Getting Started With Home Automation Lighting Control (Part 2)
Now that you have
read Part 1 of my review, I hope that everyone has a better idea of what
hardware is actually needed to get started.
Depending on the lighting control system you are looking into, it
doesn’t have to be expensive to get started or even to automate your whole
home. Going with my INSTEON based solution, you can get everything you need for
under $250 and keep adding switches and dimmers for $20-$25, or you can go with
the higher priced SwitchLinc for a few dollars more.
For the software side I will be using Media Center
to do everything (naturally), and mControl from
Embedded Automation is my plug-in of choice. I’ve got a copy from Embedded Automation to
play with, but as you have seen in Part 1 in my review, you can get the PowerLinc USB Controller with
mControl which is the suggestion method since you will need the PowerLinc
Controller anyway.
INSTEON Setup
Here I was going to write a whole step-by-step for
installing and setting up INSTEON devices, but Smarthome has taken most of that
work and put it into a video that’s up on YouTube. INSTEON Starter Kit
Installation Video gives you the basic steps and the concept is easy
applied to the setup of the PowerLinc USB Controller instead of the Tabletop
Controllor shown in the video.
Each INSTEON device has a unique address that you will need
to write down for later. mControl will
ask for this address when you add the device on the PC, this is covered below.
Basically you press and hold the "On" button on
the first device for 10 seconds and then press and hold the "On" (or
set, or push on the paddle) button on the second device for 10 seconds. When your lights flash, your devices have
been linked. It was really very simple
to setup when you have the SignaLinc RF’s that I said were required in Part 1.
The process of linking and unlinking devices might get a
little annoying once you keep adding more and more devices, but getting a
friend to help for the 30 seconds it takes will speed the process up and cut
down the running up-and-down the stairs if you live in a two story home.
Important Note: If
you are installing in-wall switches or dimmers you need to have a very basic
understand of electricity before you kill yourself while installing the
switch. Make sure you shut off the
breaker to the location in question before you attempt to do anything. Not doing so will, umm, cause you to get
electrocuted and die. After your breaker
if shut off, you can go about installing your switch, and then flip the breaker
back on and see if the switch works as it normally would (manually).
My Unsupported Install
This part of the review includes my own stupid, cheap
adventure installing an ICON dimmer without using the SignaLinc’s. I ordered just the single ICON dimmer and PowerLinc
USB Controller. When I was reading the
information about the SignaLinc’s, I kept reading it as you would only need
them for large installs, as Smarthome puts it, to “eliminate RF "dead
spots" and facilitates your INSTEON network to support large or complex
installations”. Okay, even if you have a
small, non-complex installation you still
need the SignaLinc RF’s as part of your install! I would not suggest thinking you can do
without them, even though I will say that they “can” work without them. You will save hours of unneeded work if you
just purchase them as part of the Starter Kits I talked about in Part 1 of my review
that include the SignaLinc’s.
Again, this problem should not be seen as something you will
run into if you install the SignaLinc’s as suggested. I played with trying to get the PowerLinc and
ICON dimmer to link for about two hours.
I ended up figuring out a workaround, which I still don’t understand,
but it did work.
I took a four foot extension work I had in my room, and
plugged it into the UPS sitting next to my PC.
After I did this, I ran through the process of linking the PowerLinc to
the ICON again, and to my utter amazement the light in my room flashed; they
had successfully been linked together!
This isn’t really supported method, and I really just
happened to get lucky.
mControl Setup
Setting up mControl wasn’t
much harder than launching Media
Center with my
remote. After the basic install wizard of
mControl I just launched Media
Center and selected
mControl from More Programs. I went
ahead and added a zone, in my case I named it “Bedroom. I then selected the Bedroom zone, and went to
“Add Device”.
mControls will ask you to name the device in question,
select the adaptor it will use to control it, and to select the actual
module/device you are using. In my case the
“PowerLinc USB (2414X) Controller” was my adapter and my module/device was the
ICON dimmer (2876DB). The INSTEON
Address that you made note of earlier should now be entered in, and that’s
it! Save your changes, and mControl will
now be able to control your device. If
you have any problems with it not working right-off-the-bat, I would just
restart the mControl service which can be done from your Start Menu in Windows.
Embedded
Automation makes sure that if you have a question about the setup process
they will cover it extensively. Their
website has a
nearly 200 page manual that covers everything from basic setup, to more
advance setup. It can be intimidating to
see this document on their website, but you don’t need to have read this thing
before you get started. It’s really more
of a reference manual when in need.
Part 2 Conclusion
Setup of INSTEON devices and mControl should take you no
more than an hour and half (depending on the number of devices). Additional devices can be added and linked in
just a few minutes, and adding them to mControl takes another few seconds.
The process is amazing simple. When most people think of home automation and
lighting control, they generally tend to think it’s expensive, hard to setup,
and not reliable. My experience has been
the complete opposite. The initial
investment is around $250 which really isn’t that bad, and again, adding more
controls can be done for as little as $20 each using INSTEON devices (other
technologies are more costly). My
experience has shown that it’s easy to setup, and in my case I have had rock
hard reliability (again, I’m currently using a single dimmer but have had
rock-hard reliability).
In Part 3 of my review I will have some additional tips for
mControl. Some of these include auto
dimming of your lights upon playing a DVD in Media
Center (along with other macros),
adding mControl to the Start Menu in Media
Center (ex. My Home),
accessing mControl via a Media Center Extender, and access to mControl using
other PCs in your home. Lastly, I will have
what I like about mControl and what I dislike about it.
View: Getting
Started With Home Automation Lighting Control (Part 1)
View: Getting
Started With Home Automation Lighting Control (Part 3)
View: Getting
Started With Home Automation Lighting Control (Part 4)