Home Automation

Smarthome Releases Spring Online Catalog

April 20, 2011 Ruslan Ulanov 0

NewswireToday – /newswire/ – Irvine, CA, United States, 04/19/2011 – The latest edition of the Smarthome catalog is now available. The Spring edition of the highly-regarded catalog reached homes this week, and is now also available at Smarthome.com Check your mailbox – the latest edition of the Smarthome catalog is now available. The Spring edition of the highly-regarded catalog reached homes this week, and is now also available online. The new online catalog gives users the look and feel of the print piece with the ability to immediately click and purchase products. “Our catalogs have certainly come a long way,” stated Laurie […]

Smarthome reveals INSTEON Energy Display

March 30, 2011 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Not so long ago Smarthome had released iMeter Solo power meter – device that captures current energy consumption by one particular device (or a power strip, if you’d rather measure a few devices at once, like TV, DVD player and the like). But until now there wasn’t an easy way to visualize that data. INSTEON Energy Display changes that with a simple, low cost, RF device you can put on your kitchen counter. INSTEON Energy Display (Item# 2448A2) can display energy information from up to three iMeter Solo’s (current watts used as well as cost and energy consumption per month for […]

Deal alert: INSTEON year-end sale

December 28, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Did you miss Smarthome’s Beat-the-clock sale? Well, don’t despair. Today (12/28) only Smarthome is offering 10% off all* INSTEON products. Head on to Smarthome.com and don’t forget to use coupon code ESLD10 at checkout. Remember, this deal will last one day only! * Discounts apply to Smarthome brand INSTEON products only, 3rd party products excluded.

Smarthome introduces a line of power consumption monitoring devices

December 23, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 0

iMeter Solo (Item# 2423A1) is the first native INSTEON plug-in module that will allow you to measure power consumption of a single appliance or a lamp. Simply plug an appliance (up to 15Amps) into iMeter and plug the iMeter into an outlet. You can then retrieve the data in the iMeter Solo from any compatible INSTEON computer controller such as HouseLinc 2 or ISY-99i. The data is stored as a .csv (comma-separated values) file format on your computer allowing you to open and create graphs to track energy consumption in programs such as Excel, Apple Numbers, OpenOffice, Google Docs and more. Unfortunately, as […]

HomeGuru app receives support for ISY controllers

October 6, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 0

The iPhone/iPad application HomeGuru by zenwheel has just received a major update to version 2.0. The new version adds support for Universal Devices’ ISY99i series of controllers. If you have a SmartLinc INSTEON controller from SmartLabs, HomeGuru is the perfect way to control your home’s lights and appliances. It allows you to view a list of all configured scenes in your house, view their status and control them by sending on, off or fade commands to them. It is much quicker and friendlier than using the web interface to the device, especially if you use authentication. HomeGuru supports all the […]

DIY Project: How to cut your kid’s TV-time without saying a word, the geek-way.

August 12, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 0

A never-ending fight for TV-time. How to cut your kid’s TV-time without saying a word, the geek-way. My kid is three and a half years old now and I got to tell you, he is smart! He keeps my home automation system on its toes. Here’s my story… As most parents, we have a never-ending fight with our kid, trying to limit his TV-time. I had brains to install TV and a DVD player in his bedroom, and now I have to find ways to tame his TV-appetite. At first, my kid just couldn’t reach the power button on a […]

My new home automation project – KitchenTouch

August 6, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 2

It has been a little quiet in my blog lately. But it’s not because I was lazy (well, maybe just a little). I’ve been busy celebrating many many birthdays in July (including my own) and also I spent a lot of my time learning new technologies (namely HTML5, CSS3 and C# languages) and coding my own home automation project called KitchenTouch. That last thing is what I want to tell you about.

How to automate your… balcony

June 28, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Now, this is an original concept! Actually, this is no longer a concept, this product is already in production (in The Netherlands only, for now). I’m talking here about a ‘balcony-on-demand’ from Dutch company called Bloomframe. This product transforms your window frame into a full-sized balcony, capable of holding a whole bunch of grown-up dudes (see photos below).

MobiLinc update adds support for SmartLinc controller

May 21, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Mobile Integrated Solutions has just released version 2.14 of their MobiLinc Pro software for iPhone and iPod Touch. The major feature of this update is that it adds support for Smarthome’s low-cost SmartLinc INSTEON Central Controller (2412N). Previously, MobiLinc supported only Universal Devices’ ISY 26/99i and PowerLinc 2414 controllers. The new update also polishes some GUI issues and ISY communication when switching from EDGE/3G to WiFi connection.

How to use iPhone as a wireless microphone for a PC

May 4, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Here’s a fresh new idea for home automation enthusiasts. Apparently, you can use your iPhone or the last generation iPod Touch (the one with a mic) as an external wireless microphone used to relay voice commands to your home automation controller (provided it’s a Windows-based PC). No, there’s no app for that (yet), so you will have to fumble with a few pieces of software on your PC, but the result could be well worth the time spent. This great idea comes courtesy of Greg Badros (ex-Google, and now Facebook’s Director of Engineering) who explains the process in details on […]

/ Automation

Home automation for the masses, DIY-style