First foray into HA

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  • Wexfordman
    Automated Home Guru
    • Nov 2005
    • 118

    #76
    Originally posted by Lab-art View Post
    Thank you very much, I think I got my thick scull around it this time. It does sound like a much more robust system.
    :-) From experience, I can tell you it works much better with a combination of sensors to add a bit of logic to whether a room is occupied or not. I had a few years of people complaining about being on the throne for more then 4 minutes and having to wave to get theligths back on :-)

    Again, I dont think its suitable for every room, but I would cable out each room anyway.


    Originally posted by Lab-art View Post
    However, I am quickly seeing that I'm going to be running out of inputs into my system on this basis of even the LM03 (which gives me a max of 24 inputs). The drawback of the LM03 is that if you use this board you cant expand in the future with slave units. So you are pretty much capped at 24 inputs. Whereas if I use the LM01/2 I can have up to 64 inputs. Do you know if you can have more than one LM01 or 02 together with the control unit or are you then obliged to get a slave unit?
    Your spot on with the LEM03, and I think the lem01/2 is the better way to go, I prob woudl have done it that way myself, but figured 24inputs was enough for me at the time. I think only one lem01/2 can be put into the main panel, after that a SEP is needed,but I think this is prob only a physical/power limitation.

    Originally posted by Lab-art View Post
    Also do you know if I can wire all the smoke detector to one input? Can I daisy them around the house and only use one input? according to my builder this would have two benefits :1) if one goes off all the alarms throughout the house will ring in the event of a fire, 2) I would only use one input. The obvious drawback is the the system itself would not know which one triggered the alarm.
    Yep, I reckon you can. I have 1 12v smoke detector, go it a few months back but havnt put it in yet. You would need to either parallel themor series them,dep on if they are n/o or n/c relays. From a wiring perspective, personally, I would wire each one back to a central location, and then do the combining there, rather than run a cable between each one, leaves more options open to you later if you decide to change things.

    Originally posted by Lab-art View Post
    How would you power this circuit.
    If they are 12v, then I would power them from comfort, assuming you are not exceeding the load, but if you are getting a SEP, then that should not be a problem I reckon.

    Originally posted by Lab-art View Post
    In this scenario would you be able to use the alarms in your smoke detectors as the internal alarms for Comfort rather than having to buy a separate alarm?
    Doubt it, and I prob would'nt anyway.

    Comment

    • Vangelis
      Automated Home Guru
      • Sep 2009
      • 131

      #77
      Ref Using Smoke Detectors as alarm units - in theory, if they have the ability to trigger the remaining smoke detectors once one has triggered, then you should be able to replicate this (+ve or -ve trigger) through Comfort.

      However, this activity kinda negates the role of the Smoke Detector in alerting you to a potential fire, plus I imagine you would be using this activation signal facility to allow Comfort to alert on detection area (that is if you are not combining all detectors)

      Comment

      • Lab-art
        Automated Home Jr Member
        • Dec 2012
        • 22

        #78
        Thanks for your replies.

        I think that I will for for an extra ringer so that it is heard throughout the bottom floor if there is an intruder.

        Comment

        • Lab-art
          Automated Home Jr Member
          • Dec 2012
          • 22

          #79
          On the comfort system if I use one of the door stations with camara (expensive - I know, but the boss, my wife, for once, likes the idea) do you know where the video feed goes to? In otherwords, can you view it on the iOS app or is it on a TV? I haven't been able to find it anywhere in the litrature and for some reason I don't think that the touchpad KT06 has the resolution for it.

          Comment

          • b33k34
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Dec 2012
            • 25

            #80
            I reckon it would work if you connected it to both an input and output. My 240v alarms just have a single link cable - presumably if it sees a voltage it alarms/if it alarms it makes the line live. However, response to fire should be grab clothing and get family and get out. Intruder would be rather different. Internal ringers are cheap and small so better to keep separate.

            Comment

            • Vangelis
              Automated Home Guru
              • Sep 2009
              • 131

              #81
              Lab-Art - Been looking at a product (crowd funded) called DoorBot (https://secure.christiestreet.com/products/doorbot). Nothing to do with Comfort but provides iPhone integration and similar function (I think)

              BTW - Unless I have missed a new product release KT-06 (KP-06) has an LCD only screen and no ability to display a camera feed.

              Comment

              • Lab-art
                Automated Home Jr Member
                • Dec 2012
                • 22

                #82
                Very nice product. Looks great. and very good price. I wonder if you could get it for that price in the UK.

                Having said that, a lot of the functionality should already be in the door stations modules with the added tamperproof aspects of being associated with Comfort. What I can't seem to find is where you view the camera feed on. I know that the Comfort iOS app has feed for unto 4 IP cameras. Could this be one of them? Or is this an analogue camera and can only be viewed....

                I could easily get a non-camera version of the door station and just get an IP camera separately which will work within Comfort.

                Comment

                • Vangelis
                  Automated Home Guru
                  • Sep 2009
                  • 131

                  #83
                  Lab-art - Looking at the DM02 Manual (http://www.cytech.biz/dm02_manual.html) the schematic on p.11 shows the video out going to a monitor / video server. This suggests that Comfort cannot handle video distribution (it might have been able to via its old Web Server module back in the day).

                  Not having the IP Camera function up and running on my iPhone (think Wexfordman has via his Google Docs article), I imagine it just needs to be pointed at a URL hosting the camera feed (PC, Raspberry-Pi etc)...but I could be totally mistaken.

                  Comment

                  • b33k34
                    Automated Home Jr Member
                    • Dec 2012
                    • 25

                    #84
                    Looking at how Loxone handle IP camera door stations I think you just look at the stream. Loxone handles the audio as an VoIP phone call.

                    When I looked at Comfort the suggestion was analogue video to TV

                    Comment

                    • Wexfordman
                      Automated Home Guru
                      • Nov 2005
                      • 118

                      #85
                      Originally posted by Vangelis View Post
                      Lab-art - Looking at the DM02 Manual (http://www.cytech.biz/dm02_manual.html) the schematic on p.11 shows the video out going to a monitor / video server. This suggests that Comfort cannot handle video distribution (it might have been able to via its old Web Server module back in the day).

                      Not having the IP Camera function up and running on my iPhone (think Wexfordman has via his Google Docs article), I imagine it just needs to be pointed at a URL hosting the camera feed (PC, Raspberry-Pi etc)...but I could be totally mistaken.
                      Yep, the app simply points to the ip address of the ipcam! The two systems are seperate and independent.

                      Comment

                      • b33k34
                        Automated Home Jr Member
                        • Dec 2012
                        • 25

                        #86
                        Originally posted by Vangelis View Post
                        Lab-Art - Been looking at a product (crowd funded) called DoorBot (https://secure.christiestreet.com/products/doorbot). Nothing to do with Comfort but provides iPhone integration and similar function (I think)
                        That looks half brilliant. Very competitive price compared to IP cameras in general but some strange decisions. I find it hard to believe it will really run for a year on a set of 4 AA batteries (but I suppose they could add a 6v input using a 'fake battery' and a cable to a power supply.

                        Doesn't look secure as needs to be removable from the front to replace batteries. Presumably only connects to the wifi network when someone pushes the bell which will add a delay to the connection. Suspect it relies on a web service so you've a dependency on the company on an ongoing basis though with the product pitched at that price point that's not a huge problem (They don't talk about a subscription of any kind so their business model relies on ongoing sales to pay for the service to run).

                        Can't help thinking that a version with a hardwired connection, receiving power over ethernet, would be a much better product. They could split the unit with two boxes inside the house - a unit taking batteries and wifi or one hardwired.
                        Last edited by b33k34; 11 January 2013, 01:50 PM. Reason: more thoughts

                        Comment

                        • Vangelis
                          Automated Home Guru
                          • Sep 2009
                          • 131

                          #87
                          Originally posted by b33k34 View Post
                          That looks half brilliant. Very competitive price compared to IP cameras in general but some strange decisions. I find it hard to believe it will really run for a year on a set of 4 AA batteries (but I suppose they could add a 6v input using a 'fake battery' and a cable to a power supply.

                          Doesn't look secure as needs to be removable from the front to replace batteries. Presumably only connects to the wifi network when someone pushes the bell which will add a delay to the connection. Suspect it relies on a web service so you've a dependency on the company on an ongoing basis though with the product pitched at that price point that's not a huge problem (They don't talk about a subscription of any kind so their business model relies on ongoing sales to pay for the service to run).

                          Can't help thinking that a version with a hardwired connection, receiving power over ethernet, would be a much better product. They could split the unit with two boxes inside the house - a unit taking batteries and wifi or one hardwired.
                          Agree with you on this - they are however looking at the PSU issue and also interfacing to the current doorbell in case your phone isn't to hand. As with Kickstarter projects it could be pie-in-the-sky if it doesn't reach funding.

                          Starting having a look at another device called Ubi (http://theubi.com/pages/how-it-works) as a potential for voice control. It's another Kickstarter, that via it's Open Source platform could provide a voice recognition interface into HA. Looks less gimmikey than previous products..

                          Vangelis

                          Comment

                          • b33k34
                            Automated Home Jr Member
                            • Dec 2012
                            • 25

                            #88
                            I'm considering VoiP door stations. There's a free VoiP exchange that runs on a Raspberry Pi - potentially door station + RPi + a few VoiP video phones could give you a very effective door network plus VoiP telephony. The gateways to connect your VoiP phones to the POTS seems to be expensive sticking point and a VoiP in number is about £4 per month. That would be fine if you didn't already have a phone number and free calls with your internet connection.

                            Comment

                            • Wexfordman
                              Automated Home Guru
                              • Nov 2005
                              • 118

                              #89
                              Lads there is a free ipcam dvr solution available too, can't remember the name of it but it's Linux based, Blue something or other. Played with it a while back very nice but I've only got one webcam so was a bit overkill

                              Comment

                              • biccies
                                Automated Home Jr Member
                                • Nov 2012
                                • 39

                                #90
                                You're probably talking about bluecherry, although I think that just offers a free trail. There's a few Linux based cctv packages. For windows there's Milestone's XProtect range which used to offer a free solution with the limitation of 8 cameras and a weeks worth of recording. I've used this package and can recommend it

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