Basic question about purchasing CQC

[thall411]

I looked into CQC a couple of years ago and decided that it was what I wanted to use to set up the automation for my second home. Now that we are getting to the point where are actually doing things, I'm confused with the new purchasing system.

I think the system is pretty basic, lights (about 40), some security cameras, window and door sensors, temperature control and sensors, a video library all accessible through some web interface.

I'm thinking I just need to get the Bronze level, but I a little confused about the difference between a device and a driver. In some places it says the Bronze level controls 10 devices, in others it says 10 drivers.

Does it sound like the Bronze level is what I need?

Thanks

[Dean Roddey]

Drivers and devices are effectively the same thing. The only way in which they differ is that there are some drivers that don't talk to an actual device. The variables driver is the most common one. And some don't talk to a 'device' per se, not a hardware device anyway, such as the weather channel driver which talks to a server out on the internet. So there are a small set of exceptions but generally device and driver are interchangeble terms in terms of licensing, and for the most part one device you want to control will be controlled by one driver.

In the case of a lighting system of course it's the controller that's the device, not all the individual loads, so you just have one driver to talk to the lighting controller and it talks to the loads.

So you'd probably be fine with the Bronze. You can always start out that way and if you later decide you want a couple more, you can add a couple separately.

I'll take a look at the verbiage on the web site and try to get it more consistently saying 'drivers' when I do the next update on it, since that's really what counts, even though there is almost always a one to one correspondence between drivers and devices.