App. that can control light switches in your house?

[SGTiger]

Go to www.smarthome.com they sell Z-wave, insteon, and x10. Look at the prices. EDIT: Just to clarify, the set up cost is just the cost of the devices unless you hired someone to install them. So what you pay for the parts is the setup cost. There arent any additional set-up costs.

Insteon is more expensive then x10 but do you want crap that was designed in the 70's in your house. You get what you pay for.


Insteon UPB and Zwave are all very reliable. I have used sold and tested all of them. Non of them false or have any reliablity issues. (if you had problmes with insteon then you either go in on version 1 which sucked but no longer exists or you are really unlucky!)

Why do I choose Insteon? go to the website and look at the difference in choices you have. It's not just light switches and outlets. Theres, sensors, wireless sensors, IR, HVAC, ALARM... it goes on and on. Insteon is the only choice that has a module for that. Zwave and UPB are so far behind that it's rediculous. Sure their products work awesome. But Z-wave is the most expensive of the 3 and only has about 4 device choices. UPB is 2nd most expensive and has a few more.

The above is my opinion based on about 14 years in the industry. Take it or leave it.
Also I think I should add that I do not work for or have any affiliation with smarthome or automated living other than the fact that I shop there and like there products.

CM

Thanks, much appreciated. I am in an older home, and much of the wiring has no neutral wire. Is this going to be a problem?

 

[christim]

You can download the, "Clapper App", in the market place.

When we first moved into our cape there was a light switch at the bottom of the steps for an outlet at the top that we had a lamp plugged into. You would go downstairs and flip the switch and the lights would go off. The problem was if you had the light on and went up you couldn't turn it off without toggling the lamp. Then the next morning you'd go down when it was light out and in the evening the light wouldn't go on if you flipped the switch. We picked up a squeeze bulb activated plug in thing and attached it to a string to hoist up and down the open stairwell. Then one night, nestled into bed, one of us sneezed and the light went on. From then on we didn't use the bulb and just made the soft "cheeeew" sound that comes after the "ahhhh-".

 

[Tomoid]

perhaps Droid Does?

autom8 - home automation for Android -- ok for x10 fans, perhaps not for others.

Christim... Thanks for letting me know about autom8. I just installed it and it works great. A lot faster to use than the way I was controlling my X-10 by using phonemypc.

 

[Sleeve]

Drat. I leave home automation alone as much as I can because when I last checked, it was all still a mess. Three hours of surfing and soon a few hundred dollars lighter, I find that a startup has come out with something that's for real, Mi Casa Verde VERA. Now I need to find an Android dev who will write a web to app skin over findvera.com or port the iPhone app.

 

[Parafly9]

Awesome if it were location based and you could just get to your driveway and the garage door would automatically open lol

 

[codemonkey2k5]

I do that now. But RFID or Bluetooth ID (which is what I use) is a nightmear to set up. Took me forever to get it to work. I found a script that someone had writen for Hal to allow for this function.

CM

 

[Swiss]

That sounds cool, your garage door opens when you drive home. But what happens when you take the dog for a walk and approach your house?

Swiss

 

[wnrussell]

Schlage Link

 

[mcatdtDroid]

People are getting too lazy. People think they live like the Jetsons lol

I know you're joking and I think it's funny... but my house kills me with lighting. Its a house built in the 70's, but the light switches aren't in convenient spots. The main living room lightswitch is on the wrong side of the opening door, meaning, I have to come all the way in, shut the door before I can turn on the light because it's on the hinge side of the door. I could get a new door and everything, that opens the other way, but that's a PITA too.

an ex-gf had a house that had remote controls controlling all her ceiling fans, lights, etc. Her house was a little wierd too, but she mounted the remote control cradles in convenient spots.

I wouldn't mind a cheap solution like an app, to take care of this. I don't want to go too extravagent in price though as I could just buy a door and flip which way it opens if I had too. Buying a new, nice front door to me would be more important than wiring and installing an expensive program that the next homeowner may not appreciate/use, etc.

I will look at the site listed above... maybe there's an option available for me

 

[rlfitz]

I also do home A/V work. We use CONTROL 4 products for our home automation. They also have a deal with apple for their ipad iphone and itouch to control anything in the house from lighting, HVAC, security, A/V and anything else you could wanna do. But sadly they are not available on android yet.