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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have an Omni Pro and have been considering an
upgrade to the automation controller. I've been missing some of the stuff
available with Compose lighting and an infrastructure for voice announcement
support. From a brief review of what is out there, there seems to be
several different directions I could head.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1) The most natural upgrade would be to
replace the Omni Pro with an Omni Pro II.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2) The second direction would be to replace
the Omni Pro with an Elk M1G. It seems like the M1G has come a long way
fairly quickly (assuming it works without a rash of bugs). I've done some
playing around with the Elk RP Demo software and very much like the organization
of the software and the programming capabilites. Some stuff is easier to
do in each system, but overall the organization, readability and capabilities
available with Elk automation rules seems more advanced at first blush.
For example, I like the ability to read thermostat modes, setpoints and current
temperatures and base rules on those factors. With this information, it
would be pretty easy to write some rules that did adaptive recovery from
temperature setback. The M1G doesn't seem to have the breadth of support
with regard to 3rd party integration products, nor some of the window dressing
software like weblink II or controls for Windows media center. Has anyone
out there done a detailed analysis of how the M1G compares with the Omni Pro
II?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3) The third approach is to keep my Omni Pro
as a security and sensor I/O controller, and move all higher level programming
to a PC based package like Homeseer. Homeseer also seems to have some sort
of embedded PC like system which doesn't use a hard disk. I'd guess this
system is based off some version of Windows CE and uses flash based
storage.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Any wisdom on the virtues and problems of these
approaches would be appreciated.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>