HomeSeer Publicity

[Rauco]

Drop me an e-mail and I'll help you out as well. You can send to:

homeseer at roccomputing.com (replace the at with @)

And according to the HGTV website the special should air on May 1 at 10:00 pm EST and May 2 at 2:00 am.

[fungun]

I can help all ya want with the Mainlobby bit.
Click on the HS/ML website link below to see how mine looks.
I'm sure we could get an interface you would like.
Tim

[mcascio]

Sometimes having someone walk you through the basics of getting MainLobby/Homeseer working together is all it really takes to get going smoothly.

If you need Cinemar's assistance, let us know.

[johnwpb]

Good timing! I just emailed Mario & David at Cinemar, to let them know of this thread, by the time I got back here to the forum, it looks like they have responded! Very Cool!

With the member support of this board, and the help of both HST and Cinemar, I am sure you will be up and running in plenty of time for the taping.

I would suggest that you start looking to purchase a touchscreen if you do not own one already. An airpanel would be a good choice, as they are very clean and modern looking and would more than likely meet your designers approval. Also, it can be stored "out of sight" and used anywhere around the house. I found one for $269 at Amazon.com HERE. You can also check ebay HERE and look at the "Buy it now" prices and maby even get a better deal. I have one, and cant say enough good about it!

[Krumpy]

Mario is the expert when it comes to ML and graphics.

I would be more than happy to have a discussion regarding HomeSeer and MainLobby integration. Just leave me private mail with your contact information. I would be happy to call you tomorrow. Will be going on vacation on Saturday - Wednesday and may not have access to the Internet.

John,
Remember that Smoothtlk and myself do not directly work for Cinemar. We just firmly believe in the product line and integration with HomeSeer.

[d-smes]

Be sure and show them a weather report on your HS machine. Better yet, ask "Edward" for a weathert report. That is something everyone can relate to... and would blow HGTV away if HS responded "Tomorrow's automated watering of the outside plants has been cancelled due to expected rain"!

[johnwpb]

mwhistle, I know what you mean abot the whole 2 years ago.... and now the price is dead on issue! I paid $350 for mine just a few months ago! Now when I go look to provide links for you, I find them for around $100 cheaper! Gotta love technology, and yesterdays news! hehehe

While it was great to hear from Mark at HS, I think it is also as good that Cinemar offered to help. That will be your key to incorporating MainLobby, if you choose to do so, with the time frame you have. I had a chance to meet Mario from Cinemar briefly over dinner in Orlando last week, and must say he is amazing! He is THE person behind Mainlobby, as well as all of the custom graphics!

If there is anything I can help you with, please do not hesitate to ask! My VB scripting skills are adequate, as well as a solid knowledge of HS. If you do ask something that I cant help with, someone on this board certainly can help!

If there are any areas of your system that you would like to "polish", just post your "wishlist" in this forum, and I am 100% certain that someone here can help!

If anyone has any tricks on how to dummyproof VR, I'm all ears.

Unfortunately, that is a VERY tall request I think, given this topic, I can speak for everyone on this board, and anyone dealing with VR in general, that there is no perfect VR sollution. It is a technology that is good, but FAR from perfect by any means!

The best you can do is use a very good quality microphone, and tweak it to the best of your ability, and then train, train, train, and when you think you are done, train it some more! The better the VR is trained to your voice, the better and more accurately it will work for you.

[Kyham]

Another HGTV automation home

You should just be enthusiastic about what you have done.

I had HGTV come out in June of 1999 and do the same thing and it was interesting. They spent the entire day taping and when the show finally showed, it lasted about 15 minutes.

Be sure to ask them for a copy of the show. If you ask the person at HGTV for the copy they will send one after the show has been broadcast.

They not only showed me working around using the automation but also did a short interview about different features and included pieces of the interview scattered through the show. When they broadcast the show, they had a second piece with another automation site that showed features that I did not have. In all, the show was very well done and fun.

One thing I would be careful about adding new things/features on short notice. You want everything working great without problems while they are there. Don't be in a rush to get something flashy installed and then have it not work and possibly cause a problem with those things that do work great.



Don Marquardt

www.k9soa.net

Home of JEANNIE
The House That Listens
as appeared on HGTV and
in Home Automation and Kentucky Living magazines

[Rupp]

mwhistle,
What modem are you using? Are you seeing any errors in the HS log or HSP log?

[johnwpb]

Many of the modems that were not "officially" supported with HSP 1.x, worked fine, but stopped working when 2.0 came out. There were MANY discussion threads about how modems stopped working. I had this happen as well, and finally had to upgrade to the HS PCI modem. The modem, from the last I heard, is a bit hard to come by. With the April Fools day quickly approaching (Sorry, I couldnt resist ), you may be better off going back to HSP 1.x if you were not having any problems.

With MainLobby and an interface to work on, the last thing you need is to have problems with your existing setup, and having to spend time getting back to where you alread were.

[mwhistle]

HS Phone

Rupp: My modem is a Creative, Modem Blaster, V.92 PCI DI5631, using Creative drivers, dated 10/18/02. No acknowledgment at all in the HomeSeer log. It's as if the call was never placed.

Johnwpb: I had been running fine (Caller ID announce is all I asked) on HSphone 2.0 (in fact, I never had a prior version).

It has been suggested that I:
a) install the HomeSeer PCI modem drivers (Krumpy)
b) use NetCallerID (Krumpy)
c) roll back to a prior version of HSPhone (johnwpb)

The only phone that's hooked up in my home is the Motorola MD681 5.8 Ghz

Any wise comments on how to proceed? Anyone care to point me to the HomeSeer PCI drivers?

I'll jump through hoops to get my Caller ID announce back.

[AccessX10]

[smoothtlk]

mwhistle - did you start on your graphics yet? email your pics to me as Mario might be able to give a hand. Advise what resolution your touchscreen will be set to.

For trouble free install, I recommend the NetCallerID box which Krumpy and I can advise on how to configure if you can't easily get your modem to respond with the CallerID info. Pretty common issue, BTW. That's why the NetCallerID box is great for the money. You can use both a modem for HSPhone and a NetCallerID box for CallerID. The NetCallerID box does some stuff that a modem can't as well.

In my house, the NetCallerID box sends to Homeseer the info. Then, Homeseer sends to MainLobby the call info. MainLobby pops up a message box (which matches your red doors BTW ) with a pic of the caller (if you have pics of your friends associated with their numbers), their name and the phone number. MainLobby then tells Homeseer to announce the caller over the whole house audio (if you want - this can be programmed on a per caller basis).

[mwhistle]

Update #2

smoothtlk:

Oh..yes..sir, I've started working on my graphics in MainLobby. Even though I put in the better part of a day, *started* is about all you can say in the end. And yes, I will swallow all pride and email what I have. I had a lot of difficulty getting my .jpgs photoshopped (as we discussed) well enough to display professionally in MainLobby. Only in the spirit of forward motion in the face of a deadline, I abandoned that cause (but not the color scheme) for something easier. I'm still convinced you had the 'killer idea.' I just haven't been able to pull it off. The graphics are raw, but the HomeSeer interface works. Again, great docs Krumpy.

I did notice that the MLHS plug-in is incredibly fast. Faster than the native HomeSeer web interface. Is it me or is that for real?

With your extra emphasis on NetCallerID, I will place my order this evening. I MUST get this functionality back. If I have to, I'll retro back to Talking Caller ID...please no...

Thanks for your continued attention.

[mwhistle]

Tried this Suggestion


AccessX10:

I tried this suggestion. It worked one time and then quit (no errors in log).