Jumping back in

[Chad Gard]

Hi, XTension gang,

OK, so after 15 years or so of absence, I'm going to jump back into the 
XTension world again soon.  Or, at least stick a toe in the water.  Life 
has changed a lot, and is in the process of changing a lot, so I have 
less budget and less time as I did 20 years ago, but perhaps a greater 
need for some of the services my olde XTension system could provide.  
Also, I'm no longer a techie person, and it turns out those skills are 
somewhat perishable. So, I no longer have a stack of LC2's and Quadra 
640's at my disposal, or a ready source of old hardware destined for 
scrap.

Thus, a few questions, probably dumb ones for those still active members 
of the community, but I imagine I should come back up to speed before 
too long...

First, what is the consensus "best bang for the buck" HA controller 
computer, if one were looking at a computer budget of about $500-700 or 
so?  I'm inclined towards a used or refurbished mini, but don't 
currently know where the depreciation vs. performance lines intersect.

Second, what's the status of insteon support?  On the website, it looks 
like the legacy Vera plugin supports it, but the UI7 version does/may 
not?  Browsing around at the different devices available, I'm thinking 
it's not unlikely that I'll want to run several protocols 
simultaneously, but a combo of the two being the backbone of my system.

third, Is anyone aware of a reliable, but inexpensive, irrigation valve 
that plays well with XTension, and comes in 2" pipe size?

fourth, Now that there are lots of protocols widely available, instead 
of the good old days when X10 was about the only affordable option, what 
are people's experience over larger installations?  For context, we have 
35 acres, a house, 4 current outbuildings (plus a walk in cooler that 
the county assessor says is also an outbuilding, because at 9 x 13 it 
has one wall longer than 12'...), 2 separate electrical services, with 5 
sub panels on one of them.  A bit over 1/2 mile from the south property 
line to the north property line, and 1/3 mile of "driveway" (I mean, we 
drive on it, but only with four wheel drive vehicles.  UPS guy only 
venture up, and the propane delivery guy always threatens to never come 
back). I envision more monitoring than control happening -temp and 
humidity in the greenhouse, in various temporary season extension 
structures and the like, temp of water in a DIY solar drainback hot 
water & space heating system, and so forth.  But all spread over a large 
area. Also, no cellular or public wifi coverage, so we just have our 
slow DSL and our own wireless in the house presently.  While the house 
is a log cabin, the outbuildings are mostly steel, greatly resembling 
faraday cages...  In particular, we have had trespassing issues, and 
really want to monitor the end of that driveway...

So, yeah...  Some really basic questions to ease back into things....



-- 
Chad

-What's Cookin' at the Farm?  Recipes, menus, and more at 
http://twie.holeinthewoodsfarm.com