Newbie needs help on what to buy?

[TNTWebGuy]

Hi all,
I am a newbie who has been reading and surfing these forums for weeks...It has been very informative and great!. My question is one that others have posted, so I am sorry for the redundancy...I am planning a home automation project this Spring. I looked into HAL2000 and have come to the ultimate conclusion that HOMESEER is more stable, more powerful and just more universal...I know...duh!

PC
I will have a Core duo PC dedicated with Homeseer only,
with 2 R2-232 serial pci card
Dual Video Card ( to display on LCD living room tv as well as little LCD in wiring closet)
Homeseer PCI voice card or Way2call ( want to be able to control with house phones if I want)

My question is what to buy with it for my purposes below.

I want Homeseer to arm/disarm a security panel based on set TIMES
each day so I will not have to touch a keypad if I don't want to.

I want homeseer to adjust temp based on outside sensor reading

I want to add in RFID tags so homeseer can recognize me/wifey when we come home and arm/disarm, announce emails, voice mail etc

I want to ultimately add in inwall touchscreens when they become more affordable to control the different aspects.

Security
Either HAI Omni IIe or Caddx (please advise)

Thermostats
2 Omnistats (please advise which security system above works better at reporting temp, outside temp and adjusting temp based on COnditions in Homseer)

Switches
Insteon or Leviton

IR A/V control
(please advise for 5 pieces of equipment within 15 feet of PC)

RFID
RFID start kit from homeseer

Touchscreens
Omnitouch plug and play or Aftermarket with Cinemar(please advise)

thanks in advance for any feedback
-TNT

[Rupp]

Security
Either HAI Omni IIe or Caddx (please advise)
The most popular security system at this time is the ELK. There are a couple of plugins for the ELK as well as one for the Caddx so which ever system meets your needs the plugin is available.

Thermostats
2 Omnistats (please advise which security system above works better at reporting temp, outside temp and adjusting temp based on COnditions in Homseer)
The tstats can be interfaced with HomeSeer. If you have the ability to run serial cables to the stats then the HAI line of stats can't be beat. There's a plugin available for these as well.

Switches
Insteon or Leviton
Insteon is a protocol and Leviton is a brand, but I would spend a bit of time reading the Insteon forum before jumping on that protocol if I were you. Z-Wave and UPB are the best protocols that currently exist in my opinion

IR A/V control
(please advise for 5 pieces of equipment within 15 feet of PC)
The Ocelot is a really nice IR controller that can be used with add on relays so it's expandable. The other common IR devices are the USB-UIRT and the Global Cache devices. All have HomeSeer plugins.

RFID
RFID start kit from homeseer
Check out http://www.cheapertronics.com/produc...category_id=61

Touchscreens
Omnitouch plug and play or Aftermarket with Cinemar(please advise)
HSTouch is supposed to be released in beta with in a few weeks, so check it out when it arrives.
thanks in advance for any feedback
-TNT

.....

[raptorsss]

Security
I have ELK, and love it. Would recommend any day.

Thermostats
I have RCS X-10 4 zone system, but plan on upgrading to RCS Z-wave.

Switches
I am slowly moving from X-10 to Z-wave myself.

RFID
Cheapertronics. Same as Rupp mentions. have one in my wifes purse, and one on my keys. Have also purchased one for each car, but havent had the time to install those yet.

Touchscreens
I have a 17" LCD touch screen from ebay mounted in wall, running Cinemar's mainlobby. Though I am waiting axiously to see how HSTouch will look/Work.

I also recommend J River's Media center for Music control.

[tenholde]

for IR, I recommend Irtrans

tenholde

[TNTWebGuy]

Thanks guys

Thanks so much for the quick responses...

Ok...it was written

"Thermostats
2 Omnistats (please advise which security system above works better at reporting temp, outside temp and adjusting temp based on COnditions in Homseer)
The tstats can be interfaced with HomeSeer. If you have the ability to run serial cables to the stats then the HAI line of stats can't be beat. There's a plugin available for these as well."


My question now is layout....I have a beach house on a solid slab(no basement) I have 2 zones of heat..the thermos are on the same wall directly inline with each other, different floors. They both share the boiler room wall.....

Ideally...my new security panel will be in there, but the COmputer,Homeseer, IR etc...will be under the stairs 30 feet of wire away..

the upstairs thermo would be about 60 feet of wire away...

Do they sell serial cable that long?....will the length compromise the function?

It would be ideal to run the thermos into some serial board installed in the security panel box and then ONE cable to the computer


please advise?

thanks again

-TNT

[Rupp]

You can run cat 5 wire as a serial cable up to ~ 100 feet before having to worry about transmission problems. If I'm not mistaken the HAI thermostats are RS 485 which may allow you to use one cable up to the can. Hopefully some of the guys experienced with this can confirm this.