| Posted: Tuesday Nov 14th, 2006 09:44 pm |
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Having rarely ever ventured into this screen for fear of changing something completely unknown and recently seeing someone playing with the idea of changing these parameters on a recent post would it not be an idea to further protect this screen.. e.g. grey out - perhaps for use by recognised installers only..... perhaps for use with engineer sign in!
I suppose that this could apply to other screens as well e.g. CMS
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| Posted: Wednesday Nov 15th, 2006 12:11 pm |
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ident
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Our plan is for Comfigurator to require an engineer sign in code to download (ie PC to Comfort) . This was discussed a long time ago in the Yahoo Group. Hence users will not be able to make changes, but they can use WizComfort to make user changes eg Time Programs, reminders and other things which can be controlled by users. If you have a customers who wants to know the EngineerCode to change settimgs then you should make him sign a release form to say they take responsiblity
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| Posted: Wednesday Nov 15th, 2006 02:13 pm |
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Yes in full agreement.
The following is vaguely rlated to this subject - I was at a customers premesis yesterday afternoon to add some additinal sensors - I left after fully testing and documenting etc a couple of hours later I get a message on my mobile to say the telephone line was permanently engaged.........
I call back this morning and sure enough the line is engaged. After going through every setting possible re-loading old programs etc after 4 hours of testing and daignosis I find that the tel cables have been compressed on the casing lid - so all the time I have tested with the casing off there was nothing wrong and only intermittent when the casing was put back on. All now sorted.
The moral being that this episode was painfull enough for me who has been installing comfort now for 5 years. To a novice this sort of problem would have been a nightmare and just goes to show that Comfort is an INSTALLED product. In fact I would go as far as to say that you should consider ONLY selling to recognised installers - the number of installs I go to where we are called in to sort out problems caused by poorly wired ir insatlled systems. All of this cannot do the reputation of Comfort any good.
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| Posted: Thursday Nov 16th, 2006 12:46 pm |
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slychiu
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Even more difficult when we have to diagnose a situation like that when we are not physically at site!
Supporting end users who self install can be difficult and time-consuming, and may not be worth the trouble, (and this is a debate which has been going on for some years in the Yahoo Groups), but we still want to persist with them because of the following reasons, which I repeat from my arguments in the aforementioned forum- They are the ones who fully utilise many of Comforts capabitiies, and they give valuable feedback which we dont get from customers of installers
- They are the early adopters who can give good word of mouth "buzz" through other HA forums, contacts etc
- Their numbers are not significant in the population and they would not reduce installers incomes. If Comfort is not available, they would buy some other product. HAI (an American product) is not sold to end-users, and this may be one of the reasons why they dont have much of a presence (in the UK)
- They are usually technically capable and usually are able to install and program Comfort
Other installers can also have their say..
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| Posted: Friday Nov 17th, 2006 11:41 am |
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Yes all points in agreement
However we are now seeing an ever increasing number of Comfort installations that we have refered to us. The state of some of them is appauling e.g
One recently I refused to take it on unless they had the main panel re-wired.
Another was using all of his light switches into comfort relays and rio to operate about 30 X10 lighting circuits. Obviously a completely floored design as it is totally reliant on comfort and the X10 onterface to switch any light in the house. The customer had just moved in and was renting with an agreement to pay for any electrical remedial work.
Another .... oh well you get the picture.
Another point is that in my opinion it is critical to plan the wiring into comfort other wise even with a tidy arrangement after a couple of years of adding accessories the main boards look like a birds nest. Tidy wiring is the key to a good Comfort installation i simply cannot emphasise this enough. With the best will in the world some body who is wiring the unit for the first time is not likely to make the tidiest of jobs of wiring the unit.
Another point is 'decomissioning' of automation systems - people moving into a property that has formerly been automated by the previous resident are usually overwhelemed by the sometimes bizar functionality. Home automation is a bespoke set up. We often now get asked to de-automate properties!
So although i agree in principle to the points you make my overall opinion would be that selling this product to the general public to install is no a good idea.
Perhaps when selling to the general public you should make your views more promenant may be by adding appropriate text to the installation manuals or web sites.
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| Posted: Friday Nov 17th, 2006 12:02 pm |
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