Insteon-Integrated Smoke Detector

We’ve covered Insteon devices that allow you to control things in your home, such as lights and door locks, and we’ve covered devices that allow you to sense things in your home such as motion sensors and doorbell buttons. Today’s post falls into the latter category of “sensing devices”: an Smoke Detector that can be integrated into your Insteon network.

There are actually two parts to this system – the smoke detector(s) themselves and the Insteon Smoke Bridge.

Setup is very similar to how the MorningLinc system worked – the smoke detectors (like the Morning lock) work on their own, completely separate from the Insteon network, and they have a wireless component that allows them to communicate with each other. The Insteon smoke bridge (like the Insteon MorningLinc) receives these wireless signals and puts them on the Insteon network for your ISY-994i to take some action based on those signals. And, as you’ve seen in many of these posts, the ISY-994i is not a strict requirement here; you can add this smoke detection event directly as a controller in an Insteon scene, so for example you could have a scene that turns on all the lights in your house when smoke is detected. Read more ›

Posted by Matt Chiste

September 7

Tagged with: 2982-222, first alert, insteon, isy-994i, onelink, safety, sc0501, sensing device, smoke detector
Posted in Insteon

Add the Network Module to your ISY-994i for enhanced functionality

The ISY994i is great, but like the out-of-the-box AppleTV, it’s a little bit of a walled garden in the sense that you can’t deploy your own code to the device, and can’t really directly tweak the functionality of what’s available on it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly powerful – Universal Devices provides extensive APIs via web services or all of the major programming languages to extend the functionality from your desktop.

There’s also a somewhat hidden set of modules that you can purchase to extend the native functionality as well. To access these APIs, go to Help:Purchase Modules in your Admin Console, and you should end up at a not-so glamorous looking page like this:

There are no screen shots, no links to documentation, no graphics at all. It really feels like a forgotten corner of the Universal Devices web site but it does, in fact, work. After paying for your purchase using Google Checkout, the module automatically becomes available in your admin console the next time you fire it up. It is able to do this because the ISY’s unique identifier (the UUID) is sent along with the purchase, so the next time the ISY-994i starts up it checks with the server for modules available to it.

The key module that I’m recommending here is the Network Module, described simply as follows:
Use your ISY as a web server to serve up your own applications, pictures, and files. The module also includes Wake On Lan (turn your computers on using ISY progrmas) and Network Resources which enable you to call any network resource (TCP/UDP/HTTP/HTTPS).

In other words, there are a couple of key features with this module (the documentation can be found here):

Wake On Lan. Turn on a computer in response to an event or program in the ISY
Web Server. Serve basic HTML and image files and change the default home page for your ISY. Sorry, no ability to run CGI, Java, or PHP here – just regular old HTML.
Network Services. Have the the ISY-994i make web requests to other applications, firing off specific external actions in response to events and programs.
Dynamic File Generation. Have the ISY-994i dynamically create or append to files being served up via the web server (mostly useful for logging events).

Jailbreak an old AppleTV 1 or 2 for some XBMC Love

A big part of any modern home is a comprehensive media center that can play any kind of media you can throw at it – movies, music, TV shows, and pictures – in all kinds of formats. We’ll cover various options in upcoming posts, but until recently AppleTV was my go-to media center device. And I’m not talking about the latest 3rd-generation Apple TV – I’ve been sticking with my first-generation Apple TV for years (although the 2nd Generation would also suffice). So why is it that if you search for Apple TV on Amazon, the cost of OLDER generation hardware is 2-3 times more expensive?

Simple: Jailbreaking. Apple TV is a nifty little device, but you are really confined to Apple’s own walled garden. To get the most of out the Apple TV hardware, you need to hack it to enable all kinds of new functionality. The problem is, the third generation AppleTV is so secure, no hack has yet been discovered for it in the roughly year and a half it’s been around. Impressive, considering that if you compare that to every other Apple product, you’ll see that no iDevice has held out for longer than five months, and many are cracked within the first week. So it turns out that while the hardware is better with the latest generation, Apple can sell it for $99 because they make up the money charging you big bucks for movies, music, and TV shows. Older generations cost more because they’re being re-sold by those who realize how much more powerful they are once they’re “opened up”. It’s basically the same reason used iPhones can often be sold for more than you paid for them new – because the original cost included a carrier subsidy.

So, to get the most out of the first- or second-generation Apple TV, the first thing you’ll want to do is jailbreak it, which will allow you to install additional media player center software. Personally, I am strongly partial to XBMC, which is really slick home theater software, but there are other options. While virtually all of these jailbreaking and media center tools are free and have been around for years, Firecore bundles everything (including the jailbreak) up in a nice little package called ATVFlash for the first and second generation Apple TVs for about $30. Also, if you do end up with a first-generation Apple TV, the original hardware can’t play 1080p, but you can replace the wifi module with a new Crystal HD video decoder. It’s not a difficult process, and it’s described on the XBMC wiki, with a step-by-step guide here.

We’ll be covering more media/home entertainment options in upcoming posts, so if you don’t have an AppleTV lying around from the Apple Glory Days, I wouldn’t recommend rushing out and buying a “new to you” one for a couple hundred bucks – there are lots of other options for a sweet XBMC media center experience out there for much cheaper these days!
Read more ›

Posted by Matt Chiste

September 1

Tagged with: appletv, BCM970015, hack, home entertainment, jailbreak, MC572LL/A, media, xbmc
Posted in Media

Control your Morning Industry RF door locks from anywhere with MorningLinc

We’ve already set up a MorningLinc RF-based lock that can be opened from 10 feet away with a simple key fob, but what if we want to be able to lock or unlock the door from anywhere in the world, or otherwise integrate the lock with the rest of our Insteon system? That’s where the Insteon MorningLinc comes in. It has the same size and shape as the ApplianceLinc and is added to your network just like any other device.

Think of the MorningLinc as just another RF controller like the key fob that’s already on your keychain – but this controller is added as a device to your ISY-994i and can therefore be controlled through an ISY-994i program or the MobiLinc software.

Read more ›

Posted by Matt Chiste

August 29

Tagged with: 2458A1, control device, lock, morninglinc, RF deadbolt, RF-01AQ, security
Posted in Insteon, Security

Insteon FanLinc works without a dedicated switch

Many rooms have an overhead receptacle for either a light, a fan, or both. Some of those rooms have the wiring for two separate switches at the entrance – one to control the fan and one to control the light. A few rooms don’t have wiring for either light or fan in the room. In those cases, the switch on the wall typically powers the wall outlets in the room rather than the light or fan, and the light and fan are controlled by pull-strings on the fan itself.

Regardless of your configuration – whether you have two, one, or even zero switches that control that receptacle, the Insteon Dual-Band FanLinc will allow you to manage your ceiling fan and lights. The device basically has one input (for the incoming power) and two “dimmable” outputs – one for the lights and one for the fan speed. It is relatively small and fits inside the housing of the fan unit:
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My setup was a little unconventional because I fell into the category of “no wall switches”; the existing switch on the wall controlled the outlets rather than the overhead receptacle, but I wanted to control the overhead light with that wall switch. Interestingly, this means that when I turn the Keypadlinc switch on and off, what physically happens is power is turned on and off for the outlets in the room. But, I’ve also added that button on the switch to a scene called “Office Main”, and the FanLinc is a responder to that scene. So while there is no physical connection between the switch and the FanLinc, the light turns on just like it would have if there was a physical connection.

Read more ›

Posted by Matt Chiste

August 26

Tagged with: 2322-382, 2475F, 2487S, control device, Fanlinc, insteon, RemoteLinc
Posted in Insteon

Portable Insteon Scene Control with RemoteLinc 2

MobiLinc on the iPhone or Android is great for quick access to your Insteon smart home – you can quickly do anything you need right there on your phone. But, what if it’s not quick enough? It is still a couple of steps to turn on your phone, start the app, navigate to the appropriate page, and make your change. The RemoteLinc 2 Insteon Wireless Keypad addresses these issues by giving you a (much) smaller set of functionality, but in a tiny package that can be mounted or placed anywhere.

I keep two around – one on the office desk, and one on the bedroom night stand. In both locations I don’t even have a physical switch to operate the ceiling fans, so four buttons on each are dedicated to fan speed (off, low, medium, high). The other four buttons on each control lights specific to that room, so for example I can turn on or off the bedroom lights from bed without getting up to hit the switch. Using some ISY-994i programming, you could do all kinds of other things with this – use one button to increase the thermostat and one to decrease it, one button for a “house shut-down scene” that allows you to make sure all lights in the house are off before going to bed, or have a button dedicated to simply closing the garage door(s) but not opening them which would be similar to the house shut-down scene.

While there isn’t any feedback in the form of lit buttons like the KeypadLinc, it’s still a handy little device to have around – especially if you can see a lit KeypadLinc from across the room. That way, for example, if you see an indicator there that a garage door is open, you can use the RemoteLinc to close it without having to get out of bed – but you can still see the confirmation on the KeypadLinc when it has finished closing.
Read more ›

Posted by Matt Chiste

August 23

Tagged with: 2342-232, 2444A2WH4, control device, insteon, portable, RemoteLinc
Posted in Insteon

Blue Iris: A must-have for Foscam camera owners

Foscam cameras (they go my many brand names) are great; you can get live feeds through the built-in web-interface or through an app like MobiLinc. But neither of those interfaces allow you to use these cameras to the best of their ability: as security cameras. Out of the box, they’re great for seeing who’s at your front door or checking in on the nursery or kid’s room, but without recording capabilities – specifically, off-site recording capabilities – they don’t really live up to their potential.

In reality, you won’t always be watching your front door on your phone everywhere you go, and you’ll want to record the comings and goings of friend or foe – and sometimes the line is hard to tell the difference:

The fact that this video was recorded hopefully helped in prosecution, but if he was actually a burglar you wouldn’t want him to just break into the house and steal the computer the video was recorded on. That’s why off-site recording is helpful; even if the bad guys break in and loot your entire home, there will be evidence after the fact that you can provide police.

Furthermore, you don’t want to waste file size by recording your front lawn all day, and at the same time you don’t want to waste space recording the traffic from the street that shows up in the corner of the frame.

This is the need that Blue Iris Professional Surveillance Software meets, and meets it exceptionally well. Among MANY other things, it can:

track multiple cameras,
record video locally as well as remotely (via FTP)
record only when there is movement in the frame or at certain times of day,
allow you to control the cameras via a web interface and take snapshots at any time, and
provides the ability to define “dead spots” in the frame to prevent recording if motion (like traffic) regularly occurs in a small piece of the frame.

The user interface is a tiny bit clunky, but’s cheap at about $50, and has received at least one glowing review from netcamshop.com.
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The feature list is way to big to list here, but it really is a professional package with features you wouldn’t expect, like allowing you to archive only X number of days of footage. That way, space and bandwidth are conserved, security is maintained, and footage isn’t maintained forever so you don’t have to worry about that time you took 10 minutes to stumble up from a cab in the driveway to the front door for reasons we won’t go into here. Really, don’t ask.

Posted by Matt Chiste

August 20

Tagged with: blue iris, camera, foscam, security
Posted in Security