HA (Home Automation) That's Gone But Not Forgotten

[macromark]

how interesting. I had not been to their website in ages. Wasn't their business mainly focused on insteon anyway?

It was but... they were stocking distributors for all the other products lines they carried. That no longer appears to be the case.

[upstatemike]

At least they are still accepting orders for custom etched keypad labels which indicates they still have some sort of physical presence.

[JimSpy]

At least they are still accepting orders for custom etched keypad labels which indicates they still have some sort of physical presence.

Maybe. That could be fully automated, though.

Strange to hear people talking about SmartHome like this, they've always been my go-to. I though they were just the other side of the Insteon building.

[macromark]

Strange to hear people talking about SmartHome like this, they've always been my go-to.

In my early HomeSeer days (2004-ish), the company was located at Rich's home (literally in the basement) and we would assemble orders of HS1 on Rich's pool table. In those days, SmartHome was our biggest customer!

[upstatemike]

In my early HomeSeer days (2004-ish), the company was located at Rich's home (literally in the basement) and we would assemble orders of HS1 on Rich's pool table. In those days, SmartHome was our biggest customer!

What about Home Control Concepts? Weren't they another big "home automation catolog" company from around that time?

[macromark]

What about Home Control Concepts? Weren't they another big "home automation catolog" company from around that time?

Possibly but I'm never heard of them. I purchased from Worthington and its consumer company (ASIHome) back in those days.

[TC1]

I just thought of a product that's not on this list: Brightswitch

I remember it was like 4 to 5 years ago when they announced the product and crowd-funded for it, even though they were supposedly an established manufacturer in Oregon. I thought that it was highly suspect that they couldn't bootstrap the product themselves, yet many folks fell for it. Then came the delays in product release... first months... then years. By the time the product was released it was overpriced and the market demand for something like it had shifted. Looks like the URL for the company now directs to an Asian gambling app.

[macromark]

I just thought of a product that's not on this list: Brightswitch

I remember that product... it was EX-PEN-SIVE! The last successful scan of that site (by archive.org) was May of 2019 so looks like they've been gone for a couple years. I'll add them to the list.

[upstatemike]

So this list has me thinking I should probably consider updating some of my existing Home Automation technology. Based on this picture of my wiring closet what would folks suggest is the highest priority system I should replace first? My initial thoughts are:

1 Migrate things controlled by the Hypertek HomeBrain onto Stargate so I can manage them with a more modern user interface.

2 Rip the CDs in my CD changers so I can get rid of the Slink-e and listen to all my music using the Turtle Beach Audiotron.

3 See if I can convert the things controlled by the BSR Ultrasonic Controllers to operate instead from infrared using the JDS Infraand Stargate Controller.

4 Retire the Mastervoice "Butler In A Box" and move to Microsoft voice recognition with some kind of conferencing microphone setup.

5 Replace the Panasonic phone system with a modern VOIP system... assuming I can get it to run on ArcNet.

I'll probably keep my SlimP3 units for displaying HA messages.

Any alternative suggestions?

red Xpander

[macromark]

upstatemike whoa... slow down a bit. Moving the Stargate is a big enough chunk to handle for now. Then, if Stargate ever goes belly-up (fat chance, right?), at least you'll be able to migrate to an HAI panel easily.

[upstatemike]

I hear the Enerlogic es-1400 is a nice controller... maybe that would be a good upgrade path.

[outbackrob]

.... Based on this picture of my wiring closet ...

SHOCK and AWE I am in! Wow! That's quite a setup. How long did it take to do that? Did you wire the house as it was being built? Mine is the top shelf in a hall coat closet......

[upstatemike]

SHOCK and AWE I am in! Wow! That's quite a setup. How long did it take to do that? Did you wire the house as it was being built? Mine is the top shelf in a hall coat closet......

Took about 38 years to wire...so far. The house was built in 1885 so no prewire during construction.

[Guest]

1885 automation. Thats, pretty innovator for that years haha

[upstatemike]

1885 automation. Thats, pretty innovator for that years haha

1885 is when the house was built so wasn't wired for HA during construction. Probably the first automation-like changes came later with the electrification of the gas lights and the buttons installed in each room for calling the servants.