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HOME MANAGERS
If you can program a VCR, you can automate your abode
By Doug Bedell / Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
Published 12-08-1998
This isn't the Jetsons. But a bevy of new products for the home
computer is bringing us a little closer to the Skypad apartment of
George and Jane, the space-age cartoon couple.
For important but mundane tasks - turning appliances on and off,
dimming lights, monitoring home security - PC-based home automation
packages such as IBM's Home Director, Honeywell's TotalHome Control
System and JDS Technologies' Stargate offer degrees of Jetsonian convenience.
All these gizmos use existing home wiring to perform their tricks.
Plug modules into the wall, and your computer can sense their presence.
The computer then controls the appliance plugged into that particular
module.
Consumers should beware of the hype. Some products out there sell
for as little as $49.99, but they won't "make you feel akin to Bill
Gates" as owner of a wired home, in the words of one CNET reviewer.
What you get with most of these boxed products is a basic computer
interface system with a couple of white plastic modules. Truly automating
a variety of appliances and lights will require purchase of additional
modules, which usually cost about $20 apiece.
Motion detectors and other complex add-ons may require more planning,
but most of these products use a technology called X-10. It is a
standard developed for managing household devices, so X-10 units from
any manufacturer should work equally well, no
matter the brand name on the base unit.
Vast arrays of these little white plastic plug-ins are on display
at Web sites such as Home Toys (www.hometoys.com) and Smart Home (www.smarthome.com).
Some systems, such as Honeywell's, provide a separate wall-mounted
control panel that can execute its duties with or without computer
help. The rest generally plug into Windows-based PCs though a serial
port. Make sure you have a port to spare before embarking on any home
automation venture.
If home security is a priority, other considerations come into
play. The Honeywell and JDS products provide telephone options, software
and hardware that will, in an emergency, dial one or more telephone
numbers and read out an emergency a recorded message from the userof
the user's own design. By law, such products cannot be set to dial
local emergency numbers.
These packages may contain equipment similar to what a security
professionalfirm might install. But bonafide monitoring and automated
calls to emergency services can only be provided by companies such
as Brinks, Honeywell and other residential security specialists that
have forged agreements with public safety agencies. These companies
charge monthly for monitoring by certified personnel and usually a
one-time fee for installation.
"Equipment is equipment; stuff is stuff," says Earnest Morgan,
residential program leader at Texas Honeywell. "What's important
is how the calls are monitored. If your pager breaks down or you're
out of town, those other systems aren't going to help."
The three systems reviewed in this story are examples of low-,
medium- and high-end products. With most, if you can program a VCR,
chances are you'll have your house wired like George and Jane's in
a matter of hours.
Well, almost.
IBM's Home Director
Against its bargain-priced competitors, IBM's Home Director matches
up pretty well.
The starter kit offers the basic components: modules (PC connection
module, lamp and appliance modules, remote module), remote control,
software on CD-ROM. But unlike some others, Home Director doesn't
come with the handy keychain remote control or the AAA batteries required
for the PC connection module and the remote.
A quick walk-through shows how quickly the system comes together:
Insert one end of the interface cable into an open serial port on
your PC, the other end into the PC connection module. The PC connection
module, which receives the radio frequency commands for the designated
lamp and appliance from the remote control, plugs into a nearby AC
outlet.
Install the software. Follow the screen prompts, and set each
lamp module to a unique address. The first address would be A1, the
second A2, for example. From a window on the screen of your PC, set
up appliances and lamps by clicking on the appropriate room tab. For
the kitchen, you could designate a lamp and coffee potmaker to be
controlled.
Vary the time and the day that the lamp turns on, even dim it
to 50 percent. Set the clock to have your coffee maker start brewing
by the time you're out of the shower.
Home Director, about $99, also has a dawn/dusk feature allowing
you to schedule a routine that turns on the light at dusk, as opposed
to a specific time of day. And for those who rather not use the PC
controls, the 6-in-1 universal remote control will handle lights,
appliances, TV and VCR. An expansion kit is available for additional
appliance and lamp modules.
Call 1-800-426-7235, ext. 5215, or see www.pc.ibm.com/homedirector
on the World Wide Web for more information.
- Jean Nash Johnson
JDS Technologies'
Stargate
A sophisticated control center, the $1,000 Stargate from JDS Technologies
promises home automation bliss for ambitious do-it-yourselfers.
It starts with software and hardware that can send basic X-10
signals. The commands travel through a home's electrical wiring to
turn on and off lights and appliances plugged into low-cost X-10 modules.
The Stargate can react to X-10 signals sent by other devices, allowing
it to administer "two-way" X-10 commands.
But the Stargate shines when interacting with numerous other home
systems, such as telephones, security systems, heating and cooling
and - with an optional infrared device - home video and audio equipment.
None of this is simple. Essentially, you use your PC to program
the Stargate. Then you can unhook your PC, and Stargate keeps working.
The included JDS Event Manager software is no piece of cake. But
it uses menus, and if you're familiar with basic programming concepts,
you can point and click your way to basic home control.
An accompanying manual tries to prod those who aren't. It explains
the IF/THEN/ELSE rules that govern two-way X-10 commands: "IF you
eat your vegetables, THEN you can watch TV, ELSE you're going to bed!
"
At night, for example, one button by the bed will turn lights
off and fade the stereo to silence. Next morning, the same button
turns on the coffee maker and flips on your son's radio as a friendly
alarm. And if your son's activated a lamp - or any other device signaling
Stargate that he's awake - Stargate leaves his radio alone. That's
an example of two-way commands.
Stargate's telephone module allows you to control all X-10 sequences
by using a touch-tone keypad, whether you're at home or away. The
system can respond to those directions with recorded voice responses.
The system can become an in-house intercom and can govern the
hours for certain outgoing calls, such as to a teenager's friends.
With an add-on device, this product can control your TV, VCR and stereo
through infrared signals. That means you can program your VCR from
the road.
Finally, the Stargate hits full stride in connecting its home-
automation abilities to other systems, such as security sensors and
motion detectors. That allows you to turn on a home security system
from the road, for example, or have it flash a home's lights.
If you're hooking in other systems, you'd better understand relays
and "calibrating gain and offset adjustments." Now you're beyond point
and click.
"We sell about 80 percent of our Stargate systems to professional
installers," said JDS president Jeff Stein. But somebody savvy enough
to install an internal PC fax modem can start working with a Stargate,
he says.
The company also sells lower-end systems, starting with the $300
TimeCommander, which also administers two-way X-10 commands.
For further details, visit JDS at www.jdstechnologies.com or call
JDS Technologies at (619) 486-8787.
- David LaGesse
Honeywell's
TotalHome
Control System
For those who want the mother lode of simple home automation tools,
the Honeywell TotalHome Control System is your bundle.
The price on this package recently dropped from about $600 to
about $250 for a starter kit that includes two door/window sensors,
a lamp module and an appliance controller. The key component, however,
is the wall-mounted control center.
Once plugged into the home PC and programmed through a simple
interface, the Honeywell can run anything from hydrostatic air cleaners
to mood lighting. The system will set up and schedule party lighting
schemes and "comfort patterns" throughout the day and night. When
the homeowner is out of town, one touch puts the system on an automated
lighting schedule designed to make it appear someone's inside.
This system is not exactly like the ones that security outfits
will install for about $99 and monitor at about $24 per month. But
the wall console alone makes this package an attractive buy.
Even without the futuristic and sophisticated computer options,
the wall unit can dial a set of user-designated telephone numbers
- your pager, cell phone or neighbors - to warn of apparent security
breaches. The "latchkey" option can even regulate how warnings are
handled when kids come home from school between specific weekday times.
In fact, concerned parents can set the dialer to call or page them
when a child is safely inside.
Motion detectors and other add-ons are extra, but simple security
measures are in place once the panel is set to receive its wireless
cues from sensors anywhere within a single-family home.
The CD-ROM software installation is a breeze. Point-and-click
programming includes a calendar-based schedule that can be customized
for even the most eccentric lifestyles, lighting and appliance settings.
The Honeywell is a precursor to more advanced and expensive home
automation systems now coming on the market primarily for home builders
and designers. Those more powerful products will offer some features
already being installed in homes of invalids and the disabled.
Specialized "talking house" models for the blind and paralyzed
have done wonders to aid self-sufficiency. For about $6,000, installers
wire homes with voice recognition systems, microphones, speakers and
controllers for drapes, lights and appliances. The home will only
respond to commands from its owner. The walls listen. The floors talk.
In a more typical consumer setup, these new home systems will
try to take over telephones, computers, lights, cameras - all the
action. Look for server-based home networking products from Intel,
IBM and Microsoft's ShareWave to begin sprouting up in the next year.
Many will require home rewiring - something no Jetson wanna-be should
ever attempt at the old Skypad.
For more about the Honeywell TotalHome Control System, visit www.hbc.honeywell.com/hhc
on the Web or dial 1-800-541-8001.
- Doug Bedell
ILLUSTRATION(S): (1. DMN: W. Matt Pinkney) New Gizmos. (2.
IBM Corp.) IBM's Home Director is a relatively inexpensive home
management program with an expansion kit available. (3. Honeywell
Inc.) The TotalHome Control System from Honeywell features a wall-
mounted control panel and can page parents at work when their children
are home from school. (4. JDS Technologies) Stargate is a home auto-
mation system that allows integration with other home systems, such
as audio and video units.
© 1998 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved