Windows Sensors Connect to BI? (or must get Hub first?)

patrocle

patrocle

Pulling my weight
Jun 5, 2015
536
128
California
So i have 5 windows that i want to add some sensors when they are open to get a notification to my phone and a alarm to go off in the house like a speaker. I want to connect those to BI or if not to a different app in my iphone.

There are a lot of hubs for home automation, but not sure how to do this, mean that will be best , maybe later to add other things like lights,switches,etc, but for now i want the window sensors! i know that z-wave have some of those and not sure if they can be use with apple homekit app.

Any advice?
Thanks,
 
Hard wired or RF sensors?

I have wired sensors tied to my Milestone using a Barionet Barix 100. It supports lots of hardware inputs.

You can also use any hardware inputs on your cameras, if they have them.

Once you start talking about RF sensors, you might need to get creative, which for me usually means a complex mess that will be a time suck to get working and/or have long term reliability issues.
 
I have a variety of Insteon devices and sensors installed. The home automation software I use is HomeSeer3. It is running on my Win10 BI server. The Insteon devices connect to the HS3 server via an Insteon PLM. I have both window/door sensors and motion sensors which are all wireless. Once you get over the learning curve on HS3, it is very easy to create events triggered from the Insteon devices. Also very easy to control them. I have a plugin for HS3 that allows for control of/by BI. I'm happy with the configuration and have lots of unused functionality in both BI and HS3 so I have more I can do in the future.

If a motion sensor or door sensor changes status, HS3 sees it and then sends BI commands to trigger cameras. By the same token, if BI cameras trigger, I can control any of the Insteon devices such as turn on lights, alarms, sending alerts a variety of ways. Very flexible.

I'm pleased with my decision to use BI with HS3 and would recommend it to others that are interested in a long term solution and willing to make an investment in getting the right infrastructure in place to build on. I was able to justify HS3 only after I made a personal commitment to home automation in the long run.

However, if you are just wanting to deal with a few window sensors, this would be an expensive route to take.
 
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logbuilder said:
I have a variety of Insteon devices and sensors installed. The home automation software I use is HomeSeer3. It is running on my Win10 BI server. The Insteon devices connect to the HS3 server via an Insteon PLM. I have both window/door sensors and motion sensors which are all wireless. Once you get over the learning curve on HS3, it is very easy to create events triggered from the Insteon devices. Also very easy to control them. I have a plugin for HS3 that allows for control of/by BI. I'm happy with the configuration and have lots of unused functionality in both BI and HS3 so I have more I can do in the future.

If a motion sensor or door sensor changes status, HS3 sees it and then sends BI commands to trigger cameras. By the same token, if BI cameras trigger, I can control any of the Insteon devices such as turn on lights, alarms, sending alerts a variety of ways. Very flexible.

I'm pleased with my decision to use BI with HS3 and would recommend it to others that are interested in a long term solution and willing to make an investment in getting the right infrastructure in place to build on. I was able to justify HS3 only after I made a personal commitment to home automation in the long run.

However, if you are just wanting to deal with a few window sensors, this would be an expensive route to take.
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I'd be totally interested in a parts list if you wouldn't mind giving one up lol at least of the main stuff.
 
In addition to BI, here are the components you would need to get started with HS3 and Insteon. Other items would be needed for zigbee or z-wave. The prices below are list. You can often find discounts. Right now the HS software is on sale for 20% off.

Home Control Software | HomeSeer Store

HS3 Standard Edition $249.95
Insteon Plug In $59.95
Blue Iris Plug In $39.95
Insteon PLM $79.99 (interfaces your HS3 server to the Insteon network)

Whatever devices you want. I usually use smarthome.com for research and then buy from where I get the best deal. As far as switches, I mentally think of them as $40 to $50 each before discount.
 
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