eHome Digial Tools

Hi,

I have sorta completed a cool touchscreen with a 15" ELO touchscreen that I bought on eBay. I built a pictureframe around it and had two main functions in mind. I'll use it to stream music to an EZstream unit I bought on buy-dot-com for $35 last year. Secondly, it flips thru pictures while it is not busy. I had planned on running some HA stuff with it, but so many people complained about X10 that I lost heart in trying to tackle any HA.

I saw the eHomeCreations program and have downloaded and installed it. As of yet, I don't have much to control with it, so I am not using it. A few thoughts::::

1. I am using WIndows Media Player to stream music to the EZStream. I really like the look of WMP11 since it shows ablum art, etc... I still have to trot over to my home stereo to adjst volume though, which kind of sucks. Also, I had to buy a program called on2share for about $20 to get it to work with the Upnp server and the ezstream.

With this in mind, is it possible to run wmp11 thru your front end ?

2. I was intrigued with having my wall computer (my name for it), btw, picked up on eBay for $170 shipped.
----picture after five posts-----------
display the weather. I really like the look of the accu weather plug in for google. There is code that lets you add this to any webpage. I prefer the look of it to the default icons in the eHome program...

3. I am very interested in energy efficiency. I was going to use some X10 stuff to control some interior lighting, but I found a nice string of LED lights that go above the cabinets in my kitchen. They draw 3.7 watts, so there is really no point in workign hard to turn them on and off but now my wife says that she would like them on a timer... hmmmm..

4. I really got into the idea of having a timer that my wife could twist to set a timer for a thermostat setback. This would be something like a wind up timer that would control a relay to interupt the cooling call from my existing thermostat. I couldn't find anything like it. I would be really cool if it was something very easy to use that would subtract say, 20 minutes or so, from the estimated return time and put the a/c into a recovery mode. This way, the house is still sorta cool after being gone for 2 hours for example.

5. I saw a show on modern marvels called environmental tech 2 and they talked about a so called "green plug." Its basically a master switch near the front door that would control some plugs and kill vampire losses and do a thermostat setback. I looked it up on google and of course the whole system sells for a rediculous $1,125 !!!! How many lifetimes to get payback on that.



So, today I revisited the eHomecreations site and saw a new screen on page 9 of the long post. It looks like exactly what I am looking for. I have never done any home automation, but I have the touchscreen and its running on a 2.0GHz P4 Compaq EVO USFF computer (has a 50watt power supply and no fan on CPU). I noticed the "I am away/ I am back" buttons. THis is exactly what I have been hunting. TO put a single plug on my entertaiment centre and kill vampire losses while I am away, what hardware/software do I need ?? I am thinking that I'll need an insteon plug module, the powerhome program, and I guess some kind of protocal unit for the computer to send out insteon signals.

Sorry for the super long post, but I wanted to give an idea of what I have and what I want to accomplish.

BTW, a really slick front end. My buddy here at work is likely hunting touch screens on eBay, even as I type this.

TIA, Richard

LOL

Yeah, long post. lets take it 1 at a time.

I have sorta completed a cool touchscreen with a 15" ELO touchscreen that I bought on eBay. I built a pictureframe around it and had two main functions in mind. I'll use it to stream music to an EZstream unit I bought on buy-dot-com for $35 last year. Secondly, it flips thru pictures while it is not busy. I had planned on running some HA stuff with it, but so many people complained about X10 that I lost heart in trying to tackle any HA.

Try Insteon instead of X10. More money but LESS headaches anf 15'' ELO are NICE touch screens!!! What devices are you streaming to with your EZStream?

1. I am using WIndows Media Player to stream music to the EZStream. I really like the look of WMP11 since it shows ablum art, etc... I still have to trot over to my home stereo to adjst volume though, which kind of sucks. Also, I had to buy a program called on2share for about $20 to get it to work with the Upnp server and the ezstream.

I need to understand more about the EZStream. But eHome uses WMP v9 or v10 (should work with v11) and streams music (but only to a single location but many can control it) and as you have seen displays art. The method of madness for the way eHome gathers and displays audio and video is for legal reasons.

yes, you can adjust you volume with eHome, powerhome and a Redhat or USBurit.

One thing here. Ehome was meant to be used by all. Your wife, grandmother, anybody with NO training. Thats why there are 6 or 7 controls on a screen instead of 30.

2. I was intrigued with having my wall computer (my name for it), btw, picked up on eBay for $170 shipped.
----picture after five posts-----------
display the weather. I really like the look of the accu weather plug in for google. There is code that lets you add this to any webpage. I prefer the look of it to the default icons in the eHome program... Sad

In eHome you can define a new main screen icon and run any web page in the built in browser. (or run a EXE or run Windows Script) So if you want a different weather page, you can turn off the eHome one and add your custom icon and page the the eHome main menu.

What kind of touch screen did you get for $170.

3. I am very interested in energy efficiency. I was going to use some X10 stuff to control some interior lighting, but I found a nice string of LED lights that go above the cabinets in my kitchen. They draw 3.7 watts, so there is really no point in workign hard to turn them on and off but now my wife says that she would like them on a timer... hmmmm..

4. I really got into the idea of having a timer that my wife could twist to set a timer for a thermostat setback. This would be something like a wind up timer that would control a relay to interupt the cooling call from my existing thermostat. I couldn't find anything like it. I would be really cool if it was something very easy to use that would subtract say, 20 minutes or so, from the estimated return time and put the a/c into a recovery mode. This way, the house is still sorta cool after being gone for 2 hours for example.

5. I saw a show on modern marvels called environmental tech 2 and they talked about a so called "green plug." Its basically a master switch near the front door that would control some plugs and kill vampire losses and do a thermostat setback. I looked it up on google and of course the whole system sells for a rediculous $1,125 !!!! How many lifetimes to get payback on that.

You can do it. Powerhome provides the devices now how, your wallet provides the equipment and eHome provides the pretty front end. Otherwise known as the WAF. (Wife Acceptance Factor) eHome background skins are simple BMP graphic file. You can modify them to match ANY decor in your home and change any icon.

The ezstream is a device made by SMC and was sold by buy-dot-com for a heavily discounted $35 about a year ago. I bought two of them, but have found them to be a pita to set up. Its just a little box that gets a wired (I prefer wired) or wireless IP address and can play music off a home PC. Its output is just a pair of RCA outputs. It uses a remote control hand has a very basic 3 lines of text screen on the unit. All I wanted it for was a way to get music from my PC (In a closet) into the stereo in the living room. I wanted to use the WMP11 front end, so it is set up simply to stream music straight to my stereo in the living room.

It really wants to run the show, so setting it up and convincing it to just be a slave was the tuff part. It now does that. I haven't yet, and probably don't plan to stream video. I have a hacked Tivo Series 1, but I mainly just watch shows from Tivo or a DVD player in the entertainment center. I'll check out the eHome front end and see how it works with my music collection. It wasn't obvious to me if it was directing WMP or Winamp, or something totally different.

The touchscreen that I bought was item number 270179030449 on eBay. I am running it using a PC that I bought for $46 + shipping. It didn't have a hard drive or ram, but I had several of each. I just bought a second COMPAQ EVO to steal a serial connector off of it, since my original PC didn't come with the legacy module.

My wife had approached the touch screen project with a ton of scepticism. She is not an "early adopter." My kids thought it was cool. I told my wife that she wouldn't get a profile on it, heh heh... After having lots of digital pics on it and streaming music during dinner, she has definately warmed to the idea. The wife acceptance factor has already come around and she is OK with the PC on the wall. The serial port arrives Friday, so the touchscreen should be oeprational this weekend.

So, today I revisited the eHomecreations site and saw a new screen on page 9 of the long post. It looks like exactly what I am looking for. I have never done any home automation, but I have the touchscreen and its running on a 2.0GHz P4 Compaq EVO USFF computer (has a 50watt power supply and no fan on CPU). I noticed the "I am away/ I am back" buttons. THis is exactly what I have been hunting. TO put a single plug on my entertaiment centre and kill vampire losses while I am away, what hardware/software do I need ?? I am thinking that I'll need an insteon plug module, the powerhome program, and I guess some kind of protocal unit for the computer to send out insteon signals.

First thing here. Be patient. You can do a few things at a time and build on them. Second thing is... WHAT! only 1 touch screen? (sorry, I had to do that) Make a plan with simple goals (sounds like you have already done that)

Powerhome will handle all you HA issues. I will not lie to you. It is a BEAR to program (but the forum is VERY active and very friendly) but you can do ANYTHING with it and you will not out grow it.

eHome provides the decor matching front end with a HA screen builder (drag and drop) that was built for Powerhome. Also too, Kitchen tools, office tools, true touch screen games, built in browser, Audio and Video rippers, a manager that can configure all (1 or 25) of your touch screen computers, audio and video players and managers that ANYONE can use. (WAF) Most used app in eHome in my home is the kitchen timers.

Now you need a Insteon controller. Join the Powerhome forum and ask there what is the best. They will give the best hardware recommendations from REAL users. From there. Only your imagination is the limit.

And most of all... HAVE FUN!