ControlThink Forums

I'm in the process of having a house built and we are in the framing stages. I'm looking for the right solution for home automation and have seen some pretty interesting products such as Control4 and a variety of Z-Wave systems like those from ControlThink. I'm curious as to how the ThinkBox compares to the devices from Control4 and I'm also interested in the technical specifications of the ThinkBox. I have not been able to find any deatiled information on the web.

Is more detailed informaiton about ThinkBox available? Is there someone I can talk to/email from ControlThink directly? I would appreciate any guidance that anyone on this forum can give.

Thanks
Stacy

Hi Stacy,

We are working hard on the ThinkBox software, and look forward to showing off ThinkBox-based solutions in the near future. Unfortunately, I do not have any more information for you at this time.

In the meantime, we welcome you to see how our ThinkEssentials software product can meet your needs, and we welcome all of our forum members to help you find the perfect solution for an embedded solution as well.

Chris

Hi Chris,

I know you like to tantalize us with glimpses of upcoming stuff, and the ThinkBox has to be the upcoming-est of the upcoming stuff.  So how about another glimpse?

I'm just arriving at the point where I'll be wanting to make logical connections between system inputs and system outputs.  Maybe I'm missing something, but ThinkEssentials doesn't appear to have this functionality.  I know the XPL people and CQC people are driving light switches with motion sensors, but I like ThinkEssentials, and I've only got one USB dongle, and I would prefer to only run one base-station application for the whole system.  And I want to keep my system as close to pure ZWave as possible, avoiding any funky bridges.

So will ThinkBox do the whole system, inputs and outputs, for me?

What will the editor/wizard screen look like for tying inputs to outputs?

Have you seen any open source ZWave SDK projects that are entirely in the ZWave domain that tie inputs to outputs?

Thanks!

Gary,

If you have a Z-Wave motion sensor, you can use the upcoming ThinkEssentials v1.2/v1.3 release to setup various motion sensors to control your devices, at least in simple ways.

The ThinkBox architecture makes it possible to create your own scripts, etc. to power your home--but a lot of that is available with the Z-Wave PC SDK as well.

As far as designers for the ThinkBox goes, that's going to have to remain a state secret :) But various products, such as the Vizia RF Foyer shown off at the Microsoft booth at CES in January, are based off of its codebase--so you may be getting parts of it sooner than others.

Chris

Chris Walker wrote:

Vizia RF Foyer shown off at the Microsoft booth at CES

Thinking of what I missed at CES while arguing with those Control4 and Zigbee clowns really chaps my hide.  I hadn't even heard of ZWave going in to the show.

</whine>

And I was right there in the Microsoft booth too...pre-occupied by the unveiling of the OQO model 02 though.

I'm wondering if there's any progress with ThinkBox? Another Q would be... if you allow some scripting in ThinkBox, why it's unavailable in TE??? It would make it SOOO MUCH more powerful.

325xi,

We're looking at ways to integrate the Z-Wave PC SDK and ThinkEssenitals more closely for powerusers.

I'll give more details on ThinkBox when they're available.  Thanks for your interest!

Chris

Is there any update on when the ThinkBox will be available?  I'm quite interested as I'm building a new weekend house and plan to equip it with Zwave but need a good controller/remote gateway.  This product interests me but can't seem to get a handle on when it'll be available.