Automation Speed Install (a multi-room solution in 12 minutes)

OK, so we've been working on an auto-generation system for our CQC product for a while now. This is the second generation of it, which will be coming out in the 4.1 version here a few weeks. There's still lots that can be done, and it will continue to be expanded in every subsequent release, but it's already pretty powerful.

This video is just a demonstration of the creation of a very attractive multi-room solution that includes weather, security, lights, movies, and music, in 12 minutes flat, from having nothing but the hardware installed (an Elk or Omni in this case, and a multi-output audio card for music.)

CQC Speed Install Demo

And, given that it's not a canned system, but a very powerful and flexible one, it has the advantage of both getting a nice solution quickly, but also having full access to customize it as required per job. There is no code at all involved in the solution. It's all point and click stuff and you could have created it from scratch using our design tools. We are just pre-generating a lot of it for you to provide a very nice starting point, with a well established, aesthetic look and feel.

There's currently only one 'theme', called Antique. We have a couple others which have just not yet been converted over to this second generation scheme, but they will be soon. The interface design tool also understands these themes so if you decide to customize, it can generate lots of individual screen elements that are pre-styled to fit the theme, saving you a lot of time.

For 4.2 we'll expand it considerably again, probably adding web browser based access generation, some common scheduled activities, and other types of functionality like sprinklers, more security stuff, etc...

Anyway, a lot of people understand that our product is very powerful and pretty unlimited in what it can do, but they also think that it is possibly too open ended and therefore difficult to get something created that can be customized for the job. Hopefully these types of tools will help to change that opinion.

Here are some sample screen shots of the solution (click to enlarge):

Looks great Dean. Too bad CQC doesn't have any of the drivers that I need or I'd jump ship pretty quickly!

We support a lot of stuff. What drivers do you need?

I would definitely take another look at cqc based off this video. Themes = awesome. 12 minute install = really awesome. No coding either... priceless. When is the next level up sale going on?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I imagine the next sale will be over in the late summer or fall most likely, since we just had one.

Dean, specifically Zwave, DSC alarm, and Sonos integration that are lacking. From what I can read on the forum Zwave support is still in it's infancy and not widely used and the alarm system and sonos are only supported through HS at this time (though they are 3rd party plugins). No fault of CQC so please don't take it as such...

I'm OK at writing scripts with Python or VB do not have near the ability to write my own drivers or I'd probably go CQC and roll my own..

Is this driver something that would address your DSC needs?

http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=9112

Ha! Well I definitely missed THAT one.. 1 down. How about Zwave and Sonos? Pull those off and you've got a sale!

Truthfully Sonos really isn't that important but Zwave is a definite.. I really wished I chose a different protocol to invest in to begin with but c'est la vie.

Thanks Dean.

It shouldn't take much to add support for Z-Wave, just add support for the VRC0P (or Mi Casa Verde Vera, since it has an open API), and let them deal with the Z-Wave stack complexity

Yeh, there's a beginning VRCOP driver already, that someone else has been working on. But he was having issues with it in terms of stability and decided not to move forward with it I think. So I may end up taking up that as our Z-Wave solution instead of our own native driver.

Yep, all the big names rely on it now (HAI, Elk, etc.), and the latest version even supports Z-Wave locks.

I'll start looking into it. One thing I need to know is what is a valid combination of stuff?

- Remote control. I can't use a USB thinging in a laptop with a software based primary because I don't have a laptop. So I need a real remote contorl that understands all of the current lock stuff and whatnot. Minimal functionaltiy and price for me because it's just for development.
- Will my Aeon USB stick work? Meaning with locks and beaming? Presumably it works through a seconary controller so that secondary needs to support locks and beaming.
- I needs the VRCOP+3 right? That's the one that supports locks/beaming?
- What is the deal with polling via this guy? Lots of people, including me, will still have plenty of stuff that isn't capable of async notifications of status changes, so polling still has to be doable and reasonably efficient. Either that or give up on status for any non-async notifications capable modules.

manxam said:

Ha! Well I definitely missed THAT one.. 1 down. How about Zwave and Sonos? Pull those off and you've got a sale!

Truthfully Sonos really isn't that important but Zwave is a definite.. I really wished I chose a different protocol to invest in to begin with but c'est la vie.

Thanks Dean.

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What DSC panel do you have? I'm running a 864 interfaced via an IT-100 to CQC. Using an IP-Bat for monitoring.

-Ben

You should look at the Elk M1 Zwave module manual, it seems to have a lot of good clues. Like Schlage locks don't support async updates, and it states:

Z-Wave Primary Controller: A Primary Controller is required to setup a network and assign Node IDs. The Leviton Vizia rf+
VRUSB-1US USB stick Primary Controller and Installer Tool PC Software is recommend. There are other Z-Wave Primary
Controllers, but ONLY THE Leviton VRUSB-1US supports the enrollment of Locks. Other advantages of the USB Stick and PC
software is that a permanent copy of the network settings may be saved on the PC hard drive for future service.

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