2 OT Questions For Kindreds...

[Jeff Click]

On Dec 5, 2005, at 10:12 PM, Greg Satz wrote:

> This depends on lots of factors as you point out and is probably  
> more dependent on the habits of those who use them then the  
> technology itself. You might want to consider some of the wireless  
> VOIP 802.11 phones though their support issues are probably still  
> being discovered. :-)

Hadn't considered that.  I'll look into it.  And I'm liking the  
ethernet phone idea, too!

>
> The OP2 and Lutron, I think, are two best-in-class for their  
> problem sets.

I agree, from a pie-in-the-sky standpoint.  The problem with Lutron  
besides the price tag is that it's like cracking national security to  
get any technical specs from them.  They sent me a small crate of   
incredible literature, but no technical geek stuff, which is what I  
wanted.  You have to go through one of their certified installers in  
your area.  I've considered picking up the tab to send my electrician  
through it, but I doubt that's as cost effective for just my own  
house as just taking it in the pants and letting one of the certified  
installers in my area handle it if I can't squeeze enough info from  
other sources to do it myself.  However, read below on one of the  
"certified" installers in my area...

> You would probably save some money by using OP2's UPB lighting  
> option and would cut the integration overhead by half. OP2  
> programming isn't fun though. OP2 was hit pretty hard from Katrina  
> so most of their product is back-ordered.

I'm less concerned about the OP2 programming than I am the less-cool  
looking controls of HAI's proprietary switches when compared to  
Lutron.  I have a cousin who has a ridiculous Lutron system in his  
house and it's absolutely glorious from an interface standpoint.

I find the OP2 pretty easy to program.  I've done 3 of'em and have  
done some pretty wicked stuff with them.  (Michael has copies of the  
news article(s) on my current home system to verify this!)  My  
brother's best friend happens to be one of the lead "programmers" of  
the Lutron systems for one of our local high-end tech and Lutron  
supplier here.  It was quite gratifying for me to 1) school him on  
some of the OP2 capabilities he was unaware of, and 2) to find out  
that (he says) he collects in excess $200/hr for programming these  
systems with some of his higher end clients, which I can do myself in  
just a couple of hours of programming to control HVAC, Irrigation,  
Security, Audio, and easily integrate with XTension via X10.  Once  
the hooks are set up on the OP2, XTension can do the rest in its (and  
Michael's) sleep.

Over 5 years since original installation and I've never had to go  
back to reprogram or add to the OP2 to integrate any  
feature...XTension handles it all for me and makes OP2 its bitc...er,  
tells the OP2 what to do. ;)

j

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