Looking for "Green" ideas

[nightwalker]

I use RFID tags to keep track of weather the cars are home or not. I use the DSC alarm system that integrates nicely with HomeSeer using the IT100 interface. It's been flawless for years managing my security. Adding HomeSeer into the mix was just icing on the cake.

[Steve Q]

Hi,

How do you manage homeseer to know that the cars are gone ?

I have "Cheaper RFID" tags in each car. Search cheaper RFID on this board.

Steve Q

[simon templar]

Nightwalker,

I love the RFID tag idea. Can you explain what you took, how it's connected, what's the hardware needed, and how is the connection made ? Maybe a couple of pictures ?

Regarding the DSC, I have been all over this board looking for an alarm that will work with Homeseer. You should broadcast your posts more often man. Everything I read before that, people had issues with it. You are the only one who has something working correctly

Would you be able to tell me more about the alarm (what is the main module, what s used for motion detectors, doors) and a couple of pictures maybe ?

Thanks a ton !

[chewie]

There are several alarms that will work with Homeseer. The DSC has a plugin for it written by Blade and the GE Concord 4 has a plugin written for it by Piper. In addition there are the big DIY alarms like the Elk and HAI that have plugins for homeseer.

Look in the sub forums for BLDSC, under Other Security there are a few threads on the Concord plugin.

[sdanks]

I use an Elk M1-EZ8. I have a com port attached to my HA system, and it monitors several things. I had to make some scripts and mine sends texts to my pager and cell phone. I am in the middle of moving right now so I will post some pictures later. But, I had to write some events that trap what is coming from the panel. This panel does not have the voice the M1 Gold does, but I use AT&T Voices to make announcements through the Homeseer system. So I didnt need to voices in the panel. I bought an expander so I have several more inputs too.

[nightwalker]

there are several alarms that work well with hs. like some others have pointed out you could go the route of the hai or the elk, or the concord4, as well as the dsc. there may be others.

i choose the dsc as it's a very good long lasting well performing security system, also reasonably priced that i was familiar with. the hai i'm also familiar with but it has way more automation features than i needed since homeseer handles all that for me.

as far as most security devices, motions, contacts, smoke and co2 sensors, etc can be used on most any system. the only things that get a little specific is if you need to do some wireless sensors.

rfid is as easy as it gets and there is a lot of info on here about it. i will tell you that i use two rifd tags in each car to negate the occasional drop out of signal that can happen on rare occasions.

i would suggest that you take these or any systems you want to add one at a time. get one working and move to the next. as many here will tell you, doing it all at once never turns out well.

[simon templar]

Thank you so much for the precious tricks and advices.
As of now, I am still dealing with the location of my homeseer.
I just moved it from my office to the basement, and I have very poor signal -> If I go in Setup / Interfaces / Nodes , it list all of my nodes in a orange color ad say "poor signal". Basically, I have to put it back in the 1st floor. I just want to make sure it can be in a closed space since the unit (HomeSeer HS Pro) gets EXTREMELY hot. I don't want to start a fire anywhere.. Thanks again for all the info !

[djbeam]

using Homeseers facilities are great .. but sometimes you do not know where the issues are ...

First you must collect info then determine if the solution is better than the problem .. and this many times is where issue arise.

In my case we use timers, sensors both within HS and stand alone .. yet the most beneficial tool was to include the TED 5000 (and it is not perfect) to start the where is the issue .. process. I has provided us with some interesting info that allow us to address issues that we would have never realized before (especially with TOU hydro usage/billing). The only issue is that it is not at the appliance level ... and this is where is needs to be.

[drozwood90]

There are z-wave devices that can give you power draw on a per-device level.

Or if you want to be more manual about it, you can use a Kill-A-Watt and add in one of the many hacks out there that hook the KAW into a PC. Some scripting and there you go!

--Dan

[Steve Q]

using Homeseers facilities are great .. but sometimes you do not know where the issues are ...

First you must collect info then determine if the solution is better than the problem .. and this many times is where issue arise.

In my case we use timers, sensors both within HS and stand alone .. yet the most beneficial tool was to include the TED 5000 (and it is not perfect) to start the where is the issue .. process. I has provided us with some interesting info that allow us to address issues that we would have never realized before (especially with TOU hydro usage/billing). The only issue is that it is not at the appliance level ... and this is where is needs to be.

I use current sensors to tell me when my appliances are ON. I log the ON/OFF times. I load the log file into Excel and it calculates how much power the appliance has used. This approach works very well for me.

Steve Q

[drozwood90]

Steve's idea is great if you can get the tuneable current sensors and hook them up as he did with DS10a's.

--Dan

[Automated]

We had one old stereo that was acting as the amplifier for one Sonos zone. Upon checking its power usage, I found that it drew the same amount of power regardless of whether or not it was turned on or on standby! Needless to say, it was removed promptly, and replaced with a dedicated zone amp.

[edgar1898]

I have a HS3 setup using roughly 5 to 10 watts of power. It is a Debian Linux build running on a Pogoplug. I have both a Z-Troller and a W800 connected to it and it performs just as well as my power hungry Windows box used to.

[NeverDie]

I have a HS3 setup using roughly 5 to 10 watts of power. It is a Debian Linux build running on a Pogoplug. I have both a Z-Troller and a W800 connected to it and it performs just as well as my power hungry Windows box used to.

Great info! Thanks for posting it. Which version/series of the pogoplug did you install onto?

I'd eventually like to try doing something similar onto the upcoming Arduino Tre (see post #17 of http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=162857 as to why) that will be released this spring, so knowing the details of the pogoplug platform you installed on (and comparing those specs to those of the Tre) may help confirm whether or not it would be feasible and may even hint as to its probable performance. Like the Arduino Yun, the Tre has a Linux co-processor, and allegedly the Tre will have 100x the compute power of a regular Arduino Uno, which is the most popular arduino.

[edgar1898]

The best ones are actually the older ones. I ordered the one below and got a Pogoplug v2 (POGO-E02). Even though it isn't pink like most of the other version 2s, internally it is still a v2:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For $25, you get quite a bit! Arch linux (http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/ar...ug-v2-pinkgray) is probably the easiest to get installed on these ARM machines, but with a little work you can get pretty much any Linux distro running on it.

I actually bought a ODroid-U3 (1.7GHz Quad-Core with 2GB RAM for $59) in the hopes of using it, but mono kept crashing on my Debian armel build so I had to go back to the Pogoplug setup.