I have been using Homegenie for a couple of years. I have a remote location that I want to keep an eye on and also to control certain electronic devices remotely. The location only has internet access via satellite so I must use LogMeIn as a remote control program under Windows 10. No static IP address at this joint.
To make matters worse power is not always on so I needed something that would turn back on after a power outage. There is sometimes a 20 second delay from clicking the mouse on my end to finally seeing something happen on the remote computer.
For a computer I picked up a refurbished HP Mini Model 200-010. It is a 64bit computer with a very small footprint. It has USB 3 ports and a HDMI port for the display. It also has firmware that will allow a complete automatic restart after a power outage. I installed extra memory and a SSD HD. The only drawback is that it has a small internal cooling fan so dust may be an issue for me in the future.
All of the devices controlled via HG are Zwave using an AEON Zwave USB stick.
I configured HG with 5 main groups—
Dashboard
Lights and Switches
Security
Cameras (No photo included.)
Garage Door
The Camera group will not show any P2P cameras I have so only the older Apexis jpeg cams function for me.
The Garage door page is a redundancy page. It is a 250 mile round trip to the location from my house. I made the mistake of leaving the garage door open one weekend. I only noticed it when viewing one of the cameras when I returned home. A solution had to be found.
As you can see the Garage Door page only has two widgets. One to power up the AEON switch and the MIMOlite itself. As the FortrezZ MIMOlite is capable of both opening and closing the garage door I wanted a fail safe in case a computer glitch or my fingers accidentally triggered it. The setup is just an AEON Zwave switch that will supply power to the MIMOlite ZWAVE dry contact device sitting on top of the Craftsman garage door opener and connected in parallel with the wall push button.
When I need to close the door I first power up the AEON switch and then trigger the MIMOlite dry contact switch.
As power is sometimes intermittent I want to know the system is up and running. I make GREAT use of a program written by a HG user “jshan” that allows me to send informational emails to myself initiated by a time table or event.
Each door or window needed several programs written (or copied) so that their individual state could be included in the appropriate email. If I knew any coding at all I am certain there is a better way to do this.
Every 3 hours I get an email letting me know that at least at that moment HG and the computer are online. I also have emails sent to me when the alarm is activated and certain doors, gates and windows are opened.
I also needed to turn off and on a 30 amp hot water tank. Here again I used an AEON switch powering the coil of a 40 amp double pole relay (contactor).
At night I have a trigger program that turns on several of the interior lights for 30 seconds so that I have light when viewing with the remote cameras.
In short I am VERY pleased with HomeGenie. I also want to say thank you to the many HG users who took the time to answer my questions and lend support. jshan, mchias13 and Gene in particular.
