Smart Home Blog

Good news for the Nokia and home automation fans. The famous mobile devices producer has announced its Home Control Center which is gonna be released next year. Basically it will be a home gateway with built-in DSL-modem, wired router and WiFi access point. There will be possibility to attach Z-Wave controller and manage all Z-Wave devices via Nokia’s mobile phones, Internet Tables or using web interface. Additionally the home gateway will be equiped with GSM/GPRS module. The Nokia’s Home Control Center will cover security and surveillance, lighting and climate control.

It’s good that Nokia chose Z-Wave. It’s grows very fast and now there is a lot of devices with reasonable price for European frequency. Moreover Z-Wave devices have a good interoperability. So, it’s possible to use dimmers, switches, sensors, PC adaptors from different producers. In any case, we will see the advantages, shortcoming and cost of the Nokia Home Control Center whet it will be released next year in Europe.

[via Engadget]

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If you’re interested to have 8 inputs and 8 outputs to your home automation system that are network addressable from your LAN then Aviosys IP Power 9212 is what you need. It’s supposed to be used together with devices like PIRs, door reed switches, toggles switches and Key fob receivers. The box’s equiped with RS232 port to communicate with PC and GPRS interface with Motorola V878/C550 and Sony Eriksson T630/K700i. Software features include SMTP Alerts, embedded web server, Dynamic DNS and wakeup by LAN support.

The Aviosys IP Power 9212 is available for £89.99.

[via AutomatedHome]

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HomeSeer is going to ship its new home controller - HomeTroller Series 2. The diskless and fanless unit is designed for low energy consumption. It provides an interface to the Lutron®, Leviton®, Z-Wave®, UPB®, Insteon® subsystems and can be controlled from in-wall button controllers, touchscreens, wireless remotes, microphones, PDAs, PocketPCs, telephones (voice and touch-tone control) and personal computers. Built-in web server offers easy way for unit configuration and access to the system from anywhere.

The HomeTroller Series 2 runs Embedded Windows XP w/HSProtect™ and HomeSeer HS2+ w/HSSentry™ software. The price is $895.00.

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Mavromatic - well-known home automation geek, shared his opinion about Windows CE based touchscreen controller CUWIN 3500. It seems really cool! For about $600 we get 7″ touchscreen panel with resolution 800 x 480, SD slot, Ethernet port, RS232 x 2 / RS485 x 1 or RS232 x 3, USB, Visual Basic, EVC supports.

Theoretically, it can be use as LinuxMCE Orbiter. Because it provides a software for Windows CE. If yes, it can be the best combination of the price and functionality for wall-mounted control panels.

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About 1.5 years passed since the first version of Pulse controller was announced. Now it’s time to present a whole home automation system from Pulse Technologies. It’ll include a new Pulse controller equiped by Z-Wave / KNX/EIB adaptors, 2 ethernet ports and RS232 and run Windows CE, and three types of touchscreen control panels - two in-wall and one - portable. Additionally, the system offers native clients for the iPhone/iPod Touch and Windows Mobile devices (if I understand clearly - web based).

The Pulse Technologies will allow to control not only lighting or temperature. It also supports popular multi-room media systems, DLNA Certified and UPnP network entertainment products and client software for Vista Media Center.

The new Smart Home System from Pulse Technologies will be launched officially at the up-coming Light & Building 2008 exhibition in Frankfurt (April 6th to 11th, 2008).

[via AutomatedHome]

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