(#8) Introducing Homeminder! 

HomeMinder is a programmable electronic system that controls lights, appliances, heating, and cooling in your home through existing house wiring. Visuals on a TV set are used for system set up and operation. It is also possible to control devices by using a smart telephone.

HomeMinder is available in two versions--a free-standing unit that connects to any TV set (or monitor) and a unit built into a TV set. 

The main controller comes packaged with a remote transmitter, one lamp module, one appliance module, and appropriate cables. Also available are extra modules, a light switch module, thermostat controller, and remote control unit.

Is It Worth It?

HomeMinder retails for about $500 with an assortment of seven or eight modules. 

Wow!

Sounds pretty cool.  Not the $500 part. But it sounds like a slick Home Automation System.

I guess it is pretty cool. Or was. In 1984.

Homeminder was "GE Homeminder", a product of a joint venture between Pico/X10 and GE in 1984.

So, it died. 

It went nowhere.

Failure.

(You can read more about Pico/X10 and their products in this article from October 1999).

What's up with all of these failures?

Why have all of these products either shown modest acceptance or made large impact craters?

X10, Insteon, Z-Wave, UPB, Zigbee.

I guess these are as much protocol as product; it's not fair to call a protocol a failure. And there's little value in naming product names.  Folks would simply argue about whether they'd had wide spread acceptance or not.

Big Orange Retail Giants

Or Blue ones - Lowes in this case -- took a run at it last Christmas (2013) with Iris. Read more about Iris here. 

Was Iris a commercial success? Only Lowes knows. (Hey -- I like that rhyme!)  

But raise your mouse if you know someone who bought one!  

Last time I looked in Lowes, the display had moved from Front and Center to back by the extension cords.  And there was still plenty of product.

I won't ding Iris. 

I have no idea what it can and cannot do.

I'll tell you what I didn't like about it.

• It was expensive - and subscription based. $10/month.
• It was closed and proprietary.
• A motion sensor was $25.
• A light switch $35.
• Their thermostat is $100.  I just bought a Nest.

Starter kits were $180 to $240.

I paid $25 for my Eaton Home Heartbeat starter kit.

What if?

What if I buy one and it sucks?  I'm out, what $200? $300?  More?

Will it work with my Nest?  I doubt it.

What if Iris decides to bail on the whole thing, like Eaton did?  What happens to my investment? Does it still work?  When iOS 12 comes out, will their app written for iOS 6 still work?

What if I don't like the way it does something? Can I change it?  Probably not.

Is it open? Hackable? Tinker-able?  Probably not.

These are questions that never, ever cross the mind of someone named Felix in Marketing.

Sorry - he''s just not wired to think these thoughts.

Those neurons don't exist in Felix's brain.

But here's the schnitz Felix - your Home Automation System -- the only ones interested are us engineers.

And all of those "What If's" that you didn't think, we've thunk.

And we walk on by.

Apple

The wild card.  If anyone can pull off a Home Automation System that's closed, proprietary, expensive and limited - it's Apple.  I bet they sell a gazillion of 'em.

Damn Fanbois.

Look at Phillips Hue!  $200 for three colored light bulbs and an iPhone app. I mean, they didn't even toss in a mirrored disco ball! Criminy!

Damn Fanbois.

I guess Life is Just Complex!