Well, with the new support for xAP within Cortex I step into the Idranet arena :-) My first hardware should arrive tomorrow , just in time to play over the weekend but I've been playing with Cortex for a short while. So there may be some silly 'newbie' questions posted here.
My existing home automation has been very much built around using xAP as the common communication between many disparate systems and I have many sensors (temp, light utility pulses) as well as my heating, lighting, audio, video and alarm system all interlinked via xAP.
Some of these are other standalone systems eg my lighting is mainly C-Bus with a splattering of DMX, my AV is Tag with Sonos/Escient along with UPnP, Slimserver and XBMC and my sensors are typically 1-wire. I have some Crestron and AMX stuff too. Having the common xAP layer allows these all to interlink and I hope the same will now be true with Idranet via Cortex. That's my goal , integrating Idranet seamlessly alongside my existing system.
I'm playing with touchscreen control too and have aspirations of Idranet being fully integrated with that - displaying realtime data and control buttons. sliders etc.
xAP is I believe a useful addition as it allows Idranet to be integrated alongside other 'legacy' systems and also for it to be augmented with devices for which no native hardware exists. The fact Idranet devices are attractively priced I hope will make it a great choice when initially choosing or expanding a (my) system. It also makes it potentially possible to introduce custom data sources into Cortex either from a software application or a hardware device for those with more demanding applications eg an announcement or reminder when your favourite TV program is about to start.
From what I've seen Cortex has some very clever features that I hope will add smarts to my existing implementations - particularly in areas like occupancy management and smart/fuzzy heating control which is something I intend to tackle. Quite how this will all work I'm not sure yet - as I have no real experience with Cortex yet - and I've got to get to grips with the 'intelligence' layered on top of some apparently simple connections between objects .
Is anyone already using the existing xPL support in Cortex ? - would like to hear your experience so far.
cheers Kevin
My existing home automation has been very much built around using xAP as the common communication between many disparate systems and I have many sensors (temp, light utility pulses) as well as my heating, lighting, audio, video and alarm system all interlinked via xAP.
Some of these are other standalone systems eg my lighting is mainly C-Bus with a splattering of DMX, my AV is Tag with Sonos/Escient along with UPnP, Slimserver and XBMC and my sensors are typically 1-wire. I have some Crestron and AMX stuff too. Having the common xAP layer allows these all to interlink and I hope the same will now be true with Idranet via Cortex. That's my goal , integrating Idranet seamlessly alongside my existing system.
I'm playing with touchscreen control too and have aspirations of Idranet being fully integrated with that - displaying realtime data and control buttons. sliders etc.
xAP is I believe a useful addition as it allows Idranet to be integrated alongside other 'legacy' systems and also for it to be augmented with devices for which no native hardware exists. The fact Idranet devices are attractively priced I hope will make it a great choice when initially choosing or expanding a (my) system. It also makes it potentially possible to introduce custom data sources into Cortex either from a software application or a hardware device for those with more demanding applications eg an announcement or reminder when your favourite TV program is about to start.
From what I've seen Cortex has some very clever features that I hope will add smarts to my existing implementations - particularly in areas like occupancy management and smart/fuzzy heating control which is something I intend to tackle. Quite how this will all work I'm not sure yet - as I have no real experience with Cortex yet - and I've got to get to grips with the 'intelligence' layered on top of some apparently simple connections between objects .
Is anyone already using the existing xPL support in Cortex ? - would like to hear your experience so far.
cheers Kevin
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