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    Is Homeseer right for me?

    • Lights (Radio RA2 or select)
    • Door Locks
    • Doorbell/cameras
    • Thermostat (ecobee?)
    • Irrigation (Rachio?)
    • Pentair Pool equipment
    • Landscape lights
    • Garage Door
    • 2 separate AV Systems (Yamaha RXA860 and RXA3060, LG TV, Epson 5400 projector, DVD players, Amazon Fire TV)
    • Touch pad wall controls - high quality units with very good graphics are important to me.
    • Geofencing?
    • A few outside cameras.
    • Motion Sensors, both inside and out.

    Some functions I have thought about:
    • I especially hate IR remote control. One of my Harmony remotes has a hub and the other does not. The non-hub Harmony has lots of issues with not receiving commands. I am hoping to integrate a better system of RC for this system.
    • Light control by schedule, occupancy, geofencing, etc.
    • Door lock control by schedule, occupancy, geofencing, etc.
    • Control of whole house fans by time and temperature, possibly including sensors to verify that a window is open.
    • Irrigation control to integrate a rain or weather sensor. Would Homeseer be best with something like Rachio, Rain8, or a simple relay.
    • Landscape lighting to adjust by sunset time. I have a dumb controller with 3 zones. I would like the MC to control each zone separately. I assume that this would require some type of smart low voltage relay.
    • Garage door to trigger inside lights if it is dark outside.
    • Possibly including media storage (movies and music)
    • Text alerts for various system conditions, such as washing machine/dishwasher done, garage door left open, lights on, etc.

    #2

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome to the world of Home Automation!

      I personally have not used Alonis or CQC but I am very familiar with them so I feel that I can give good input. Everything you want can be done with HS. Some of the things can be done with HS MUCH more effectively. The irrigation control and the geofencing in HS are light years ahead of anything else out there. PHLocation for location awareness (much beyond simple geofencing, but it does that too) and MCSSprinklers for irrigation. HS will completely fit all of your other needs as well. That all being said where Alonis shines is in media. HS is pretty pathetic as far as music, movies and so forth is concerned and Alonis is great at that but not much else. I guess the only catch might be touch pad control. There is HSTouch and with it you can pretty much make anything your heart desires but it takes a while to figure it out. There are many very helpful people here though. I myself am not a clever coder but I have managed to make a HSTouch project that I think is absolutely incredible.

      So in a nutshell HS can absolutely do everything you're looking at and much, much more.

      Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any more specific questions. There are lots of knowledgeable people here willing to help.
      Originally posted by rprade
      There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

      Comment


        #4
        I too looked at Charmed Quark and others. I was not aware of Alonis (I did just take a look at it).
        For me, part of it came down to the pricing model. CQC and Alonis both seem to have a model based on number of clients and "devices". Since I did not know what I needed for these two requirements and did not want to be burdened with having to worry about it, I would have to go with their very expensive upper levels. So, that sort of turned me off.

        HomeSeer does not have the per client fee which is very nice.
        Go with Pro version and the HS authored plugins are included along with Client Designer.
        Deal compared to others.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by spike5884 View Post
          Go with Pro version and the HS authored plugins are included along with Client Designer.
          Deal compared to others.

          I would just like to add that there are almost no HomeSeer plugins for HS3, unlike with HS2, so getting PRO might not make financial sense depending on what plugins you want. The cost of regular HS plus designer is less than HS3 Pro. I always suggested that people get pro thinking that HST would make some plugins but they never have.
          Originally posted by rprade
          There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

          Comment


            #6
            I will second S-F suggestion. I had PRO for HS2 and really never used HST plugins. Writing plugins is not lucrative so the ones that do exist from HST tend to provide minimal interface capability.

            Comment


              #7
              Irrigation control to integrate a rain or weather sensor. Would Homeseer be best with something like Rachio, Rain8, or a simple relay.

              The best irrigation control is to utilize a local weather station / rain sensor.

              Over the years my favorite weather station has been the Davis wireless with console and a serial connection to weather software.

              Favorite weather software has been HS WeatherXML which integrates local instruments and internet weather and connects to main weather software here running on an RPi called Cumulus.

              Favorite Rain sensor has been the Hydreon Optical rain sensor. It'll sense fog.

              Favorite Homeseer irrigation software (years now) has been mcsSprinklers.

              Landscape lighting to adjust by sunset time.

              Here many years ago switched from AC powered incandescent landscaping lighting to LED powered lighting. (Toroidal to DC DIN mounted Meanwell transformers) and controlled each DC DIN mounted transformers with UPB wall switches mounted in 4X4 metal boxes adjacent to the DIN rail. Today you can switch the DC voltage at the DC side with automated relays.

              Garage door to trigger inside lights if it is dark outside.

              Triggers here are based on hardwired door sensors (pair of reed switches per door), PIRs, RFID (on automobiles). Best that work here are the hard wired switches on all of the doors to the garage. For safety reasons these function autonomously to the built in GDO saftey features. Wanted pure daylight in the garage such that went to using LED lamps recently. Very bright daylight like.

              Best and personal opinion would be to give Homeseer a spin; see how it fits.

              Then also CQC a spin. The author Dean Roddey frequents Cocoontech and you can ask Dean any questions while testing CQC.

              Alonis is a spinoff with roots to Main Lobby which has been around for a long time. The Alonis person frequents the Homeseer forum as he also utilizes Homeseer. Not sure though if he will answer questions related to Alonis here on the Homeseer forum. Give it a try to see how it fits too.
              - Pete

              Auto mator
              Homeseer 3 Pro - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e 64 bit Intel Haswell CPU 16Gb
              Homeseer Zee2 (Lite) - 3.0.0.548 (Linux) - Ubuntu 18.04/W7e - CherryTrail x5-Z8350 BeeLink 4Gb BT3 Pro
              HS4 Lite - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenovo Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram

              HS4 Pro - V4.1.18.1 - Ubuntu 22.04 / Lenova Tiny M900 / 32Gb Ram
              HSTouch on Intel tabletop tablets (Jogglers) - Asus AIO - Windows 11

              X10, UPB, Zigbee, ZWave and Wifi MQTT automation-Tasmota-Espurna. OmniPro 2, Russound zoned audio, Alexa, Cheaper RFID, W800 and Home Assistant

              Comment


                #8
                Use HS3 for the automation and Allonis for the GUI, it works great.

                HS3 GUI is buggy, slow, and only as beautiful as your skills allow....Allonis has a plugin built in that connects to HS3.

                Comment


                  #9
                  How stable is HS? I am looking for something that will run for months on end, if I so desire, with little or no hand holding?

                  Also, what specs should I be looking for on the PC that will run the software?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by MrMxyzptlk View Post
                    Use HS3 for the automation and Allonis for the GUI, it works great.

                    HS3 GUI is buggy, slow, and only as beautiful as your skills allow....Allonis has a plugin built in that connects to HS3.
                    So in this scenario, is Allonis controlling HS3, or vice versa? Which version of Allonis would be required to make this happen?

                    Thanks.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Allonis uses JSON to control HS3, it has a list of your devices once you connect it to HS3.
                      The newest version of Allonis.

                      HS3 is very stable if...use the latest non beta, on a beefy machine, and be aware some of the plugins can drop HS3 to it's knees.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by MrMxyzptlk View Post
                        Allonis uses JSON to control HS3, it has a list of your devices once you connect it to HS3.
                        The newest version of Allonis.

                        HS3 is very stable if...use the latest non beta, on a beefy machine, and be aware some of the plugins can drop HS3 to it's knees.
                        What is the benefit of incorporating HS3? Does it offer better control than using Allonis for everything?

                        Can you clarify beefy? Are we talking about something like the latest corei5 or i7 processor with 8GB of RAM? Because the specs of the servers sold by Homeseer are way way below that.

                        Thanks again for the help.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by MrMxyzptlk View Post
                          Allonis uses JSON to control HS3, it has a list of your devices once you connect it to HS3.
                          The newest version of Allonis.

                          HS3 is very stable if...use the latest non beta, on a beefy machine, and be aware some of the plugins can drop HS3 to it's knees.
                          I have been running HS3 on an SEL box for well over a year now, and have virtually no problems with the client at all. Mine literally runs months on end with no interaction (other than the constant tinkering with events and seeing what else I can make HS do).

                          The interface isn't the most beautiful in the world, but it works.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by S-F View Post
                            I myself am not a clever coder but I have managed to make a HSTouch project that I think is absolutely incredible.
                            Any chance you could post a couple of screenshots?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Beefy depends on what you want to do. I have several thousand devices and 30 plus plugins running. I would never run this on an ATOM processor or such; however many people do.

                              A standard desktop processor with 16GB of RAM on Windows 10 would be plenty.

                              The ONLY reason I like Allonis is how much easier it is to set up a 'professional' looking GUI. It doesn't seem nearly as flaky / buggy as HSTouch...although there are those who will defend it and HS3 to the death.

                              Comment

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