DIY Whole Home Automation Options - HELP!

[tiwaricd]

OK so I really like the Savant systems.. I have worked with Elan, Control4 as well and I just like the Savant platform. I was totally ok with the purchase price and was ready to move forward when the guys at Magnolia told me that I would need to get them to do the install/set it up and for every change or customization i wanted to make i would have to pay them or a dealer to do. This was a deal breaker due to the fact that I am progressively building out/evolving my automation ecosystem and just love tinkering with my own stuff.

I am now doing a ton of research on what other high quality competitors are out there that allow for the DIY options that I want yet still come with the same level of sleekness in the interface, and hardware. I want to control Lights, TV, whole home audio (hardwired), two local theaters, distributed video signal, etc etc. I have cat6a in the wall with POE for controller screens that I would have throughout the house lots of cat6a, coax, speaker wire and fiber optic cable.

So far I have found the following are the only options that seem close... and allow me DIY option .. they still don't seem to be at the same level.. so wanted to see if anyone here had thoughts on these or any other options that I hadn't seen yet.

- HTD Lync
- Niles MRC-6430

 

[CurtisE]

Have you been able too find anything out on this topic? I'm looking to do the same thing. I want the whole home automation but would rather do all the work myself and not go through a dealer.

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[panteragstk]

Open HAB and Home Assistant are both very robust automation systems. You could try Homeseer, but the cost to play is quite high and is mostly DIY. CQC is another DIY, but it's quite old and complex.

I use Home Assistant and have for years.

The systems sold by custom installers are VERY ancient even if they support newer devices. They've been around forever and so has their logic. They aren't friendly to DIY at all and each new integration costs money. No thanks. Control4 is the only that will sort of let you do DIY since you can access their portal much easier than the rest. My brother worked for Magnolia installing all of them so I know a bit of what it takes, but anything that requires an installer to do an update or add a device is a no go for me.

 

[highfigh]

I'm looking to do the same thing. I want the whole home automation but would rather do all the work myself and not go through a dealer.

Not gonna happen. Most people have a hard time operating this kind of equipment and the manufacturers don't want to deal with 10,000 people calling tech support about programming problems. This is the same reason universal remotes require dealer-performed programming.

While many people can do this stuff, most of it requires some training and that's not offered to end users because there's no way they'll do one on one training- it just doesn't make sense.

 

[panteragstk]

Not gonna happen. Most people have a hard time operating this kind of equipment and the manufacturers don't want to deal with 10,000 people calling tech support about programming problems. This is the same reason universal remotes require dealer-performed programming.

While many people can do this stuff, most of it requires some training and that's not offered to end users because there's no way they'll do one on one training- it just doesn't make sense.

You can do it no problem with DIY solutions, but there is a STEEP learning curve and you had better be pretty tech savvy or you will have a rough go of it. I wouldn't recommend anyone that isn't an IT professional or developer try something like this. It would get frustrating quickly.

You could do it if you are a hobby IT person, but you'd better have a lot of free time.

 

[CurtisE]

Yeah I work in the tech industry so the technical side is not the issue. Knowing what quality brands for my new found interest in full home automation and distributed audio/video is.

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[panteragstk]

Yeah I work in the tech industry so the technical side is not the issue. Knowing what quality brands for my new found interest in full home automation and distributed audio/video is.

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

What are you trying to accomplish? That's going to be #1. Usually, projects like this start small and grow from there.

Mine started with the want to control the lights in my theater. Then it expanded a lot from there. My HA system runs my house alarm with monitoring included, and a lot more than that.

I wouldn't use anything else besides Home Assistant. The community is huge and support is ever expanding so you'll be hard pressed to find something that isn't supported. They have a lot of options for running things, but I opted for a VM since I have the server capacity. You can run on an Odroid or Raspberry Pi too, or a docker.

https://www.home-assistant.io/