HomeSeer for custom installs?

[DC]

I've suggested it before but I think HS could become more stable and suitable for a "professional" HA platform if maintenance releases were separated from beta releases with new features. When the two are combined, you might fix one problem with an updated version, but you risk creating other problems because of the the code associated with new features. In fact, I've had that happen. I think once a version is declared a "release" then only maintenance fixes should be made against that release going forward. Beta versions with new features should be kept separate. For example, the version numbering scheme could be something like:

2.2.0 -- release version
2.2.0.1 -- fixes to 2.2.0

2.2.1 -- beta version
2.2.2 -- beta version
2.2.3 -- beta version
2.2.100 -- beta version

2.3.0 -- release version
2.3.0.1 -- fixes to 2.3.0
2.3.0.2 -- fixes to 2.3.0

2.3.1 -- beta version
2.3.2 -- beta version

etc.

In other words, if the third digit is 0, it's a release version and the only changes to that version should be bug fixes. If the third digit is anything else, it's a beta version. That would allow people who chose to run beta versions to do so while allowing people who only want release versions, and subsequent bug fixes, to do so also.

[completelyhis]

wouldn't disagree with that.

[jackpod]

[quote=completelyhis;839894]Jack,
I have upb, and we plug anything in anywhere, and I've never had any problems, whatsoever. aircompressors, welders, all sorts of home appliances and gadgetry. zero problemos, seenyour.

Ian[/quote

There are exceptions to the rule in every case, both for and against. There are just as many posts saying "zero problems" as "had problems" for each of the technologies. I wasn't picking on UPB, but as a powerline protocol, the chance is there, Zwave has just as much of a chance for something to interfere with its operation or not. The point I was making is for HA to really be successful, it has to be more idiot proof. It is still very much a niche market, but so where VCR's and computers at one point in time.

If one single protocol, technology, methodology was perfect, there would be no others

[nightwalker]

Jack,
I have upb, and we plug anything in anywhere, and I've never had any problems, whatsoever. aircompressors, welders, all sorts of home appliances and gadgetry. zero problemos, seenyour.

Ian

I also use UPB at home and it's my first choice on customer installs, however I have had it fail from time to time on some really large homes and have instead used Zwave. Depending on how many units a person is having installed it's fine but there have been some places I was unable to get reliable performance, such as houses with lots of metal in their structure.

[completelyhis]

Jack,
I have upb, and we plug anything in anywhere, and I've never had any problems, whatsoever. aircompressors, welders, all sorts of home appliances and gadgetry. zero problemos, seenyour.

Ian

there are two sides of the coin here as well, before you even start discussing the software, what about the hardware side? Out of the 4 available technologies, 2 are immediately out of the question and of the other two, they can be very stable, but neither are perfect. ZWave can have issues and UPB could be prone as you have no control over what the customer may plugin in to an outlet. Mr and Mrs Joe Public just aren;t quite ready yet

[macromark]

The PRO-100 has proven to be a very reliable platform for dealer installs over the past three years. Unit failures have been extremely rare and dealers like the flexibility of those systems. If you're considering installing automation for a living, a PRO-100 is probably the most powerful controller you can install.

However, until now, dealers have had to use third party solutions for touchscreen interfaces. By itself, this is not a 'bad' thing but it limits our ability to support those installations. With HSTouch, we'll have a solution we can totally support and that is a very good thing for our dealers. When HSTouch is released, it will be shipped pre-licensed with the units.

If anyone would like to discuss this in greater detail, please feel free to give me a call.

Mark Colegrove
HomeSeer Technologies
voice: 603/471-2816 x106

[nightwalker]

[jackpod]

there are two sides of the coin here as well, before you even start discussing the software, what about the hardware side? Out of the 4 available technologies, 2 are immediately out of the question and of the other two, they can be very stable, but neither are perfect. ZWave can have issues and UPB could be prone as you have no control over what the customer may plugin in to an outlet. Mr and Mrs Joe Public just aren;t quite ready yet

[Rupp]

That would be a necessity, if I can't lock it down it has no business being at a customer residence. There would also have to be a different level of support. For example bugs that are known in the .66 release version, that I know are fixed in the newer beta's but that's a long time in between release versions. That would mean a customer would have to live with the bug or I'd be living at their house to maintain it. Don't get me wrong I consider HS the premier home automation software, but that doesn't automatically make it a candidate for a professional install at a customers home, at least not yet.

There are a lot of professional installers that will disagree with you on this. Put HomeSeer (doesn't matter what version) on a Pro-100 in a can and set it to do home automation and it will work for years with no tweaking. It's the add-ons that aren't deemed necessary for professional installers that are mostly responsible for making HomeSeer unstable. IE screen scraping, messaging services, etc. These are the areas that the professional installer will not "mess" with. Keep in mind that Pro installers are not tweakers and leave the non necessary add-ons out of the mix. It's us DIY'ers that like to have HomeSeer check our cell phone minutes and react.

[nightwalker]

That would be a necessity, if I can't lock it down it has no business being at a customer residence. There would also have to be a different level of support. For example bugs that are known in the .66 release version, that I know are fixed in the newer beta's but that's a long time in between release versions. That would mean a customer would have to live with the bug or I'd be living at their house to maintain it. Don't get me wrong I consider HS the premier home automation software, but that doesn't automatically make it a candidate for a professional install at a customers home, at least not yet.

[Rupp]

what if HST were to revamp the way the user accounts are setup, so there was an "installer" account and a standard "user" account, and the installer could set priviledges on the user account. that would help, I would think. Seems like if that is the direction HST wants their software to go, it is something they would need to do.

You can "almost" do that now by simply resetting all account passwords.

[completelyhis]

what if HST were to revamp the way the user accounts are setup, so there was an "installer" account and a standard "user" account, and the installer could set priviledges on the user account. that would help, I would think. Seems like if that is the direction HST wants their software to go, it is something they would need to do.

[nightwalker]

Typically, you want to design and install a tinker-free solution for clients. I dont want my clients tinkering without me. Bad things can happen.

That's my point, HS just begs, sometimes needs, to be tinkered with. I have what I consider a very stable system at home, depending on what I'm doing I may not touch it for 2 weeks at a time, but two weeks is not a lot of time when it's installed somewhere else, for someone else. My opinion is there are far to many beta plug-ins that never quite get finished, also too many plug-ins that have minor problems or bugs that never seem to get the attention they need. While this is a minor annoyance at home it would be painful If I had it installed at a customer residence. the Media Player plug-in and DSC plug-in are two that come to mind. I own them both at home, the media player I no longer use and the DSC I haven't even bothered to install yet since I'm still reading about so many people having troubles.

The main HS program is always in a bit of a state of flux and that's fine for me at home. There are always bugs and while HST does address them in time, were it installed in a customer premise, that bit of of time would have me out of business.

Tinker?

Typically, you want to design and install a tinker-free solution for clients. I dont want my clients tinkering without me. Bad things can happen.

Custom Install

By custom install, I mean professional design and installation of solutions done as a business for profit.