Embedded Automation's mPanel Review
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Oct 24th 2008 12:00PM
posted Oct 24th 2008 12:00PM
Software
The mPanel in its most basic form is a Windows CE 6.0 computer, which we like because it is relatively open to third party development. We're not exactly up on the embedded operating system industry, so we're not sure how good it matches up with rivals, but we're just glad EA didn't use a proprietary OS or lock down the mPanel from running 3rd party software. The mPanel is designed to run EA's software, which fits in nicely with the overall mControl digital home.
The mControl digital home is pretty open and starts with the mControl Home Automation software which sells for an unbelievably low $75. Out of the box you really can't do much with the software though, but combined with various devices around the house, you can connect everything together. The most obvious thing to control is lighting. For about $45 each, you can replace the dumb switches in your house with Insteon switches (pictured above mounted below the mPanel). Then combine them with a $70 USB adapter to interface with mControl, and you're on your way to a whole house system. As you can see, this can get expensive if you try to do your entire house, but wiring up your home theater so you can dim the lights automatically when a movie starts is pretty reasonable. When you start to look around you'll see controllable devices everywhere, but it is really easy to get out of hand. Luckily most devices aren't too expensive if you buy them one by one, which makes for a fun long term project. Our favorites -- besides lighting -- are things like thermostats to control the AC, power monitors to keep an eye on power usage, an alarm system to turn on lights when the alarm is sounded, and of course our HDTV and Windows Media Center.
As expected, the included mPanel software integrates very easily and seamlessly with mControl. We think it's a nice addition to the existing ways to control your home with mControl, like the Web Interface (which works on the iPhone and other mobile devices) and the Windows Media Center UI. There are a few extras with the mPanel however, and most notable is the UPNP client. The mPanel will automatically detect UPNP servers in your home -- like Windows Media Player or PlayOn media server -- and give you an easy way to play back your music in that room (complete with play lists and cover art). The included software works good, but we're not real thrilled with the looks of the interface; we prefer the way the Vista Media Center plug-in looks. This, on top of the fact that the look and feel isn't customizable at all, really exposes the weakest link with Embedded Automation's digital home technology. We are told that a customizable interface is on the horizon, but there is no word on when.
The only problem we had was that although we set the back light to turn off after a few minutes, it stayed on, which might be a problem if you plan to mount it in a bedroom. We also wish the included software integrated with the OS better and let use use features like sleep, etc. Luckily EA is good about software updates and updating the mPanel is as easy as copying the new version to it over the network.
Although the included software works great with mControl -- as we mentioned before because the mPanel runs CE -- you can really use any software you want. This opens up the opportunities in the world of home automation, because at this price point we're sure other DIY HA systems will adopt it and make it part of their overall systems as well.
The Hardware
The mPanel has the do it yourself retrofitter in mind from the very beginning. Among others, it features dog leg screws and Power over Ethernet (POE) to simplify the install. Thanks to these two slick features, installation is as easy as running a CAT5 cable to a hole you cut in the wall -- if you don't have a POE injector, you still use the included standard power supply. Once you get it mounted and the wires run, you just pop on the magnetic face plate and you have yourself a nice looking in-wall touch panel. Another cool feature is the included amplifier, which makes it very simple to bring music to the room by simply running some speaker wire from the mPanel to your speakers. Of course this isn't going to bring you high fidelity sound, but 20-watts per channel is still a pretty nice addition. The touch screen is pretty good, but it is still a resistive touch screen, so it doesn't stand up to the usability of a capacitive touch screen like we've come to love in the iPhone or the G1.
Conclusion
If you've been waiting for prices to come down to automate your home, the time just might be right. Although the DIY HA industry is still a bit messy with all the players going their own way, with companies introducing more affordable products like the mPanel, a complete automated home is, for the first time, becoming affordable. Obviously $1,000 is still a lot of money for a 7-inch touch screen computer, but it is much easier to install and use than less expensive alternatives. This, combined with the included software and overall mControl system, makes it an attractive option for the DIY home automation system.
Can someone explain to me the advantage of this? Is it just so I can turn things on and off in one place instead of actually going to the devices to turn them on/off or adjust settings.
Can you do anything with it out of the box without buying anything else? Or must you buy the different light switch panels, the USB adaptor, etc. before you can even use it?
I'm lazy, but for $1000+, I can get up and turn off my lights or adjust my already programmable thermostat.
It clearly states you have to buy other devices, but I guess that was pretty difficult to figure out...being that you wouldn't be able to control anything with a conventional wallplate.
It's cool, but pointless IMO.
Unless you have one in every room, it would take more effort walking to the panel to do things that are in the same (other) rooms.... or am I missing the point?
I think this does mainly lean towards the lazy factor, though it did say it has some features like playing your music through it which probably allows you to pick the room it plays to. If you have an alarm system it would turn on whatever lights in the house (you pick?) if the alarm goes off, and it says it can dim your lights when you start a movie.. though I usually tend to be up putting the movie in anyways, so yea.. kinda pointless. I'm sure it probably allows you to do more but not something I can find a reason to buy... Not nless it can do my shopping, my laundry and pick up the mail for me.. /shrug.
It's worth it if you have a 3 story house like my family where we have to constantly go up and down the stairs all day. These systems can also be controlled through the web making automating easy through a laptop or even your iPhone. Want to change the temperature setting but you're already in bed? Easy... just adjust with a bedside remote or your phone.
Whether your home or not you can lock doors, close the garage, water the plants, or even feed the dog.
Pretty nifty for a long term project that you can complete yourself.
They also sell mControl software for your PC that does everything this touch panel does.
Here is a snip from their website: www.embededautomation.com
mControl is software for your Digital Home. mControl allows you to control all aspects of your home from your Media Center PC, locally or remotely via Internet Explorer browser or from your Windows Mobile device. Download mControl now.
mPanel is a portal to your Digital Home. mPanel is a wall-mountable touch screen that allows you to play digital music within the room and, by connecting to mControl, manage the home’s lighting and climate settings, adjust security and surveillance systems and control other digital devices within the home.
One could purchase only the software and necessary smart switches for a
Media Center PC or Internet Explorer or a Mobile device to control all of the functions that this panel can do. I like the ability to integrate camera surveillance, HVAC, security, event triggers and home theatre automation in to one application. The sendmail option also should come in handy sending emails for events I find important.
@bobtheHDbuilder, aka Captain Obvious.
Unless I missed it, it doesn't clearly state you have to buy other pieces in order to use it. I clearly asked if you could do anything with it out of the box without needing to buy something else, but I guess that was pretty hard to figure out.
Of course if I want to control the lights, I need a different wall plate. That's not what I'm asking though, but I guess that was pretty hard to figure out.
And I Quote from The Article:
"Out of the box you really can't do much with the software though, but combined with various devices around the house, you can connect everything together."
Did you even read the article or you were just looking at the pictures???
The point of home automation is two fold, one is automation, the other is control. In a media room, it is basically what a universal remote does, turn on six devices, set all the inputs, etc, by just pressing a movie marked "Watch Movie". All of this, included lights can be done with a good universal remote.
If you want to control a whole house, that is where a full automation system comes in. At night I press a button in the master suite that says "good night", all of the lights in the house, except bedrooms, shut off, all electronics are shut off, security system is armed, it checks to make sure the garage doors are closed, and lowers the thermostats. Now that you can't do with a remote!
Unless you just enjoy playing with the stuff, most of the true usefulness is when you go beyond one room and have a larger home. If your house has one thermostat, just get a programmable one, if it has two furnaces and five thermostats, you may want more control and hence a control system.
The mPanel in its most basic form is a Windows CE 6.0 computer, ... we're just glad EA didn't use a proprietary OS..."
Does this make sense to anyone?
It makes sense in the fact that Windows is a standard OS, with a very large development community. That's what he was going for in that quote, not anything about Windows being open source.
Is it just me or would it be impossible to take an old fujitsu tablet, attach x10 or zigbee controllers on the devices you want to control and then have all the functions of a real laptop in additon to controlling the components you want to control?
The house we are living in now has an older version of home automation. The builder put it in as part of the local home show. During the show the automation was programmed to:
1. When the bottom step was reached a sensor kicked off a timer that was activated for 10 seconds.
2. The power curtains in the media room started to close.
3. The main room lights were dimmed for about 30 seconds and then turned off completely.
4. The auxilary lights near the floor kicked on and stayed on
5. The projector, stereo and dvd player all started up
They also used sensors to do things like if a sensor was tripped between 10PM and 6AM turn the lights to 80% in the tripped hallway. Automatically, turn off the lights after 10 minutes.
Again, these are just some basic examples of home automation. Some are absolutely frivolous while others (like the lights in the hallway) are geared around practicality. BJ Sisco is also correct - we have 3 floors that all get used. Having a nice interface that would allow us to turn off lights in all locations without traipsing up and down the stairs would be really nice.
Finally, as cool as our system can be it is crazy difficult to implement. We currently don't have any of the home automation stuff working. When we bought the house we contacted the company that installed it. The cost to get some basic functionality programmed was going to cost $1000+. As cool as all that stuff sounds it just didn't make sense at the time to pour money like that into our system.
"Out of the box you really can't do much with the software though, but combined with various devices around the house, you can connect everything together."
"can't do much" != "can't do anything"
"combined with various devices" != "you have to buy other things for it to do something"
I guess I should assume that anything you connect to this has to be bought, but I am not familiar with home automation devices so I do not know that is the case. If that is indeed the case, then excuse my ignorance on the subject and for not interpreting Ben's words to mean you have to buy this $1000 box and then spend a couple hundred more before you can even get any use out of it.
If I had the money, when I walked in my front door, I would be adorned with gifts, my house would tell me how amazing I am, the fans would turn on making me look like a superstar, while "We Are The Champions" played through my home sound system, oh, and the Porch light would turn off, because I am no longer on the porch. Then the system would crash, locking all my doors and knocking the thermostat down to 30 Degrees and I would die.
All jokes aside, I'm still in college, so a home of my own is a long way away, but this will be one of the first things I would want to do in my own home, home automation has so much promise. It has got this rep for "Lazy" people, when in reality, it can be used as a lazy mans system, but it can also be used for very un lazy things, the internet connected home idea has so much potential in the future, the price though is so out of reach for the average consumer, this is showing that that tide has begun to turn.
Call is OCD or being neoratic but I always forget if I lock the doors, turned of the A/C/Heter or the stove. So, I have to double check everything sometimes triple, jus to make sure. It would be nice if I could use this to "call the house" enter a code that tells the house I'm gone and have the automation kick and do all this for me. I remember Ford was creating an in car system that would open the garage as you rolled up to the house, turn on all the first floor lighting, and even allow you to turn on the oven as you left work so that ham you left in the oven this morning would finish cooking and be nice and warm when you got home.
why not just buy a hp tablet for 700, and rig some type of mounting?
If you want a "rigged" look to your installation, then yes. But for those who prefer a professional looking (and working) setup, we now have an economical option. This gear really isn't for all the complainers. It's for people who really need it. They won't complain about the price. Big houses require systems to manage them. If you can afford the big house, then an automation system will not put a big dent in your pocket...unless of course you are one of the pretenders who bought on overextended credit.
mControl is a very slick system, and they have a loyal and growing user-base. They are expanding their platform to include drivers for more and more devices, including our product, the BC4 ( http://www.bitwisecontrols.com/bc4 ). The guys at Embedded Automation seem responsive to their customers, which leads me to believe that the mPanel software will continue to be revised and upgraded. I think the on-board amplifier is a very cool touch, especially in this price range. Also remember, that while the mPanel is a point of control, the mControl automation software allows complex automation tasks to be accomplished via various triggers. This is not just a touchscreen that turns your lights on and off.