Jeff said:
I agree, but please ask yourself WHY it's such an under served market.
Why? Because the stuff is overpriced and companies attempt vendor-lock.
Some will not even sell to the public but you must pay an installer.
That's not going top fly for the masses. This is the reason, and
Heathkit (or any other company) could change that.
I service a customer that has early version of one of these:
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http://www.elanhomesystems.com>
It can do almost anything except pay the bills. This one is mostly
used for home security and running the entertainment system. My
guess(tm) is about $25,000 installed.
^^^^^^^^^
There you have the reason.
I don't actually service the Elan hardware. That's locked up tight by
the vendor by not releasing any technical information, not selling
component parts, and working only through authorized dealers. ...
And there you have the reason for the reason
... I have
no problem with that, ...
I do have a problem with that. I will not buy such a system, and won't
recommend it.
... except that it does get expensive. I work on
the plug in peripherals while the authorized dealer does the
programming (usually over the internet).
In the very distant past, I also thought the world needed a home
automation system. However, I wasn't so ambitious. I just wanted to
automate the kitchen appliances by making them talk to each other. Bar
code tags on everything, optical reader in the refrigerator door,
touch screen CRT in every corner, and a computer to orchestrate it
all. I also spent considerable time on a science fiction business
plan.
That's almost as if the Wright brothers had tried to build a space
shuttle right off the bat
When I presented the idea to the investment group, complete with a
somewhat working demonstration, they were skeptical but impressed. As
always, the members of the group did an impromptu marketing research
survey, which meant they asked their wives. The most common result
was an instant refusal to even listen to my proposal. All the wives
indicated that the kitchen was their territory and no electronic
gadgetry was going to cook, manage, control, organize, or otherwise do
anything in their kitchen. By the same logic, managing the home is
also the women's territory, where I would expect similar results to
any attempts at automation.
Because it was over-engineered. I had that same talk with my wife and
when looking at the X-10 options she was very enthusiastic. After I was
done she could hit a button next to the bed, turn around one more time,
and only get up after fresh coffee small wafted in. The espresso maker
could be started from the yard, without having to leave the table of
friends and walking upstairs. She likes ping-pong games, but that needs
light in the evenings. The switch is upstairs and suddenly that was no
longer a problem. The whole house could be lit with Christmas lights
with one press of a button on a remote. And so on. She loved it.
However, we quickly found out that the quality of most X-10 modules was
miserable and that the transmission protocol is very poor.
An important clue is in the introduction of microwave cooking and it's
effect on packaged foods. Microwave frozen dinners, which are
prepared by putting the contents into the microwave and just pushing a
button, have problems selling in some markets. Meanwhile, the same
packaged dinner, with some key ingredient missing (typically butter),
or which require stirring in the middle of cooking, sell much better.
That's because the woman of the house does not consider it cooking
unless she does something with the contents.
But ... that misses an important market: The students and the bachelors.
Those use microwaves for just about anything. For many of them nutrition
and eating is a necessary evil unless it's with the guys at the pub. On
of my grandpa's once summed it up: "Why don't we have a lid in out
bellies which we can open, throw some food in, close it, and be done
with it?".
Same in companies. Other than the coffee makre the most frequently used
piece of equipment in the lunch room is ... the microwave.
This effect also extends to the design of the oven itself. I once did
some work for a microwave oven manufactory on RF leakage issues. At
the time, I saw what would today be considered some fairly advanced
designs. One design was self calibrating so as the magnetron slowly
decreased in power over the life of the oven, the cooking time would
automatically be extended. In addition, a system where each package
was bar coded, and read inside the microwave oven, was devised. The
oven could then query a database, or use the data on the bar code, to
set the power level and cooking time. The problem is that none of
these ever made it out of the lab because of buyer resistance. Nobody
wanted a robot oven.
When trying to automate the entire house, you'll run into things like
the aforementioned territorial problem. Some areas are easy, such as
security, outside lighting, environmental control, computah
networking, and entertainment systems, which are generally considered
to be the mans territory. However, do anything within the confines of
the kitchen, laundry room, guest areas, or bedrooms, and you'll need
to find a way around this problem. As a clue, the previously
mentioned Elan system is operational throughout the house, except in
the kitchen. There's even an LCD panel in the bathrooms and garage,
but not the kitchen.
My wife would want one in the kitchen. For example, she'd like to be
able to control the sprinkler zones from there. Mounting the fairly ugly
utilitarian Toro box in the kitchen would, of course, not be an option.
Did Toro offer a remote with enough functions? Nope. She'd also like to
be able to program TV stuff from there. But no reasonably priced systems
exist. This is where a new company or a revived one like Heathkit can
come in.
Speaking only for myself, I see enough electronics and computahs in my
office and at customers. When I go home, the very last thing I want
do deal with is more electronics. ...
Same here. Turning a hobby into a career often snuffs out the hobby.
... There was a time in my life, when I
had no computer, no automation, no microwave oven, and no TV in the
house. I was looking for a life without the maintenance aspects and
complexities of computers. I may go back to that if I ever retire (or
burnout). Meanwhile, home automation and running my life by computer
is NOT on my wish list.
It sure is on my list (ours). Because every time the remaining X-10
stuff goes on the fritz I have to dive into electronics on a weekend
and, for the reasons you mentioned above, I really don't like that.