What to use to control 1 thing via IP

If you had one single thing you wanted to turn on/off over your iphone or the internet, how would you do it most cost effectively.

I am thinking the insteon 2412n plus an insteon switch is the cheapest and most simple way to do that. Any thoughts?

What about a CAI WebControl board and a relay?

Looks like a good idea. I doubt they have an "app for that" but perhaps the web browser will work on the iphone. This is a definite possibility at about 1/4 the cost of the Insteon and it does more stuff.

There is an app which allows you to build your own GUI, and it supports any UDP/TCP based device (assuming it is a simple protocol), so that app + the WebControl could be a good option: http://itunes.apple.com/app/cf-iviewer/id285304607?mt=8

project_x said:

What about a CAI WebControl board and a relay?

Click to expand...

What does this cost? I can't get a decent reading on the price, from a reputable vendor. For the OP's application I would think also of the Barionet 50, around $170 or maybe less.

I just bought 2 of them from amazon.com it was 80 dollars including shipping. 1 of them is for me and 1 of them is for my friend. I really had no intention of buying 1 for myself but when I saw them and cheap they were I figured what the heck. I also bought 2 sets of 8 relays for the ttl output eBay.com for 40 dollars total which means I have a total of 60 dollars on each set. I should be able to get my universal devices isye to control them via the network module. I dictated this entire thing using my htc evil 4 g speech recognition software. it actually works really well. but as you might have noticed not quite perfect. It is definitely easier than typing on a phone however.

The one thing my friend wanted to control was an AC unit in his office in his warehouse. He simply wanted to be able to turn it on/off by interupting the control wire from the thermostat to the unit. But after looking at this device, it looks like we can remove the regular thermostat and program this device to be a true remote controlled, programmable thermostat. The only downside is that there won't be a regular wall thermostat for the non-techy.

The upside is that he has decided he will also use it to turn on/off his security and open/close automatic doors. We are looking at what else we may want to run off the relays.

As for myself, I have no idea what I am going to do with it. I just decided I had to have one. I hope to use my ISY network module to control it. If anyone has experience sending network commands to one of these, I would love to hear from you.

The unit is installed and it works.

I put in the CAI unit plus an 8 relay board (which is posted in another thread).

At present, the relay interupts the "hot" wire to the thermostat which prevents the thermostat from turning on anything (heat/cool/fan). The thermostat still works as it derives its operating power from batteries. He can control it from a web browser or from Casa Remote on his iPhone. Casa Remote so far hasn't impressed me but it does turn the relay on/off.

We could wire it to interupt the thermostat output to fan/heat/cool for individual control or we could remove the thermostat all together and write plc programs turning the cai into a thermostat. But I don't really care to learn plc language at this particular time. If anyone can direct me towards a source of training that can get me up and running in less than an hour, I would love to hear about it.

Total cost, $40 for CAi, $25 for relay, $5 for temp sensors (not really necessary). Casa Remote was $25 but isn't necessary either. He already had a can to mount it in, we scavanged control wires from an old computer and a power supply from his box of extras.

Next step is to wire it to his DSC alarm so he can monitor the armed/disarmed status, as well as arm/disarm the system. We also plan on hooking it up to his magnetic door lock and at least one light. I haven't figured out how to get it to run x10 stuff but supposedly it will do that too.

For now, it is an absolute success at "what to use to control one thing via ip" for about $70.

Thanks for the cai suggestion.