Automated Home

Ever since I was a kid and saw my first remote controlled light, I got it in my head that this was something that I had to have.  I have always been fascinated by computers, robotics and all things electronic, and home automation fits perfectly in the middle of all of that.  So here I [...]

We’re hearing on the grapevine that CommandFusion may be about to launch a ‘Lite’ version of their highly regarded iViewer Ethernet control software.  Currently users have to pay a license of around £100 for each device (iPhone, iPad etc).  This isn’t unusual as part of a quality bespoke home automation system, however there are DIY [...]

Kai Kreuzer updates us on the progress of the open Home Automation Bus (openHAB) software project… Only 8 months after our 1.0 release we have reached release 1.2 – what sounds like an unimportant change in the version, means in reality that openHAB has now spread out to many areas of home automation. This is noticable by looking [...]

Ah the Raspberry Pi and Home Automation, a match made in heaven.  Now a new software project “RaspLogic” aims to provide a smart home controller offering a simple interface to build powerful macros. The project – RaspLogic is a software that want to make a simple, user friendly and cheap way to control things in [...]

HomeAutom8 and iAutom8 from Tristan Phillips are a cloud service and mobile app combo home automation system.  The software works with RFXCom transmitters and smart home devices like HomeEasy, LightwaveRF, ByeByeStandBy, DomiaLite and X10. HomeAutom8 has a Free in-cloud scheduling service and a cross platform, cross browser online version, plus a £9.99 universal iPhone / iPad iOS App, as [...]

  Data Robotics have announced that a new Plex Media Server app is ‘coming soon’ for their Drobo 5N.  So as well as hosting all your media files, the Plex enabled NAS will be able to natively run PMS too, eliminating the need for a computer to be running the server. More details from the PR extract [...]

The latest V2.1.0.0 update to Soitjes Soit’s free Windows “Digital Home Server” application brings Home Automation functionality with its support for xPL and RFXLAN… I just released a major update. What started as a multimedia application is now a full blown home automation solution. I released modules to manage devices, create rules, schedule events and create [...]

When we added our Home Automation Technology Choices page a few weeks ago we got emails asking us to consider some other systems.  Amongst them was a new free and open source home automation application called “Domoticz”.  Design to control various devices and receive input from various sensors around the home, the main hardware at [...]

Plex team leader Elan Feingold has blogged an introduction to their new improved Android app.  The ground up rewrite targets devices running Android 3.2 or newer, dropping support for older versions of the OS.  However this has allowed the team to bring a vastly improved feature set and user experience.  You’ll be able to grab [...]

Cytech has launched 2 Android Apps for the Comfort integrated Security and Home Automation System. These are separate versions optimised for Android Phones and for Tablets which can be downloaded from the Google play store (search for Cytech Comfort). This follows the iPhone app that was released last year.  Both apps allow users to arm [...]