Many people on this forum are beginning to use X-10 controlled home automation products with their new IR remote controls. This is a natural extension since all you need is an IR Transceiver and you are ready to begin adding X-10 controlled switches and lamp modules. The next thing that many people want to do is have automated control of their new X-10 switches and modules. They want to set up schedules lighting to come on when they are away. They want to create macros that can be triggered with either a button press from any room in the house, or when you pass by a motion detector. They might want specific lights to turn on at 50% at sunset, and gradually increase to 100% over the next 30 minutes, and then turn off at 11:00 pm.
To do this sort of thing you need a home automation controller. There are quite a few types of home automation controllers, and many of them are X-10 based, meaning they use your home's existing AC power lines as a communication channel. Home automation controllers range in price from $36 to about $10,000.
One of the reasons that I'm posting this message is to make you aware that the Active Home product is the $36 product I mentioned above. And, for $36 you usually get several other products with it. X-10, the manufacturer of Active Home, has a very large marketing presence on the Internet and that may be the only home automation controller that you are aware of. Buying an Active Home is the equivalent of buying the least expensive univeral remote control you can find. It seems great if you haven't had any experience with the product, but you quickly find out how limited it is.
Since the people who visit this forum appreciate excellent products that provide excellent value, I would like to let you know about a home automation controller product line that is on par with the remotes reviewed on this web site. The product are manufactured by JDS Technologies. I have been distributing and installing the JDS product line for over 5 years and they are truely excellent products.
The JDS home automation controller product line begins with an entry level product that is priced a little over $300. The most expensive controller in the line is a little over $1000. What is nice about the entry level product is that you can expand it at a later time to have almost the same capability as the top of the line product.
The entry level JDS controller really isn't even comparable to the Active Home but I'll try to give you an idea of the difference between these two products. The JDS controller is programmed via a PC (like Active Home), and can run fully independent of the PC once you download your schedule. The Active Home has very limited memory and many of the advanced functions require the PC to be running to get full use of the product. Here's an example, the JDS controller can track sunrise and sunset times down to the minute, every day of the year, and still have enough memory to run over 2100 lines of code while it is not connected to the PC. The Active Home can't even get close to this. Also, the JDS controller can be programmed with complex, nested, IF/THEN statements for use with motion sensors, etc. It also has built in interfaces for controlling HVAC thermostats. You can define and use 256 Flags, 256 Variables, 32 timers, and more.
I mentioned that this entry level controller can be expanded. You can add telephone control so that the keypad of any telephone in your home becomes an input device to trigger events, and to make your telephone system into a home intercom system. You can add a two-way infrared controller that will learn up to 500 infrared commands. You can add a door intercom so you can pick up any phone and talk with the person at your front door. You can add an I/O expander that allows digital inputs, analog inputs, and relay outputs. You can connect wired motion sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, rain gauges, sensors that will sense the state of your AV equipment (great if you don't have discrete ON/OFF IR codes).
If you would like to find our more about the JDS line of products, send me an e-mail and I will e-mail you an specification sheet for the product you're interested in. Also, you could visit our web site for additional contact information.
Robert
RCI Automation
[Link: ourworld.compuserve.com]
