21 replies to this topic

[sandt38]

No system is complete without an interface. My wife forever had issues getting things to work together, and after a lot of consideration I bit the bullet and bought a really nice all-in-one. No, it is not the very best, but it is easy for anyone to program and it does just about everything I could want it to. It is a one touch and done deal.

I bought the Logitech Harmony 1. It is a standard form factor, and it fits in your hand very well. It also has a charging station, and it is completely customizable via your computer and a USB cable. If you want to watch the satellite, just click the image on the screen for Dish Network and it turns on the TV, selects HDMI1, and turns off everything else. Select Dish in Surround and it also turns on the stereo, and chooses TV/Sat in... everything is simple one touch and go. I can also set it up for one touch selection of my favorite channels.

The Unit.


A couple of the "activities" screens.


A couple of the "channels" screens.

[Deephaven]

I use CQC, also known as Charmed Quark Controller. Any remote, any button, can do anything you want including change the lights, the stereo, the tv, the radio, my cd's, Pandora and so on. I have yet to buy little portable PC's to use as interfaces, but regularly have my laptop on my lap anyways so I can control anything in the house including the stereo in the living room, family room, kitchen, dining room, master, master bath and soon the garage, workout room and sun room

[alan monro]

sandt38, on 18 May 2010 - 07:20 PM, said:

No system is complete without an interface. My wife forever had issues getting things to work together, and after a lot of consideration I bit the bullet and bought a really nice all-in-one. No, it is not the very best, but it is easy for anyone to program and it does just about everything I could want it to. It is a one touch and done deal.

I bought the Logitech Harmony 1. It is a standard form factor, and it fits in your hand very well. It also has a charging station, and it is completely customizable via your computer and a USB cable. If you want to watch the satellite, just click the image on the screen for Dish Network and it turns on the TV, selects HDMI1, and turns off everything else. Select Dish in Surround and it also turns on the stereo, and chooses TV/Sat in... everything is simple one touch and go. I can also set it up for one touch selection of my favorite channels.

The Unit.


A couple of the "activities" screens.


A couple of the "channels" screens.

Very nice looking remote . I still have the coffee table smothered with multiple remotes . The trouble is they all have different keys .I still have to find out what all the keys do ............................Alan

[topgun]

I use a Harmony 880, it works fine for what it is. I'm not sure I'd buy it again though.

[Aaron Clinton]

Damn!

[dem beats]

Deephaven, on 18 May 2010 - 10:02 PM, said:

I use CQC, also known as Charmed Quark Controller. Any remote, any button, can do anything you want including change the lights, the stereo, the tv, the radio, my cd's, Pandora and so on. I have yet to buy little portable PC's to use as interfaces, but regularly have my laptop on my lap anyways so I can control anything in the house including the stereo in the living room, family room, kitchen, dining room, master, master bath and soon the garage, workout room and sun room

I need to come test drive your set up. Seriously.

[slim2fattycake]

topgun, on 20 May 2010 - 08:11 AM, said:

I use a Harmony 880, it works fine for what it is. I'm not sure I'd buy it again though.

I have the advanced 880. What don't you like about your 880? I really like mine especially being only 100 dollars.

[dem beats]

I wanted a harmony unit, and I don't mean to sspeak for Ryan but for me, it's almost as easy to just turn it all on by hand. And in most cases your receiver remote can handle 90% of what you need to do.

[sandt38]

Clearly you aren't married...

I would get 7 phone calls a day at work about "how do I do this or that"... This thing makes it so simple a 2 year old could use it.

My Elite receiver's remote is kick ass, I can do everything with it, but admittedly it is so much simpler to use the Harmony1

[Deephaven]

Even your wife could figure this out.

Now Playing screen

Volume Control for the main four rooms

Lights

Local Traffic

Weather


All controlled via mouse at the moment, but touchscreens and portable pc's with wireless anywhere in the house can as well.

[sandt38]

Ha! You don't know my wife! If she has to do more then hit one button to turn on and off everything she needs for a certain function, she is lost.

Cool setup though. I don't know that I have ever seen such a thing.

[Deephaven]

One button is easy. You see the everything off button? That shuts off the lights, turns off the stereo, stops the music player, shuts off the tv and so on. Basically it shuts down everything electronic in the house. As soon as I add my alarm it will arm it if I like as well.

ANYTHING that you can think of, I can do in one button. This also means that you can grab any stupid remote and program any button on it to do anything. Unlike a normal Harmony, since all my equipment has bi-directional communication if it doesn't work the first time it will keep trying until it does. (except my tv's which are not connected via communication but only IR)

For instance, when just watching normal tv my wife can use the Onkyo remote that came with the 876. The buttons are all labeled right for controlling the cable box as well, but anything I add to Macro makes it even easier. Programming a new macro takes me less than 10 seconds and I can do it from any computer in the house.

For instance. DVD button. Turns on DVD, turns on receiver and switches to DVD input, dims light in TV room to movie watching level, turns of tertiary lights that disturb the TV room, turns off kitchen music as it also would affect the movie and so on. Anything you can imagine I can make the house do and to make it happen all it requires is that you press one logical button.

In the morning, if you use the system as an alarm clock it can turn on the stereo play some music and ramp things up slowly. It can also speak the weather so you know what it will be like outside and turn on the TV and display the traffic information.

Just the tip of the iceberg. I am installing a security panel in the house that will accept occupancy sensors. My house will be smart enough to trun off the lights if no one is in the room. I can also set rules, like if they come back in shortly after shutting them off to ramp them back up but if its a long time make them hit the lightswitch again. I can water my plants based on moisture levels in the soil, turn on ceiling fans based on temperature differentials throughout the house, control the 3 zone HVAC system to balance whatever I need and so on.

And yes, this is just my remote.

[Deephaven]

First and foremost I bought the software as a media manager. One location for all radio, all cd's and internet stuff such as Pandora. As soon as I finish building some speakers I will have complete control of what is playing in 9 different rooms/zones all from one VERY easy to use source.

[nem]

Sean that looks like one hell of an awesome home set up you have!! I think that may be well over my head.

[Deephaven]

It is super easy to use, the initial setup and wiring however was fun. I had around 10 little holes throughout my sheetrock that I used to pull wires through.

4 cat6, 5 rg6, speaker wire pulled to every TV location, the same without the rg6 to non-tv areas. I should have pulled more Cat though as there are some seriously sweet plug in sensors for it.

[dem beats]

sandt38, on 28 May 2010 - 07:28 AM, said:

Clearly you aren't married...

I would get 7 phone calls a day at work about "how do I do this or that"... This thing makes it so simple a 2 year old could use it.

My Elite receiver's remote is kick ass, I can do everything with it, but admittedly it is so much simpler to use the Harmony1

My wife is uncanily savy with my electronics. And she doesn't mess with anything she doesn't know. If she hits a menue buton she doesn't understand, she just stops. It's really kind of sweet and considerate.

[dem beats]

I'm sold.... depending on cost.

I have a few questions though.. How do you get it to run your lights? What system requirements do you need? I'm guessing so, but can it run several media rooms?

ie I have the bedroom, living room, theater in the basement, planning on putting a screen in the kitchen and then whole home audio.

[Deephaven]

The lights require light switches that it can talk to. Nearly any of the automation companies lights work with it, but if you choose something as unreliable as X10 it won't work any better than the switches do on their own. I chose UPB although I wish I had chosen a style that would speak in both directions more readily. Requiring a query every now and then isn't that big of a deal, but if you didn't have to it would be better.

Cost is simple. $300 for the software. The rest depends on what you want to integrate.

My light switches were about $60 each. So yep, I've got around $3k in light switches in my house. Over their life though they will pay for themselves, but that I can explain later when I finally get around to a build thread. I have a few more things to think about before then, although I haven't spent a dime or any time on it in a year.

[dem beats]

300 bucks does all that?

How many machines can I put this software on for 300 bucks?

Sean I'm completely amazed... For that cost it's almost silly to not have the option. On their website it mentions HVAC, and you say it can manage watering gardens etc....

That's nearly too good to be true.

[dem beats]

I asked that wrong, I can put the source software on one server, but how many machines can controll it from there? I think I understand it correctly in that yoru laptop just gets you in touch with your server, and then the server does the heavy lifting correct?