Kickstarter

There is no limit.

A puck (an outlet based device) and simple RF remote control that exemplifies our mission of uncomplicated controls and letting the system learn and automatically adapt to your lifestyle.

The load that each Luminode can control will be up to 600 watts (that of a typical dimmer switch). The Luminode runs on a Freescale MC13224 processor and Cypress CY8C27243 PSoC. It uses a 2.4 GHz radio and Freescale's SMAC wireless network protocol. Developers use standard XML for communication messages.

That is a great question! We tried very hard to integrate the Insteon SwitchLinc Dimmer with our learning system before we developed the Luminode. Although it does work with our learning system, the SwitchLinc Dimmer has two design issues that prevent it from providing the same satisfying user experience and benefits that the Luminode does.

1)When a SwitchLinc Dimmer is physically activated at the switch it both reports a message that the switch has been activated and it also changes its own state such as turning the light on that it is connected to. This causes problems when trying to use a SwitchLinc as a dynamic scene selection device since the SwitchLinc takes action that often conflicts with what a controller wants it to do, producing a clumsy and confusing user experience.

2)The Insteon protocol that the SwitchLinc is based on supports individual and group broadcast messages. The group broadcast messages are not well suited for sophisticated dynamic scene creation and selection. And the individual messages involve enough latency that dynamic scene selection by the system adds to the clumsy and confusing user experience stemming from the previous issue.

Not at the present time as certifications vary but we are definitely looking into it.

One year warranty- replacement.

The money collected from the rewards will be used primarily for a manufacturing run of Luminodes, FCC and UL listing is already underway and some funds will go to help defray those costs.

Everything you need to get the basic functionality of the Luminodes is the switches themselves. To get advanced features and to integrate with other systems (including our learning software) a small USB device is required.

Simply install or replace the light switches in your home with the Luminode which will fit in a standard switch box (the Luminodes do require a neutral wire which may not be installed in some older homes, so check that first before retrofitting).

Once installed the Luminodes can be configured by simply triple-clicking each device to put it into linking mode and another click links them - it's that easy. Scenes can be set up by simply adjusting your levels with a press and hold on the switch (as many basic dimmers work) once the scene is created it can be accessed by all the linked Luminodes.

The Luminodes work with most dimmable compact fluorescents, but they are not designed to work with standard fluorescents.

For phones we developed a web based Javascript application. That way it will work on any web enabled phone that supports Javascript.

Yes. The basic version of the learning software will be included for free. Additional network services such as text notifications and web access will eventually have a nominal subscription fee.

No. This would not be up to code and could create a fire hazard. Before retrofitting be sure to check whether you have a neutral connection available. If building or remodeling be sure that a neutral (white) wire is run to all Luminode locations.

The security system we have so far integrated with is the NetworX NX-8. We plan to try to support as many security systems we can. But for now with our limited resources we are focused on Finishing the Luminode and solidifying the learning system.

Yes. The wireless protocols are different, however they can co-exist and be integrated by connecting the Luminode dongle to the same machine that talks to the other switches. We already have developed Insteon drivers to translate their protocol to XML so that their devices work with our leaning software. We intend to do the same for as many other systems and protocols as we can.

We have not yet attempted to integrate with Crestron systems. Some of their systems do have USB ports but I do not know what sort of virtual com port driver support they have nor how programmable their control panels are. It may be possible through their D3 Pro software, but we have yet to look into it in any real depth. When we do integrate with Crestron I anticipate that we will take the approach of feeding their stream of data from their hardware in and out of our back end learning system rather than integrating Luminode support directly into their hardware.

Exactly! It shows up as a virtual serial port. One of our goals is to play as nicely as we can with other technologies even if they don't work quite the way I'd like to see them behave, like with Z-Wave or Insteon. The dongle uses an FT232R FTDI chip has drivers for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. The dongle firmware parses the XML it receives on the usb/serial port and routes commands appropriately.

Yes indeed! Performance varies from bulb to bulb, but the Philips Ambient LED is one that works really well! Getting really low light can be a little tricky. For example sometimes you need to dim down to a low level from a higher level rather than up to a low level from off. All things considered, pretty minor. At some point I may try to work around even that with a firmware update.

Big resounding yes! This is *the* key feature missing from other products that made integration with my learning system awkward, and ultimately led me to do my own.

The beauty of our learning system is that it does what is sometimes referred to as sensor fusion. So the example in the video where the system knows whether you're on the couch involves a simple contact sensor in the couch connected to a NetworX security panel. In addition, the back end system can either learn what you want it to do based on actions that tend to happen close to each other in both time and location, or behaviors can be hard coded like most other systems.

So getting back to the example in the video. The way that works is that the back end system is configured to know that there is a contact sensor in the couch. It knows that the DVR or other video device as well as Luminodes are all in the same room. After observing manual behaviors such as pausing a movie, getting up off the couch, and adjusting the lights from a Luminode switch, the system begins to recognize that these actions can be "clustered".

So then the system will begin actuating multiple actions in the "cluster" when one of those actions happens. In that way the system can know to pause what you're watching and adjust the lights based on getting up from the couch if that is what you normally do. So in that way, all the devices that generate events become a type of sensor. So not only does the couch sensor function as a sensor, but also the Luminodes and the DVR.

Although the Luminodes can communicate with Linux, Windows, and Mac OS machines, our back end learning software will run on a lightweight Linux machine.