Cinemar's Mainlobby 3 Worth a Look

If you'd like a nice PC or touchscreen interface that's configurable, you might look at Mainlobby from Cinemar. With their new release the cost has (unfortunately) gone up, but what doesn't?

On the other hand, they've packed a lot more features into the software than it used to have. It is capable of doing a lot more as a standalone piece of software than it used to be able to do (though still not as powerful as Homeseer, Stargate, or others by themselves).


What I like about it is that it allows you to custom-design your own interface (it comes with a number of pre-made templates) so your automation system can have a really sleek look. In my setup, a Mainlobby-to-Homeseer plugin allows the two systems 2-way communication, so in a very graphic way I can monitor and control my entire home (security, HVAC, music, lights, etc.).


The somewhat odd thing I found when I began using Mainlobby a couple of years ago, though, was that the programming of commands (while not extensively difficult) was unfamiliar to me. Didn't look like Javascript, VBscript, or anything I'd ever seen. It probably IS based on some common language, but I still don't know what. Anyway, it wasn't too hard to find examples of simple commands that I could learn to use for my own purposes. Just a slight learning curve.

Homeseer - Stargate Interface Released!

Homeseer has finally released a compatible plug-in to integrate their software with Stargate. This has been a long time in the making. Ever since HS came out with version 2. of their software and moved to the .NET platform, things were kind of hosed for users who wanted the extreme flexibility, voice-recognition engine/control, and scripting capabilities of Homeseer - but who still desparately wanted the stability and robustness of Stargate's standalone hardware.

All of us in the User Community should congratulate the HS team for their work. They may not have had a great profit motive (since by their polling they couldn't find enough of us to justify the investment). But they were responsive to our cries for help, anyway.

Prior to this plugin (in the old days of HS v.1) a stable plugin was available, and it was in fact free - but it had been developed by another generous user, and itcouldn't handle the transition over to HS 2.

After lots of messing around with beta releases of the plugin, and feedback from users, the new plugin is available through the HS updater utility for $59. Lots of us were kind of hoping it might be less, but I for one don't feel like we have the right to complain.

The new plugin will read the status of Stargate relays, IO, flags, variables, and imported security devices (from Caddx panels). At this point it can also control all of these (with the exception of security?).

Lotsa' thanks to RJ at Homeseer!