of my needs. Maybe graphically HB could improve by introducing animated GIF and or Flash support and live video streaming in the SWRemote. But hey, these can all be worked around nicely.

I guess if you want to get the best out of this, it pays of to be handy in scripting. Many examples around..

As for the tablet, I would just wait until the new Apple tablet hits the market. Until a native SWRemote runs on that thing, you could mirror your desktop using VNC, Remotely Anywhere or any other sofwtare that does that. I currently use my iPhone a lot for doing remote work using the PC's SWRemote. The iPhone has a very nice app which probably also runs on the new tablet to mirror your PC's desktop. "LogMeIN"

Yes, I agree with Roussell... This is a nice forum where everybody gets along. Everything that is written here is constructive. I have never seen a negative on the forum. It's not very busy, but questions always get answered quickly. Seems like a few people are just waiting for questions that can be answered because it often introduces a new challenge to a problem that needs fixing...

I know CQC has many standard plugins for a large scale of different equipment. However, by looking at your needs, you can do just fine with HB. CQC is btw too costly because of the yearly payments.

Good luck with your choice. Can't help you with a comparison between HB and HS, but I went for HB and never regret it.

Hi Richard, and thanks for posting a reply.

I'm with you on the Apple tablet. While I'm not knowledgeable in it's technical application at this time, I'm suspecting it's going to change things. An additional benefit I see is that in anticipation of it's forthcoming success, several other companies are rushing product through development and to market to compete. This can only be good. Most will try to be at a lower price point than Apple as a marketing advantage.

CQC's annual fee was an immediate turn off for me also.