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The Digital Domicile

Michael Brown — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:35:29 -0500

Yeah, we know. Home automation is the most overpromised, under-delivered technology of modern times, out-hyped only by cold fusion and the perpetual motion machine. But that situation is changing rapidly as two new home-control standards fight for dominance: the IEEE 802.15.4 standard popularly known as ZigBee and the proprietary Z-Wave standard developed and widely licensed by Zensys. Combine these with a PC, some software, a wired or wireless network, a few other gadgets, and a little elbow grease, and you can transform your home into a digital domicile Buck Rogers would be proud to inhabit.

Imagine a video-surveillance system that lets you view your house from anywhere you have Internet access or a home-monitoring system that alerts you to the presence of an intruder by sending a picture to your smartphone. Or the ability to program your garage door to turn on your interior lights when it opens—and turn them off when it closes. How about lights that dim when you press play on your DVD player?

We’ll show you how to pull off these tricks and a lot more. We’ll walk you through the steps of planning your own home-automation makeover, tell you what equipment you’ll need to buy and how to install and program it, and share the lessons we’ve learned from first-hand experience. You’ll find even more details at MaximumPC.com.

Next: Measure Twice, Cut Once!

Planning Is Key

Observe the carpenter’s maxim: Measure twice, cut once

You can build your home-automation system piecemeal and expand it as you have the inclination and budget, but we can’t overemphasize the importance of spending some time to plan what you want to accomplish. A little forethought will save you a lot of time and a load of cash. Here’s a broad overview of what’s possible and how much you can expect to spend.

Choose Your Protocol

The most important decision you’ll make is which home-automation protocol you’ll use—at least for lighting control—because you don’t want to take a mix-and-match approach. Although there are others, we’re currently recommending that readers choose between these two wireless mesh network technologies: Z-Wave and ZigBee.

The advantage of a mesh network is that each device on the network is capable of receiving a command from any other device and responding to it. The response could be to activate a switch that sends power to a light or it could be to recognize that it’s not the intended target, in which case it passes the command to the next device within range. This approach gives the network nearly unlimited range while consuming very little power.

Zensys manufactures Z-Wave chips and sells them to nearly every lighting-control manufacturer in the market, including Cooper, GE, Intermatic, and Leviton. This promiscuity has prevented any one licensee from dominating the market, which has in turn helped keep prices in check; it has also prevented the more open ZigBee standard from gaining a strong foothold.

Lighting Controls

We can close our entertainment center (and hide our cable mess) thanks to Logitech’s Bluetooth-powered DiNovo Mini keyboard and Niles Audio’s Remote Control Anywhere kit.

When people think of home automation, managing their home’s lighting via remote control is usually the first thing that comes to mind. Fortunately, this is the cheapest and easiest feature to implement on a small scale—and it’s not much more difficult to set up on a large scale.

For those who just want to dip their toes in the water, plug-in modules are the easiest way to go. You simply plug a box into the wall, plug your lamp into the box, and program the remote control; you can then control the light using the remote (make sure the outlet cannot be shut off by a wall switch). The typical kit (with two modules and a remote) sells for about $100. Another $50 to $60 will buy a USB controller and basic PC software that allows you to manage your lighting system using your PC.

If you don’t like the look of wall warts, you can replace your outlet with one that can be controlled via remote ($35 to $75), or you can replace the switch that controls that outlet (assuming there is one). Dimmers and switches cost between $35 and $75. You’ll also need the remote, of course—those run from $35 to $150.

Home Monitoring

We can keep an eye on Maximum PC Lab North from anywhere we have Internet access, including our smartphone.

Interested in keeping tabs on your house while you’re away? Want to know if the kids got home from school OK or if the dog is tearing up your flower beds? Have you considered an alarm system but balked at the cost and the prospect of strangers monitoring you? Consider deploying a video-surveillance system or a home-monitoring package.

Price tags for such systems range from $250 for a basic kit to a couple thousand for an elaborate system capable of monitoring every square inch of your property. In addition to the cost of the equipment, most packages also carry a modest subscription fee for off-site video storage or sending alerts to your smartphone.

Infrastructure Issues

We’re assuming you already have a broadband Internet connection and a wireless router with at least a four-port switch. You might need to expand your network by stringing Ethernet cable, installing RJ45 jacks, and adding a second switch. We’ll cover that in more depth in the next section.

If you intend to control your home-theater equipment with the same remote control you use for lighting, you’ll need a remote that’s compatible with both infrared (the technology used by most everything in your entertainment center) and RF (radio frequency, the technology used by everything else). If your A/V gear is hidden away in a closet, you’ll also need an IR control kit. We like Niles Audio’s RCA-HT Remote Control Anywhere kit for this; it’s pricey at $270 but can be expanded to control everything from two different zones in your house (you’ll find our review at http://tinyurl.com/39fr5g).

Next: Build out Your Network!

Build out Your Network

Make both wired and wireless infrastructure plans

Cameras and other devices described as “wireless” typically require electrical power. If there’s not an electrical outlet near where you need to place the device, and you don’t want to add one, consider buying a wired model and running Cat5e cable to that location instead. Plug a power-over-Ethernet (PoE) injector ($25) into your existing router or switch and put a PoE splitter ($40) at the other end of the cable.

Even at $65 per node, this approach will be cheaper than hiring an electrician—at least for small deployments. If you’ll be setting up a lot of low-power devices, consider buying hardware (including a switch) that has PoE built in. If you have electrical power at all the desired locations but don’t want to string Cat5e there, consider installing hardware that uses power-line networking.

Locate Your Home Run

Here’s an example of structured wiring, in which all the home’s Ethernet, telephone, and coaxial cables (for satellite TV in this instance) are routed to a central location.

The best way to build a network is to create a home run, a central location where all your Ethernet, telephone, and coaxial (for cable or satellite TV) cables originate—think of a bicycle wheel with spokes emerging from a central hub. Your broadband modem, router, and switch will also be located here. If you’re retrofitting—as opposed to building a new home—you might wish to limit your home run to your data network.

Your home run should be accessible but out of sight—a closet or garage is a good choice. Install a cabinet, such as Leviton’s Structured Media Center ($35 to $110, depending on size) to keep everything tidy.

Draw your home’s floor plan and scout locations where you want to place Ethernet jacks (make sure there’s a power outlet nearby, but avoid running Ethernet cable parallel to electrical cables—fish them down the opposite side of the stud). Use a stud finder to make sure there are no obstacles such as water pipes, in-wall insulation, or fire-beaks that will prevent you from pulling your cable. Explore your crawlspace or attic to ensure there’s a clear path from the home run to each destination and then number these locations on your floor plan.

How to Install Ethernet Cable

Step 1: Cut Holes Use a mud ring instead of a junction box when installing low-voltage cable such as Cat5e. You’ll still need to cut a hole in your drywall if you’re retrofitting, but the mud ring makes it much easier to pull cable without crimping it (kinks in Ethernet cable will reduce the cable’s data rate).

Place the mud ring against the wall and use a torpedo level to make sure it’s straight. Using a pencil and the inside of the mud ring as a template, draw an outline on the wall. Place the tip of a drywall saw in the middle of the outline and hit the handle with the heel of your hand to punch a pilot hole. Carefully saw the drywall and remove the excess material. Place the mud ring inside the opening and flip the flanges out so they grasp the opposite side of the drywall; tighten them down with a screwdriver.

Next, drill holes from either the attic or the crawlspace between the same studs as your mud rings, as well as at the corresponding site of your home run. Using a spade bit, drill a two-inch hole in the footplate or ceiling joist. Drop fish tape through the hole, go back to the mud ring in the wall, and attach a length of wire to the fish tape. Go back to where you drilled the hole and pull the fish tape through—route this through your attic or crawlspace to the home run. Repeat this step for each run.

Step 2: Pull Cables Consider pre-cutting your Cat5e cable, so you can pull everything into your attic or crawlspace at once (give yourself plenty of slack; the cable is cheap, and you want to avoid redos). Go back to the home run and label the cables at each end. Bundle one end together with electrical tape, secure the bundle to the fish wire, and push it into the hole in the wall. Now go to your attic or crawlspace and pull the wire and cable through.

Unbundle the cables and pull each one toward its destination according to your map and the number on the cable. Attach the fish wire there to the cable and drop it into the hole. Go back to each destination room and pull the wire to draw the cable through the mud ring. Take care to make gentle turns with the cable, don’t bundle the cable too tightly, and make sure the cable doesn’t chafe on any surfaces.

Step 3: Terminate Your Cable You’ll need to terminate the Cat5e cable at each end. When you prepare the cable for termination, strip as little of the twisted-pair cable jacket away from the twisted pairs of wires as possible. Untwist the wire pairs and drape them over the snap-in jack (four on each side), following the color-coded T568A wiring diagram on the jack.

It’s crucial that no more than a half-inch of the wire is untwisted—less is better. Use a punch-down tool to press each wire into place and trim off the excess. (Repeat this step at the home run, terminating the cable into a patch bay.) Maneuver the cable through the channel in the jack and lock it in place with the cover. Snap the jack into the back of the wall plate and mount the plate to the mud ring.

Install a Router and a Switch

Netgear’s GS116 switch delivers 16 gigabit Ethernet ports in a burly but silent enclosure.

A router is essential for sharing one broadband Internet connection among computers, and a switch joins multiple computers (or other devices, such as a media-streaming box or a gaming console) within a local area network. All modern routers have built-in switches, but they typically have only four ports. You can deploy multiple switches to expand your network as needed. If you have only one Ethernet jack in a room and need to connect two or more devices to the network from there, plug a multiport switch into that jack and instantly expand your network.

To set up your router, plug one end of a Cat5e cable into your broadband modem and the other end into the WAN port on your router. If you need more than the four ports on your router’s switch, simply install a second switch by plugging it into one of the router’s switch ports.

Extend Your Network’s Range

It’s not always desirable—or even possible—to string Cat5e cable throughout your house, which is why Wi-Fi routers were invented. But distance and physical barriers (concrete walls, multiple floors, etc.) can prevent a remote client from connecting to your Wi-Fi network. One easy solution is to install a power-line network adapter.

As the name implies, a power-line network carries data on your home’s existing electrical wiring. Plug one module into a power outlet near your router or switch and connect the two using Cat5e cable. Plug the second module into an electrical receptacle in the room where you need network access. In some kits, the second module functions as a wireless access point, but if you need to stream high-def video, you’ll want a kit that hard-wires the second module to the streaming box.

You should be aware, however, that two standards bodies (the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and the Universal Powerline Association) are promoting different—and incompatible—power-line networking technologies. We’ve found products based on the latter technology—specifically, Netgear’s HDXB101—to be faster for streaming media, but it looks as though the IEEE is about to adopt HomePlug.

Hints from Hands-On Experience

Use Cat5e cable: It costs about the same as Cat5 and will enable your network to achieve gigabit speeds.
When you drape the untwisted wires over the RJ45 block, twist the ends of the excess wire together. When you punch down and trim the wire, you’ll need to pick up only two strands of waste instead of eight.
If you buy a power-over-Ethernet power splitter, make sure it supports multiple voltages so it will work with a variety of devices. Trendnet’s TPE-102S splitter, for example, can output 5, 7.5, 9, and 12 volts.
If you place your networking gear in a closet, make sure there’s adequate ventilation—especially if you’re locating a server there.
Make sure there’s power close to your home run; you’ll need it for your router and switch.
Install a surge suppressor and consider an uninterruptible power supply if you’re deploying a server.
Industrial-quality switches and models with PoE typically have loud cooling fans; take this into account when locating your home run.

Next: Control Your Home's Lighting!

Control Your Home’s Lighting

There’s more to it than dimming the lamp from your couch

Two automation standards are fighting for dominance: ZigBee and Z-Wave. We’re focusing on Z-Wave here—despite the fact that it’s not an IEEE standard—because it has the biggest presence in the market. But you needn’t worry about owning an orphan technology should Z-Wave not stand the test of time. ZigBee’s promoters tell us that designing and manufacturing a ZigBee-to-Z-Wave bridge would be trivial.

If you don’t want to hire an electrician, the easiest way to set up a Z-Wave lighting network is to buy a kit consisting of plug-in modules and a remote control. Add a Z-Wave USB stick if you want to use your PC to control your lighting.

Install a Plug-In Module

Plug-in Z-Wave modules don’t look great, but they save you from futzing with bare electrical wires.

If you can plug in a lamp, you can install a plug-in Z-Wave module. Simply unplug your lamp from the wall receptacle, plug the Z-Wave module into the receptacle, and plug the lamp into the module. You’re done. We’ll show you how to program the module in another step.

Before you buy a bunch of modules, however, make sure you select the right type. If you’ve replaced the incandescent light bulbs in your lamps with compact fluorescents, you’ll need to buy an appliance module instead of a lamp module. Most appliance modules, such as Intermatic’s HomeSettings HA02, will control any household appliance (such as a fan or television) up to 15 amps. Avoid plugging a module into a receptacle that’s controlled by a switch because the module can’t function if the switch shuts off its power source.

Install a Z-Wave Switch

Step 1: Remove Old Switch We recommend hiring a qualified electrician for this step because a wiring mistake can cause serious injury or death. Even experienced do-it-yourselfers should proceed with extreme caution. Since we don’t know how your house is wired, we can provide only general guidance.

Turn off power to the existing switch by flipping the circuit breaker or removing the appropriate fuse. Put a sign on the fuse or breaker box warning no one else to turn it back on. Go back to the switch, remove the cover plate, and use a voltage tester to ensure that the circuit is cold.

Now, examine the existing wiring. Typically, a black wire is hot, white is neutral, and green or exposed copper wire is ground. We’re setting up a single-pole application, meaning only this switch will control the load. The Intermatic InTouch CA3000 switch we’re using can also function as a three-way or multi-way (the load can be controlled from two or more switches). Unscrew the wires from the old switch.

Step 2: Install New Switch Connect the black wire inside the wall to the black wire on the switch by twisting the exposed wires together. Screw a wire nut onto the two wires and wrap it in electrical tape. Using the same technique, connect the blue wire on the switch to the wire connected to the load, and then repeat this process with the white and green wires. The switch’s red wire won’t be used, but screw a wire nut onto it so that it’s not exposed.

Push the switch and its wires into the junction box and tighten down the screws. Turn the power back on and make sure that the switch turns the load on and off. Replace the cover plate and prepare to program the switch.

Program the Z-Wave Device

Because Intermatic’s CA5500 remote control lacks an LCD, you have to guess what its single LED is trying to tell you.

This process is pretty much the same whether you’re programming a lamp module, an in-wall switch or dimmer, or any other Z-Wave device. Once you’ve installed all the Z-Wave switches, receptacles, and wall-mounted controllers you intend to deploy, use a compatible remote to establish a network. First, to ensure you’re working with a clean slate, use the remote at each device: Press the Exclude button on the remote and then press the Activate button on the device.

Once you’ve done this with every device, go back and build your network one device at a time by pressing the Include button on the remote and the Activate button on the device. The InTouch CA5500 remote we’re using in this example flashes a blue LED to inform you when an action is successful.

Install and Configure Your Control Software

As much fun as it is to control lights and other devices using a remote control, you won’t realize the full benefit of a home-automation system until you add software that will enable you to control the system with your PC. We use ControlThink’s ThinkEssentials in this example because it’s simple and inexpensive and comes with a USB Z-Wave adapter—all for $50.

ThinkEssentials is great for getting your Z-Wave feet wet, but a more powerful option is HomeSeer’s HS2 Home Control Software ($200).

Click the Home tab in ThinkEssentials and click the Draw Rooms button. Using the mouse, draw your home’s floor plan. Once you’ve included all your Z-Wave devices in your master remote, you’ll transfer the information about them to your PC via the USB adapter. Click ThinkEssentials’s Advanced Settings tab and click Join Existing Network. Press the button on the remote that you use to include Z-Wave devices in the network.

When the data has been transferred, an icon representing each Z-Wave device will appear on your floor plan. If the icon is a question mark, click it to send it a command. The icon will then change to a plug (for a receptacle or switch), a light bulb (for a dimmer), or whatever is appropriate. Once you’ve determined which icons are linked to which devices, drag the icons into the appropriate rooms.

Tips for Working with Z-Wave

Before you buy a second Z-Wave remote control, make sure it can operate as a secondary remote. A Z-Wave network can have multiple secondary controllers but only one master. A master controller can include or remove devices from the network; secondary controllers cannot.
If you’re setting up a large Z-Wave network, you’ll want an assistant to help you identify which icons represent which devices. Ask that person to call out which lights and devices your mouse clicks are activating, so you can drag the icons to the appropriate rooms on your floor plan.
If no one’s willing to help you sort out your Z-Wave devices, set up the network incrementally: Add just a couple of devices to the master remote at one time and transfer them to the PC as you go.
Make sure your master controller is equipped with the most up-to-date firmware—just as you would keep your router up to date or your videocard equipped with the latest drivers.
Using ThinkEssentials ($50, www.controlthink.com/thinkessentials) and a remote-control program such as LogMeIn (free, www.logmein.com), you can control your home-automation system from anywhere you have Internet access.

Next: Stream Your Media

Stream Your Media

Information yearns to be free, but music and video long to be everywhere

Choose a Server

QNAP’s TS-109 Pro is not only a fast NAS box, its feature set rivals that of a full-fledged server.

There’s a lot of territory to cover here, but it boils down to this: Your media (music, video, digital photos, television programming, and so on) originates from location A, and you want to enjoy it at location B.

A media-center extender can stream any digital content from one room to another. If you don’t have Windows Media Center, there are a host of products capable of streaming music, pre-recorded video, live or recorded TV, music, and digital photos from your PC. A wide variety of products can stream music from a PC, and a number of docking stations will do the same from an iPod. If you’d like to watch TV programming from a remote location or on your smartphone, you’ll want a location-shifting device such as the Slingbox.

Choose a Media-Streaming Device

The Sonos Digital Music System is the best multizone music-streaming product we’ve encountered—well worth the $1,000 price tag for a two-room system.

Choosing the right server is easy compared to finding the right tool for streaming music, video, and digital photographs—there are just so many options to choose from. Your first step is to decide what you want to stream and where you want to stream it.

A media-center extender, such as the Linksys $250 DMA2100 (or an Xbox 360), can do it all, but these devices require that the host PC be running a version of Windows that includes Windows Media Center. Unfortunately, the latest (and most capable) media-center extenders are not compatible with Windows XP. On the other hand, one of the few features that renders Vista superior to Windows XP is its ability to record and stream copy-protected content from your cable-TV system.

But there’s a major catch: You’ll need a CableCARD tuner in your PC, and the only way to get one is as part of a new, prebuilt system. Satellite TV customers are entirely out of luck—there’s no CableCARD equivalent for satellite. A/V streamers such as Netgear’s EVA8000 ($350) or the PlayStation 3 ($400) can do most everything that a media-center extender can do—except stream encrypted television programming.

The most important aspects of a music-streaming system are audio quality, the remote control, the software for the host PC, support for third-party services (such as Rhapsody and Pandora), and capacity for building a multiroom system. Logitech’s Squeezebox (from $300) and the Sonos Digital Music System (from $600) are tops in this category.

Configure Your Media Library

Once you’ve selected a server, you’ll want to build a good directory structure on the rig that’s not only easy to maintain and back up but also secure from accidental deletions and malware running on other machines on your network.

While you could put all your files in one giant folder and share that folder, it is much more effective to create individual shares for your music, movies, and photos. That way you can control your users’ access levels based on the type of content in the shares. While everyone should have read access to photos, you may want only one or two people to be able to write to the photo folder.

To access the advanced permissions dialogs, go into the Folder Options control panel, click the View tab, and uncheck “Use sharing wizard” in Vista or “Use simple file sharing” in XP.

1. CONFIGURE GROUPS: First, you need to create and populate groups with users. You should create groups based on tasks they’ll perform—for example, Music Listeners and Music Admins—and then set permissions to allow the lowest level of access that your users will need to complete those tasks. Once you’ve decided who gets read access and who gets write access, go to Administrative Tools, Users & Groups to set up your groups.

2. ASSIGN PERMISSIONS TO FOLDERS: Once you’ve created your groups and filled them with users, you need to enable sharing and adjust the permissions on the folders you want to share. Right-click the folder you want to share and select the Sharing option. Vista users need to click Advanced Sharing and then Permissions. Add your groups and set the permissions you want to allow, removing the Everyone option.

3. BACK UP YOUR FOLDERS: Now repeat the same steps for your photo and video folders. Once that’s done, you should set up a regular backup procedure for you media folders. Even though you’ve protected your photos, music, and movies from accidental erasure at the hands of family members, you still need to do regular backups. We recommend using SyncBack Freeware, which you can download at www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html.

Networking Tips and Tricks

A full-blown PC operating as a server will consume much more power and generate a lot more noise than a NAS box.
Don’t forget to budget for speakers when planning a multiroom audio system.
If you locate your server in an equipment closet, make sure there’s adequate ventilation.
You’ll want an 802.11n Draft 2.0 wireless network to stream high-def video, but you might need a wired connection for best results.
If you’re mixing Vista and XP machines on the same network, make sure they all use the same workgroup name (the default is MSHOME on XP but WORKGROUP in Vista).

Next: Home Monitoring and Surveillance

Home Monitoring and Surveillance

Protecting your most valuable assets: your home and its contents

In many respects, this aspect of home automation is even more important than lighting controls and media streaming; unfortunately, it’s even less mature as a market. We’ll help guide you through the wilderness.

In our mind, the ideal system would be capable of monitoring all our doors and windows, detecting motion inside the house, and controlling our irrigation system. It would also include sensors capable of detecting disasters such as fire or a burst water pipe, send alerts to our smartphone whenever an unexpected event occurs, and provide video coverage of the interior and perimeter of our home that we could access from the Internet.

No one package does all of those things, which means you’ll need to mix and match solutions to get to home-automation nerdvana.

Four Solutions

The three best home-monitoring and surveillance packages we’ve encountered are Eaton’s Home Heartbeat, iControl Network’s iControl, and Logitech’s WiLife. Your other alternative is to deploy a conventional Cat5 system, although this category is limited to video surveillance using webcams.

Home Heartbeat is a robust home-monitoring system that can alert you to the status of doors and windows (open or closed), power receptacles (on or off), and movement inside your house. A starter pack consisting of a base station, a key fob for receiving alerts (originating from your land line), and one open/closed sensor sells for $225. Add-on sensors cost $40 to $50 each. Home Heartbeat can also detect water leaks and automatically shut off the water supply using an optional controller and a custom ball valve. It uses the ZigBee wireless networking standard and can be controlled over the Internet (you’ll need the $160 broadband gateway, and a subscription fee applies). But the system doesn’t include cameras, so it can’t show you what’s happening inside or around your house.

IControl’s advanced starter kit ($250) consists of a broadband interface, a wireless webcam, a lamp-control module, a motion sensor, a door/window sensor, and a remote control. It can be expanded with a host of accessories, including a thermostat, a smoke/heat detector, and a water sensor (although it doesn’t provide any means of shutting the water off). The system uses the Z-Wave wireless protocol, so it can be incorporated into any Z-Wave network. A subscription fee applies.

Logitech’s WiLife system is limited to video surveillance, but it comes with the most robust software we’ve seen in this segment. A starter kit with one camera costs $300; add-on cameras cost $230 (the system is limited to six). It uses power-line networking, which eliminates the need to string Cat5 cable, and the company offers both indoor and outdoor cameras with motion-activated recording capabilities. You can monitor the cameras from the Internet, but there’s a subscription fee if you want email and cellphone alerts.

Set Up Your Security System

Tucked behind a vase, iControl’s battery-controlled motion sensor can operate unobtrusively.

Place a motion sensor at tabletop height and it will detect an intruder’s movement while ignoring any pets moving about the house. You’ll quickly tune out—or turn off—a security system that constantly cries wolf.

Since you can’t predict where a criminal will attempt to break into your house, it’s best to place a sensor on every window and exterior door. Sensors typically consist of two blocks connected by a magnetic field. When the blocks are separated and the magnetic field is broken, the master controller sends an alert to your email address or to your cell phone via SMS. Sometimes, what doesn’t happen is as important as what does. If you have latchkey kids, for instance, you might want to set up an alert to notify you if the front door doesn’t open within a specific time window.

Sensors can tell you only that motion has been detected or a door or window has been opened (and if the window is simply smashed, it might not even do that). Another line of defense is to deploy Internet-connected video cameras with motion detectors. We recommend placing an outdoor camera at each corner of your home to monitor its perimeter. A box-shaped house would require only four cameras, but a home with an unusual layout or one with recessed entry doors might require more. A web camera with a two-way intercom placed outside your front door or at your gate will allow you to communicate with a visitor without having to approach or open the door.

Configure a WiLife Camera System

This Logitech WiLife camera keeps tabs on the front door. But consider all the other possible points of entry, as well.

We’ve been jazzed about WiLife’s security camera system ever since we got our paws on its spy camera. The spy cam itself is dorky as all get-out, but its software is amazing.

We’re not big fans of power-line networking, but it works here because the benefits outweigh the drawbacks: All you need in order to deploy a camera is a nearby electrical outlet. The network’s narrow bandwidth isn’t a problem because you’re not transmitting sound and the video isn’t high resolution. You can outfit the indoor cameras with night vision or three different lenses, and the outdoor cameras don’t need enclosures because they’re completely weatherized.

You can view your cameras from any Internet connection. An optional subscription to WiLife Platinum ($80 per year) adds email and cellphone alerts, remote playback, and 50MB of online storage. Setting up the system is dead simple.

1. INSTALL YOUR CAMERAS AND PLUG THEM IN: First, install the WiLife software; then restart your computer. When you start the software for the first time, you’ll be asked to set aside some disk space that the system will use for recording its video captures. You’ll then be prompted to set up a remote-viewing account. The WiLife system will use your broadband Internet access to upload live video from your cameras, which you’ll be able to view from anywhere. The installer software will then ask how many cameras are in your system and which type of USB adapter you’re using.

2. PLACE YOUR CAMERAS AND PLUG THEM IN: Power-line networking can be finicky; we’ve learned from experience not to permanently mount a camera until we’re sure it’s going to work with the receptacle we’re planning to use. The cameras won’t work with Z-Wave receptacles, either, because those receptacles have built-in surge suppressors.

Once you’ve temporarily plugged your WiLife cameras into receptacles near where you’ll be using them, go back to the PC and click Next to resume the setup process.

3. CONNECT THE POWER-LINE USB ADAPTER: Next, plug the power-line adapter into an electrical socket near your PC. The adapter has its own built-in surge suppressor and will not function properly if it’s plugged into a second suppressor (don’t use an extension cord, either). Plug one end of a USB cable into the power-line adapter and the other into your PC’s USB port (do not use a USB hub). When you click Next, the software will find your cameras and configure your network. The adapter will grab the WMV video that the cameras are running through the power-line network and display it using WiLife’s user interface.

4. NAME YOUR CAMERAS: If the software was able to locate all of your cameras, it will provide thumbnail screens for each one and ask you to provide a descriptive name for each one. This way, you’ll know which camera is having problems even if you can’t see the video. If the software cannot find one of your cameras, reset the camera by unplugging it and plugging it in again or by using a paperclip to reset the camera to its default settings. If the software still can’t find the camera, you’ll need to move it to a different power outlet and try again.

How to Become An Internet Tycoon

Michael Brown — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:36:57 -0500

How much do you pay to access the Internet? According to J.D. Powe r and Associates, the average price for high-speed access is $42.13 per month. Although you’re paying for 24/7 availability, you’re actually using only a fraction of that time. Divide that monthly fee by the number of minutes you’re actively online—when you’re not working, commuting, eating, watching TV, playing single-player games, sleeping, exercising, or doing whatever else you do when you’re not on the Internet—and broadband Internet access looks outlandishly expensive.

Now what if you could share that pipe—and split the cost—with your neighbors? Hmm. If the pipe’s fat enough, and you can get enough people to sign up, you could turn a nice profit. If you’re thinking the cost of the necessary infrastructure would present a barrier, you probably haven’t heard of Meraki.

Meraki Networks started out as a Ph.D. research project at MIT, but it has blossomed into a small company headquartered in Mountain View, California. The company’s mission, CEO and Co-Founder Sanjit Biswas told me in a recent interview, is to “bring affordable Internet access to the next billion people.” A noble goal to be sure, but I’m more interested in making money off my excess bandwidth.

Here’s how it works: To share your Cable or DSL connection, simply plug a Meraki Mini into your Cable or DSL modem and install Meraki’s Dashboard software on your PC. The Mini acts as a gateway, allowing anyone within range to share your connection to the Internet. The size of the network is limited only by the number of Meraki Mini’s you deploy, since each one acts as a relay. In this respect, Meraki is similar to two other mesh network systems we’re fond of: Zensys’ Z-Wave and Sonos’ Digital Music System--on much larger scale. But where these two systems are limited to a single household, a Meraki network can cover an entire apartment building, an entire neighborhood, or even an entire city.

Meraki Networks' repeaters not only allow you to share your Internet connection with your neighbors, it also comes with the software infrastructure you'll need to bill them for the privilege.

So, how do you make money off this? As the owner of the network, you grant or deny access to and establish policies for the network via Meraki’s Dashboard software. Dashboard comes complete with security and encryption, network branding and splash pages, detailed usage reporting, and network management. More importantly, the software has an integrated billing module, including fee schedules, support for major credit cards, and automated collections. If anyone abuses the network—by sucking up huge amounts of bandwidth via BitTorrent, for instance—you can turn off their access until they agree to behave.

The Meraki Mini ($50, available now) is an indoor repeater capable of serving wireless adapters within a 100- to 150-feet radius. The Meraki Mini Outdoor ($100, also available now) is a weatherized version of the same device with an outdoor range of 300- to 750-feet. The company will ship an improved version of their outdoor repeater, the Meraki 3, in August. The new device has the same range as the first, but you can by extend its territory by installing third-party antennas.
Both outdoor modules are capable of running on Power over Ethernet (PoE), but Meraki will also ship in August a kit containing a solar panel and a battery pack, so that repeaters can be set up nearly anywhere without the need for electrical power.

HP: "Let Us Entertain You"

Michael Brown — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:12:35 -0500

HP bought VoodooPC to gain street cred with gamers, but I thought the company had gotten out of the media-center PC business. Imagine my surprise when I heard the topic of John Orcutt’s keynote speech at the Connections Digital Living Conference earlier this month would be titled “The Connected Entertainment Ecosystem.”

Orcutt, vice president of HP’s Managed Home Business, quoted market data from conference-sponsor Parks Associates that predict 60 million U.S. households will have broadband Internet access by the end of 2007, and that 30 million homes will have a data network of one form or another by 2010. He went on to say that “the long-awaited marriage between the TV and the PC is finally here,” that “conditions are right for the growth of connected TVs,” and that “HP is committed to providing a fresh approach using an ultra-simple and compelling user interface and a robust set of services and sophisticated design and integration.”

You can guess the first question that came out of my mouth when I interviewed him afterwards.

Maximum PC: If HP is so interested in the digital entertainment market, why did the company exit the media-center PC market?

John Orcutt: We never got out of the media-center PC market. We did discontinue our Digital Entertainment Center or DEC line. And we did that because the PC doesn’t have to be in the living room anymore. It doesn’t necessarily have to look a consumer-electronics device, either. The PC can be anywhere in the home and still deliver a great entertainment experience.

Max PC: Ah, now I see the distinction. You mentioned in your keynote speech that HP thinks most houses will have a central server for their media, but that the TV will serve as the gateway both the Internet and to consumers’ digital photos, videos, and music. I don’t think that’s how it works for most people today.

Orcutt: We think almost every home will eventually have a server of one kind or another. Early on, most of these will look like conventional PCs. A few will be headless servers [computers without video monitors]. But the market for headless servers, like our HP MediaSmart Server, will grow as time goes on.

Max PC: The Media Smart Server will use Microsoft’s Windows Home Server, right?

Orcutt: That’s right. The Media Smart Server is a high-capacity sharing and storage device; it’s not designed to be a PC that you’d sit in front of and use.

Max PC: The biggest problem I have with the PC being at the center of my home-entertainment is that it’s too difficult to integrate it with cable and satellite TV set-top boxes. ATI announced its OCUR solution more than a year ago, and it’s only just now arriving on the market. But you can’t install it in your home-brew PC, and it doesn’t work with satellite systems.

Orcutt: So, if you could get video from your set-top box to a media server, you’d be satisfied?

Max PC: Basically. I mean, most set-top boxes have pretty good DVRs built into them, but there’s no way to distribute that video throughout the house.

Orcutt: Sounds like a good opportunity. [grins]

Max PC: So, this is something HP is working on?

Orcutt: I’m not going to comment on that. [grins again]

Max PC: Okay... So if you’re going to have a central server in your house, is it also going to provide home-automation features? You’ve got the horsepower, and there’s a ton of new home-automation products coming onto the market right now. Why not incorporate home monitoring, lighting control, and security, too?

Orcutt: Entertainment is the big motivator today. Home control, home automation is a pretty constrained market right now; that industry has a lot of issues to address. That’s not to say it’s not something we’re interested in. But for now, we’re focusing our effort on providing a centralized media and entertainment system.

Max PC: Well, we certainly look forward to reviewing the Media Smart Server. When do you expect it to ship?

Orcutt: It should be available this fall.

MediaSmart Server Specs
HP’s MediaSmart Server will be a headless server running Microsoft’s Windows Home Server software (gee, I wonder why they’re not calling it Vista Home Server?). HP’s preliminary spec sheet indicates that it will use an AMD 1.8GHz Sempron processor and support up to 10 user accounts (plus one guest account limited to file or printer sharing) on up to a gigabit wired Ethernet network. If you want wireless, you'll have to add your own router.

The box has four internal SATA hard drive bays and four USB 2.0 ports, but HP says the device’s maximum storage capacity is limited only by the number of drive bays and USB ports. In reality, however, you probably wouldn’t want to consume all the USB ports with storage devices, because that would prevent you from connecting a printer, scanner, or other types of devices you’d want to share on the network.

You Call That Energy Savings?

Michael Brown — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 23:53:24 -0500

Several years ago, in an effort to save energy, the State of California established strict regulations for commercial construction in terms of energy usage. In October, 2005, the State decided that these regs were working so well in the commercial-building industry that they’d extend them to cover residential construction, too. These regulations are known as Title 24, Part 6 of the California Code of Regulations: California’s Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings. This is more commonly known simply as Title 24.

Saving energy is obviously in everyone’s interest Few would argue that we need to reduce greenhouse gases, burn less fossil fuel, and generally lighten our footprint on the planet. Okay, so there are a few people on the other side of the debate.

So Title 24 is a great idea, right? As it turns out, simply taking the same blanket of regulation designed for commercial buildings and stretching it over the construction of every new home in the state has more than a few practical drawbacks.

And as often happens, the people in government who write the rules don’t think to consult with either the people responsible for carrying them out and those who wind up living with the results. Just ask any electrician, as I did while discussing the lighting plan for the new home I’m building.

If you work in a modern office building, you might have noticed how difficult it is to find a simple light switch. These devices have largely been rendered unnecessary by occupancy sensors: a regulatory requirement. When you walk into the room, the lights turn on in response to your movement. But since there’s no light switch for you to flip when you leave the room, the lights remain on for a period of time after you’ve left. That’s because the occupancy sensors are designed to assume someone’s in the room, but just isn’t moving around enough to trigger them. They’ll turn off the lights eventually, but not as fast as if you’d flipped a switch. This often results in more energy being consumed than if you were able to flip the switch on your way out, but the government figures you’re either too absentminded or too lazy find out if you’re the last person in the affected room.

TITLE 24
In residential buildings, California’s Title 24 regulations dictate that “high efficacy luminaires are required for almost all rooms…. Exceptions are made in kitchens for a limited percentage of watts if the luminaires are on a separate circuit, or in other specified rooms if the luminaires are controlled by occupant sensors or dimmers.” The regulation defines an occupancy sensor as a device that “turns off automatically when no one is present. When lighting is needed it must be turned on manually with a switch.”

The State isn’t fooling around when it says “high efficacy luminaire.” You specifically cannot use a compact fluorescent bulb with a medium base—the type that’s designed to replace a conventional light bulb; in fact, the lighting fixture itself cannot even use modular components that allow conversion between the two standards.

Luminaires, as you’ve probably figured out, refer to light fixtures. Light bulbs are referred to as lamps. But Title 24 applies only to lighting fixtures that are built in or otherwise attached to the building. You can plug in as many inefficient halogens, grow lights, and other portable energy sinks as you’d like. The same goes for lighting in your appliances—including the vent hood over your stove.

And apart from your kitchen, you can install low-efficacy luminaires throughout the rest of the interior of your home, too—as long as they’re controlled by either an occupancy sensor or a dimmer. Any outdoor lighting attached to your home must be either high-efficacy or controlled by a motion sensor with an integral photocontrol—meaning that it turns on only when it’s dark and the device detects motion. Landscape lighting that is not permanently attached to your home, however, is explicitly not regulated by Title 24. You can bathe every tree, shrub, and fern in your yard with a spotlight if you’re of a mind to.

OCCUPIED
Unlike the occupancy sensors in commercial construction, the lights in residential construction won’t automatically turn on when you enter a room outfitted with one (unless the sensor is controlling a high-efficacy luminaire). That’s not a big deal, but Title 24 requires the occupancy sensor to shut the light off after 30 minutes whether the room is occupied or not. The electrician working on my home tells me he gets countless complaints from clients whose children no longer bother to turn the light off when they leave the bathroom, because they know it will eventually turn itself off. He also gets a lot of complaints from clients who take long baths and suddenly find themselves plunged into darkness when they exceed the time limit. As a result, many of these homeowners take it upon themselves to replace the occupancy sensors with conventional toggle switches after the building inspector leaves.

To solve the latter dilemma, Title 24 recommends that contractors install a second set of high-efficacy luminaires that are not controlled by the occupancy sensor. So if you plan to be in the room for more than 30 minutes, you’ll switch on two sets of lights just so you won’t be left in the dark when the occupancy sensor shuts off the incandescent lights over your sink. These same rules apply to garages, laundry rooms, utility rooms, and closets larger than 70 square feet. For the record, if the contractor installs only high-efficacy luminaires, there’s no need for the occupancy sensor—but no one likes to look at themselves in a mirror illuminated by fluorescent tubes.

THE DOWNSIDE
I’m sure the Title 24 drafters mean well, and perhaps some of these regulations will actually save some energy. But in many cases, these rules will actually increase energy consumption. And then there’s the issue of what to do with the tons of mercury contained in all those millions of fluorescent tubes when they expire.

One of the ways I’ve decided to lessen my new home’s footprint on the planet is to install skylights that will augment the natural light coming in from the windows. More significantly, I’m also installing a solar array that will generate much of the energy my home will consume. I’ll report more on that in a future blog.

The High Cost of Home Automation

Michael Brown — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 20:36:37 -0500

Today’s home-automation technology can not only make life easier, it can also render your house more energy efficient. A last-minute change of plans means you won’t be home until late? Call your programmable thermostat on your smartphone and reset the time the heater cranks up. Wake up at 2AM craving a snack? Set the occupancy sensor in the hallway so that it comes up to 25-percent brightness when it’s triggered in the early-morning hours and you won’t wake your spouse.

Those are just two examples. But considering how inexpensive PCs have become, isn’t it remarkable how pricey high-end home-automation systems remain? Case in point: Best Buy—a retailer typically known for discount prices—offers what they bill as an all-in-one home-automation system. It’s called ConnectedLife.Home and it costs a mere $15,000. For that princely sum, you get a 32-inch flat-panel TV, a PC, a media extender, a gigabit router, a wireless access point, a digital thermostat, five dimmer switches, five standard switches, two six-button lighting keypads, two wireless network video cameras, a remote control, the software to control the system, and someone to install it.

Besides the obvious drawback of the price tag, this one-size-fits-all approach to home automation is unlikely to deliver a very satisfying experience—especially for tech-savvy readers such as Maximum PC’s audience. It doesn’t take into account whatever gear you might already own, for starters; and while you can add components to the package, you can’t substitute for what’s already in it.

Here’s the number-one reason why: Many of the companies selling the components essential to a home-automation system market their products available exclusively through custom installers.

And as expensive as Best Buy's ConnectedLife.Home might sound, it’s cheap compared to what most true custom installers would charge. Exceptional Innovation’s Lifeware home-automation software is the only element of the system that Best Buy identifies by brand name, and Exceptional Innovations sells this product only to custom installers. (At least EI is straightforward about it. Some manufacturers claim they don’t sell their products directly to the consumer, but you’ll find them in all sorts of gray-market channels. This lets them have it both ways: They sell into a market that’s potentially larger than the custom market, but don’t have to provide tech support to individual buyers.)

The function of every other component in Best Buy’s package, meanwhile, can be performed by products that are available in retail channels, both online and brick-and-mortar. And several other developers offer the PC software that’s essential to controlling a home-automation system.

A true custom installer, of course, can give you exactly what you wanted (or figure it out for you if you didn’t already know). I don’t doubt that these guys earn their money, and I don’t blame companies like EI for not making their products available in retail channels, either. The costs associated with tech support and consumer marketing can be formidable. But as geeks, why should we let someone else have all the fun of setting up a wicked-cool home-automation system?

Over the next several months in the magazine and in these blog posts, I’ll be reviewing as many DIY home-automation products as I can get my hands on. And since I’m in the process of building a new house, I’m going to integrate as many practical home-automation features as I can into the construction.

In order to keep the information relevant, I’ll only be reviewing products that can be purchased at retail and that can be self-installed as a retrofit. I’m not intent on building the unobtainable dream home you see in so many magazines (I couldn't afford it, and it probably wouldn't any fun to live in anyway!), but I will show you how to automate your own home; and I’ll document all the pitfalls I’m sure I’ll run into along the way.