Recommended Home Automation System with Roomie

Archives Configuration and Setup
1

Hi guys -

Huge Roomie fan and have all my home theater components hooked up all over my house and controlling everything with Roomie and working great! Have several Roomie Blasters and running Plex on my Mac Mini and distributing sources through HDMI matrix and all works great!!

My next step is to now go beyond Home Theater to more home automation integration with roomie such as lights, shades, thermostats, etc. Home automation is blowing up with all kinds of hubs out there. I saw the list of supported products for Roomie, but wanted to see what everyone thought was the best hub and devices for use for home automation control using Roomie. I don’t mind having a few different hubs if say the Lutron Caseta Smart Bridge is best for shades and lights but say Insteon best for everything else. I’m somewhat tech savy, but not with home automation so really looking for easy set-up and auto-discoverable stuff with Roomie. I do have a dedicated Mac Mini running plex so could use that Mac Mini for home automation too. I don’t know anything about Insteon or Indigo but saw some posts on here about that setup.

Bottom-line what should I buy to start controlling everything else with Roomie?

Thanks!

2

I’m using an Elk M1 and an ISY994i to handle all the lights and other HA stuff. Roomie works great with the ISY and since I’m using Insteon it’s a no brainer. There is only one thing that annoys me about Roomie. Roomie feedback is pretty much based on brightness when using the ISY to control Insteon. I need feedback for Elk outputs, switches and relays connected to either the ISY or M1. This only needs to be a simple on or off feedback but Roomie doesn’t allow that unless of course you are willing to roll your own.

Roomie has the potential to be the killer HA app if they develop additional feedback for ISY or any HA panel. Since I can control the Elk via the ISY I have plenty of control but really no feedback to know if an output is on or a switch is flipped.

I’m willing to wait until they add these features since Roomie is such an incredible product. The possibilities are endless in the HA area. Roomie already is the best in Home Theater control but some of us are never satisfied. I’ve replaced my rather expensive HA software and Windows touch screens with Roomie and iPads or iPhones and I’m not going back.