New product alert: INSTEON Smoke Bridge

February 8, 2013 Ruslan Ulanov 1

Never again leave home without knowing that your possessions and loved ones are safe. The INSTEON Smoke Bridge monitors First Alert® ONELINK® smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. This allows you to create email and text message alerts that can be sent to you no matter where you are. Monitor the state of your home and be alerted to smoke, fire and carbon monoxide. When paired with an INSTEON Hub, the Smoke Bridge can send alerts to your smartphone via text or email informing you that something is wrong, giving you the knowledge to act to save your home and family […]

Smarthome Introduces World’s First Remote Controllable Dimmable Receptacle

June 28, 2011 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Please welcome a new member of Smarthome’s dual-band INSTEON product family – OutletLinc Dimmer! This is a first of its kind dimmable wall outlet, that can be controlled from a remote control, keypad or even a mobile phone. It features advanced options like an adjustable ramp rate that slowly brings the lamp on, a preset dim level that stores your preferred choice of 32 brightness levels when turning the lamp on initially, as well as load sense, so you can still use the lamp’s built-in switch to turn the light on and off. OutletLinc Dimmer will be a welcome addition for families with small […]

The Future of Home Automation

May 19, 2011 Ruslan Ulanov 0

So, you want to know the future of Home Automation? No problem! Future telling is expensive business, you know, but if you have between 3 and 10 thousand dollars to spare, then ReportLinker has a treat for you. They recently released a comprehensive report on the state (and the future, of course) of home automation industry. This report examines how consumers and governments are creating a booming market for “smart home” devices. It analyzes the companies, technologies, and products behind automation in energy, entertainment, home security and health care. It details pilot projects, product costs, industry trends, business alliances, and the […]

Android@Home – what we know so far

May 12, 2011 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Google has dropped the bomb at this week’s Goggle IO conference, claiming to bring Android platform in the near future to any device in your home – from light fixtures to tumble driers, to stereo systems. The technical details, though, are scarce at the moment. Here’s what we know about Android@Home initiative so far… Android@Home will use a new low power, wireless (900Mhz), mesh protocol, similar to ZigBee. But unlike ZigBee it will be capable to carry audio and low-res video streams. “If an OEM were to do that it would most likely today be a proprietary solution,” claimed Android head Andy Rubin. “By […]

New CustomCTRL experimental app video published

April 8, 2011 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Daniel Kleinman, the man behind a new home automation controller called CustomCTRL, has published a new video of the experimental iOS app prototype. It uses the accelerometer, compass and wifi signal strengths of the smartphone to add some pretty impressive capabilities. It’s really cool! Check it out below.  

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 […]

Arduino-based Home Automation Controller needs your support

March 16, 2011 Ruslan Ulanov 0

CustomCTRL is a new and very promising Open-source Hardware (OSHW) controller, based on Arduino platform. It supports all major home automation interfaces which will allow it to integrate your home’s lighting, HVAC, and AV control into accessible, expandable and hopefully simple to operate system. But here’s the catch – for this project to take off and to go into production it needs support from the fellow DIY crowd. Literally, it needs to raise at least $33,000 by May 3rd to get funded. The whole idea of OSHW is very interesting and gained quite a lot of momentum in the past few years. […]

MobiLinc Pro gets retina display support

August 26, 2010 Ruslan Ulanov 0

Arguably the best iPhone app for INSTEON-based home automation systems MobiLinc Pro just released a new version (2.16) in the AppStore. It gets new sleek images and icons specifically designed for higher resolution display of iPhone 4 (known as Retina Display). Among other changes are support for upside down orientation of the iPhone’s screen, Plug-in Store for ISY99i controller owners and a few bug fixes. Hopefully, the iPad version of MobiLinc Pro will follow soon.

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.

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