Ubiquiti is getting into Automation

[tmbrown97]

For anyone who's worked with or looked at Ubiquiti equipment, they're an interesting company... they're very small (80-ish employees I believe) and they don't have any pre-sales support or much for post-sales; they don't employ technical writers, or all the people that help "sell" their products... what they have are a lot of great engineers. They have already destroyed the Microwave Communications market by offering radios that can cover miles at high speeds for a couple hundred bucks, where links could've been in the 10's of thousands previously. Then they jumped into the Camera market not too long ago; and while their camera offerings haven't evolved much yet, they do offer megapixel IP cams for under $100 - and more importantly, they give the NVR away for free.

Now they're apparently getting into the Automation / Machine Communications world with the announcement of mFi. Details are just coming out, but it appears they have several options for monitoring temperature, door/windows, occupancy, and power usage/control (with 1, 4 and 8 outlet sensors/control points) and the whole system runs over IP. No word yet on pricing; rumor speculates July we'll see some things ship - who knows from there.

Given their more consumer-oriented pricing, this could turn into a really interesting automation product to watch - the possibilities will be limitless! As long as they don't choke in the distribution process like they normally do (to be fair, the worldwide demand for their products, because of their power and low cost, makes it very hard for them to keep up with Manufacturing).

http://www.ubnt.com/mfi
Link to the front-page news story: http://cocoontech.com/portal/articles/news/36-breaking-news/676-ubiquiti-entering-the-automation-world

 

[gatchel]

Interesting. POE motion detectors.

Now if they could only use 802.11af for their products instead of those horrible lower voltage injectors....

Their cameras still have something to be desired IMHO but what do you want for $100. Hopefully the HA products will be better when released.

 

[electron]

I am very happy with their cameras. I have 1 mounted right next to a ~$300 analog camera, and I like it a lot better. Granted, it sucks at night, but almost every camera does without any good lighting.

Very interesting indeed! But if these sensors are really running over IP, and the protocol isn't 'classified', we might be able to use some of the sensors within our own home automation projects (automation, NOT security). Thanks for the tip!

 

[video321]

I'm interested in their power, current sensing, and serial control products.
Keep us informed with any new info, Work.

 

[tmbrown97]

Will do... I tend to get their new devices right as they come out, and if I like what I see, I'll stock some to help compensate for Ubiquiti's traditional distribution shortages so CT'ers can get ahold of them quicker.

 

[potts.mike]

can their aircam be placed outside?

 

[wolfdown]

This looks ok. What would really be interesting would be a line of cheap wireless sensors that could place anywhere, are battery powered, and can all be read by a PC over WiFi or using a USB bridge device. I'd really like a generic air sensor, and then add motion, light, power, etc after that.

 

[electron]

can their aircam be placed outside?

Mine is placed outside, haven't had any issues yet.

 

[tmbrown97]

Re: Aircams... Yes, although they're not officially IP rated, they are meant for outdoor use.

For totally self-contained, there are some, but not IP... I don't know of anything with an IP stack that uses low enough power to run for a while on nothing but wireless. There are enocean and z-wave devices that are battery operated and can interface with a PC but not directly.

Looking closer at the solution, here's what I see:

• They have the different sensors - current, temperature, motion (ceiling or wall) and door/window (contact). These hook into an mPort. Each mPort has either 2 RJ45's and a terminal block, or a RS232 and a terminal block. The door/window sensors use the terminal block; the rest use the RJ45. Note - the RJ45 is not ethernet; it's just an interconnect. I didn't see a specific spec, but it looked like the terminal block could support 2-3 door/window contacts. I'm also hoping we'll be able to cheat and use flood sensors or other sensors hooked up the same way, just as we do with DS10a's today. The mPorts have 10/100 ethernet and Wifi built-in.
• The mPower comes in 1, 3 and 8 ports (not 4 like I thought previously). These have wifi and ethernet built in as well, so you can literally plug in your stuff like a power strip, and the controller will automatically find it and enroll it, and you'll now have control of the outlet and visibility to the consumption of each port.
• The mPort that has the serial - I'm expecting that'll have the potential to add support for anything - UPB, Elk, whatever - that'll totally depend on how extensible the control platform is, and how far people take it... that could really be fun!
• The motions are dual-technology (microwave/pir)

 

[treo650]

Highly looking forward to this...

Hopefully it can be integrated into elkrp somehow, someway

 

[mustangcoupe]

I saw this on their site last night while getting more information on the picostation (I ordered 2 to become a wireless bridge) and thought I wonder if they will release an API or SDK for these to tie into our HA software

 

[pete_c]

I'm impressed with what Ubiquito is doing. I've used one of their AP's now for a couple of years with no issues.

Here's a side by side Aircam and generic IP outdoor camera. The generic IP camera is running a Grantec OS and was around $127 USD shipping included. The Aircam was around $105 or so shipping included.

The Aircam has a 4mm lens and the generic has a 3.6mm lens.

This is a Zoneminder / RTSP / 640X368 montage view.

Both cameras are mounted such that they are totally exposed to the weather. I had one issue where as an animal ate part of the cable (poe) running to the generic IP camera. The cable burned up a bit during the last rain storm taking out the camera.

Patched up the cable and camera continues to run fine..

 

[tmbrown97]

I saw this on their site last night while getting more information on the picostation (I ordered 2 to become a wireless bridge) and thought I wonder if they will release an API or SDK for these to tie into our HA software

Mustang - don't you know you're supposed to check with me first for Ubnt stuff? They have cheaper and better performing options for PTP bridge that'll get twice the speed of the Pico! The Pico isn't MIMO - it's single chain and as such, limited to 65Mbps.

 

[mustangcoupe]

Ya I know they do.... you were pre occupied and this is better then the current solution of a 1.544 mb T1 to get data "across the street" and I cad put Tue unifi fw on it to monitor it with the rest of my apps.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[tmbrown97]

You can't put Unifi firmware on both of them and still have it act as a bridge... I don't think (as I'm typing, I'm remembering some changes from the latest firmware - it *might* be possible now).

For a bridge, a better selection is generally a NanoStation Loco, M5 for 5Ghz to avoid interference... But that's another topic. The Pico is a single chain device, vs. most of the others are 2x2 MIMO, meaning your bandwidth is capped at 65mbps rather than about 300.