Thermostat, Sprinkler control, and a sensor

[doode968]

Can anyone recommend a thermostat and sprinkler controller? What about an IR beam sensor or something that can tell me a car entered the driveway and trigger a link?

Is this the only UPB choice for a thermostat?
http://www.homecontrols.com/cgi-bin/...led-Thermostat

Sprinkler controller
http://www.wgldesigns.com/rain8upb.html

Any experience with these?

[Event5]

When a friend of mine was looking at the UPB Stat it was recommended that the seriel one Here was a better choice as there was a lot more support. Since it's install he has done some amazing things with it and Homeseer. Maybe he will post here when he sees this.

He also purchased the UPB Rain8 which was a disapointment. I am sure others will post the same.

By the way, how many sprinkler zones do you plan to control?

Dave

[tenholde]

I use the Rain8Net (serial connection) and am very happy with it. Use mcsSprinklers plugin.

tenholde

[doode968]

When a friend of mine was looking at the UPB Stat it was recommended that the seriel one Here was a better choice as there was a lot more support. Since it's install he has done some amazing things with it and Homeseer. Maybe he will post here when he sees this.

He also purchased the UPB Rain8 which was a disapointment. I am sure others will post the same.

By the way, how many sprinkler zones do you plan to control?

Dave

I need to control 17 sprinkler zones. Meaning I would need three Rain8 units.

Do you know what the disappointment with Rain8 was?

[Event5]

For drive way monitoring I suggest something like this buried next to the driveway or this IR sensor across the enterance. A UPB link can be created if they are connected to a SA UMI Here. If you are not familier with the UMI here are the details. One UMI can do multiple functions.

Dave

[tenholde]

I think the reference was to the UPB rain8 unit, which does not interface well with Homeseer. The Rain8Net unit works great with the mcsSprinklers plugin (and other plugins), but requires running wire from HS PC to the Rain8Net unit (I use 200 ft of phone wire).

tenholde

[Event5]

The UPB Rain 8 does not communicate with other UPB devices like other UPB devices. It can be done with a "work a round"

It aslo can be controlled by the plugin Mcsprinklers but requires it's own PIM connected to the HS computer

Dave