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Author Topic: A few notes how I've been using Engen  (Read 1857 times)

drmimosa

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A few notes how I've been using Engen
« on: July 11, 2016, 03:38:57 pm »

I'm enjoying Engen a lot. Here are a few thoughts and notes on my usage at home in the past few weeks.

I'm on build 1.16.

New website interface is great. Color control works great on the LED bulb. Website color control doesn't work with an LED strip yet, I'll make a separate post for that one.

Engen command line has been working great for me. I have setup one LED bulb, the color LED controller, two outlets (with lamps attached), and an outlet audio zone (rasppi + amp). I use the command line for a bunch of custom playlist/control scripts that I have on my music server desktop.

Windows scheduler works great for turning lights on and off for a few hours in the evening. Set them up over July 4th while out of town so it looks like someone is home, A dinner guest got really confused on Friday when the living room lamp switched off, so this works a little too well.

One nice thing about the outlets is they still have a switch, you don't need a controller to turn them on. Handy for kitchen or when a OneRemote isn't practical.

Honestly I'm not using OneRemote too much yet for control, esp with the new web browser. I'm really pleased that you all are developing a web interface (pretty face etc). I have a lot of Apps on my phone, sometimes it makes getting to oneremote a several step process to turn on the lights. I think I've got "app fatigue," i.e. there is an app for everything now, etc.

It would be great to have a customizable physical button in my system at some point, for example right by the front door to turn multiple lights on and off. I've looked at the Z-wave options and that seems complicated to add. There is one switch and controller you can hard wire in place of a light switch but that involves 120v wiring skills that I don't have (yet).

That's all for now. Thanks for developing this project.

Messing around with this hardware/server is more fun than taking a trip to Radio Shack back in the day.
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JimH

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Re: A few notes how I've been using Engen
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2016, 06:25:02 pm »

Thanks for the great feedback.  I sent you an e-mail.

We have a couple of wall mounted button sets that we plan to support.  More on that soon.
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horse

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Re: A few notes how I've been using Engen
« Reply #2 on: July 12, 2016, 11:46:00 pm »

The Fibaro RGBW controller allows you to map the 4 inputs to become digital switches. You need to set the channel control bytes to enable.

I've been using the Fibaro Door sensor as that has a Temperature input and a switch input in parallel with the reed / magnet sensor. Was thinking to use it as a ZWave door bell or remote switch.
You can wire it to a Levitron 24v normal wall switch ( normal for US anyway)

At some point need to look into a scene or other switch to enable house "modes" to be enabled and disabled without a tablet. Will be interested to see future support.
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