Remember These Days? (11 Years Ago in HomeSeer History)

[macromark]

It's fun to look back every once in a while.

[Eman]

It's fun to look back every once in a while.

Gosh!
Am growing old! Love ya HomeSeer!




Eman.

[Rupp]

Wow! Time flies by in the digital world very fast these days

[cheeryfool]

Gosh!

Am growing old! Love ya HomeSeer!









Eman.

Just before I joined the HS family, but very familiar with that format and a lot of the products. Automating ancient window AC units in a NYC apartment got me into this and saved me boatloads on my electric bills....

...until I got the bug properly and started spending more on hardware.

[lhfarm]

Really started me thinking about what I'm doing today with HA vs 11 years ago. Not much has changed, except for no phone monitoring, which I really miss. Using newer hardware, but X-10 still working well. Some things are easier like voice control (via smart speakers).

WAF factor has improved with better use of HSTouch for living with HA when I'm not around. But otherwise I'm doing mostly what I did in 2007 and for that matter in 1997. In 1997 did a major remodel and wired "for the future." So then I was controlling house systems -
HVAC, water (pump and heating), entertainment (whole house audio) and security (driveway alarms, cameras, weather station, etc.). Pretty much what I'm dong today.

I don't know that I "need" to automate anything else, but am always interested in what others are doing. It might be fun to go back and look at the forum sub-sections to see what was available in 2007 vs today. Any way to do that?

Barry

[rmasonjr]

Really started me thinking about what I'm doing today with HA vs 11 years ago. Not much has changed, except for no phone monitoring, which I really miss. Using newer hardware, but X-10 still working well. Some things are easier like voice control (via smart speakers).

Now that you mention it, I miss that as well. I had a Way2Call that I would use to announce the caller over HS Speaker clients. Over the past few years, the only calls we get are telemarketers - everyone uses wireless now.

[lhfarm]

Now that you mention it, I miss that as well. I had a Way2Call that I would use to announce the caller over HS Speaker clients. Over the past few years, the only calls we get are telemarketers - everyone uses wireless now.

Yes, one of the things that finally convinced my wife that HA was a good thing was when the Way2Call & HS would announce "Barry your mother is calling."

[Pete]

Here primarily the automation meat - heartbeat is still the same as it was in the early 2000's.

1 - Lighting - early it was X10 and today it is X10, UPB, ZWave and Zigbee. Primary light switches are UPB and that will never change.
2 - HVAC - Thermostat is connected to my OmniPro panel along with some temperature and humdity sensors - never really touch it these days. Just watch. After all it is the infrastructure that governs the efficiency of cooling or heating and it has never been the thermostat (other than shutting the heat off or on).
3 - The use of chatty kathy TTS - still utilizing it but way less than I did 10 years ago. I do still utilize it to ack and check events / triggers running.
4 - VR - it was nice in the old SAPI days and today with Amazon et al but never a necessary mechanism for automation (just like the cellular smart phone)
5 - incoming phone lines - still managed by Way2Call - typically now a first time call that is not on the call database never gets to ringing the phones or even an announcement. I do shut off my cellular phone (s)when in the house (or forward it to my home lines).
6 - multimedia here was really never managed by Homeseer (HS1,2,3) except for sometimes audio hardware management (Russound). I prefer to listen to my music and have replicated house music files to the automobiles over satellite / streaming music.
7 - irrigation initially was managed by HS then later same software with HS connections but mostly independent of Homeseer. (running on a Seagate Dockstar Linux via SSD - runs 24/7 and hasn't crashed in over 5 years now).
8 - weather - while interacts with Homeseer it runs autonomously except I still cannot automate it.
9 - security is in a different world and while HS watches it; it is mostly autonomous from Homeseer.
10 - touchscreen use relates to HS 3 status mostly, weather et al. Nightstand touchscreens mostly run a clock and mostly stay in clock mode and today totally managed by HS.
11 - WAF - automate here mostly because it is a hobby and that's it so there is no WAF involved / approval et al / justifications.