Quasi Nested Ifs

It seems basic nested IFs are something that still alludes most home automation without programming. Funny considering the Time Commander Plus did it way back in the X10 days about 2 decades ago. Though granted some might call that interface programming. Anyway one of the reasons I wanted to start this blog was to post about how Homeseer almost does it via WYSIWYG and that requires some space and preferabley at least one picture. While Homeseer still can not do something as simple as
IF alarm armed and IF door opens OR motion detected then trigger alarm
They can fake it with
IF alarm armed and IF door opens OR IF alarm armed and IF motion detected then trigger alarm
Which looks something like this

The closest you can come on most is to use a "mode" like "Away". On a Vera hub for example you would create a "Scene" that IF door opens OR IF motion detected then trigger alarm and tell it to only run in the "Away" or "Night" modes. No big deal you might say but if you are dealing with something that does not match one of the state modes (Away, Home, Night and Vacation) like for example soil moisture and rain forecasts when controlling a watering system it can get complex real quick on the systems I've tried if you are not a programmer.

Yet another project blog

Probably a bit late to start this one as I'm already on my 10th plus home automation hub so this will mainly be Homeseer related stuff but since that connects to damn near everything that does not leave much behind. Plus I need a place to store tricks and tips so I can find them again later when I need them without searching Google for hints to the final solution. For a view of what I have tried over the years look at my Home Controller Compare sheet.

I'll back fill with some of my relevant Facebook postings as I have time / find them.

FB October 18, 2016

just posted this response elsewhere and thought I should post it here so it is easy to find when asked again later.

A LOT of depends on what hub is right for you. So far I've BOUGHT and installed, in order, SmartThings, Vera Control, Ltd., Iris by Lowe's, Hue, 3 more Veras, Amazon Echo and HomeSeer Home Automation to replace my X10 based system first installed in the 1990s. Vera can be easier to do simple stuff like turn on a fan when it is warm cause everything is an app in SmartThings. If there is one already that does what you want, great, if not you need to write one. Vera mainly uses a wizard of if this or that happens do this. You only write code for "complex" stuff like this AND this happens do this. Both Vera and SmartThings seem to be having a lot of stability issues lately. So much so I looked into Homeseer. Homeseer can do if this and/or that happens do this which is a bit simpler than Vera but the interface is aimed at installers not end users. They assume you will create an end user interface if needed with an optional designer tool. I'm a long time developer so the basic Homeseer interface is fine for me. It is way more expensive than than SmartThings or Vera though. That said, I now have moved all my day to day stuff onto Homeseer, shutdown my all my Veras and am just using SmartThings as a backup channel to my Hue lights. Homeseer also allows you to have and control multiple z-wave networks from one hub over Ethernet. For instance I can control my house and shop from in one screen now and do things like turn off or on all the lights in both places with one command. No matter what you go with I'd suggest you try and stay with devices that work with most hubs. One of the things I really like about Hue lighting is they will connect to multiple hubs at the same time. I would avoid anything that wants a monthly fee like Lowes Iris. (Iris has a bunch of other issues too. AVOID.) Read reviews! I would try and minimize having to go to the net for stuff too. For example another selling point for Homeseer to me is local login and actions. Other than IFTTT interactions of course. (Note Vera has no IFTTT or Echo support. Homeseer and SmartThings do.) SmartThings is mostly in the cloud and even Vera wants you to log on via their web site. You also might want to think about install base. Google some of the things you want to control and see how others have done it on the hubs you are thinking about. In the end you will probably end up having to write at least some code once you get into things deep enough so you should look at those interfaces and see which make sense to you. Oh one last thing, think about how the hub / interface will handle a hundred or more devices even if you only plan to do a few things. Most of the interfaces seem to be made for a dozen or two devices at most without getting slow and/or clumsy to use beyond that. You will be amazed how many things you end up adding after you get started. My current Homeseer is monitoring and / or controlling 678 things including monitoring 17 UPSs. And I'm not close to done yet! (Note a single device like an Aeon 4in1 sensor counts as 4 to 5 things depending on the interface.)

HomeSeer Home Automation Nice write up and comparison chart! A couple comments... our systems are compatible with the Mimo product from FortrezZ and there are 2 plug-ins available for Insteon and X10 too. I would recommend replacing the "Z-Stick S2" with a SmartStick+ or Z-Wave.me UZB for performance comparable to the Z-NET. Anyway, well done! 

 Round Mountain Rescue Ranch Yeah I did hook up the FortrezZ to my Homeseer but the reaction time seems so poor no matter what hub it is on I've abandoned it for a Raspberry Pi / PiFace solution I'm trying to work the bugs out of. Fortunately that is an option with Homeseer!