If you're new to home automation or a seasoned veteran, this page will help you get up and running with Shion. It is divided into two major sections. The first section is written for new users of home automation technology who would like to learn the basics, while the second section covers more advanced topics for existing users of home automation hardware and software. If you're a member of the second group, feel free to skip ahead.

New to Home Automation?

Home automation is the application of modern technologies to control machines in a household using conventional technologies such as remote controls and personal computers. Users of home automation technologies typically augment their environment using a collection of specialized switches, outlets, and other electrical devices that listen for and respond to commands issued remotely. A common home automation scenario is connecting the lights in a room to a remote control. When the occupants want to watch a film, they can use the remote to deactivate or dim local lights in the same manner that they control their DVD player or television set.

For a more complete introduction to home automation, Gordon Meyer's Smart Home Hacks: Tips & Tools for Automating Your House is a great place to start.

Shion

Shion is an application that allows your Mac to control devices in a home automation network. Shion does this by using specialized hardware called power line controllers (PLCs). Shion connects to these devices using a USB or serial port cable.

When you use Shion to turn on a light, the program sends the command to the PLC, which translates the command into a signal sent over the electrical wires in your house. A device connected a lamp or appliance listens for these commands and manipulates the connected device as commanded. In order to distinguish between many different devices, Shion includes the target's address with the command.

Building upon this, Shion includes a variety of advanced features that allow you to take control of the devices in your house. When used with the built-in calendar, Shion can make your home appear occupied when you are away. When configured to use the event system, Shion can turn on the porch light at sunset and turn it off when the sun rises the next day. You can use Shion to save your favorite light configurations and recall them with a push of a button. These options and more are described below.

In short, Shion frees you from the physical limitations of managing your local environment. No longer do you need to go to the basement to see if the light has been left on. You no longer need to be present in your house to have it appear occupied. By taking advantage of the latest advances in technologies, Shion allows you to take control of your environment in the times and places of your choosing.

Recommended Devices

If you are completely new to home automation and are interested in trying it before making a large financial commitment, below is a list of devices that will allow you to evaluate the technology to its fullest extent while staying on budget.

1. SmartHome INSTEON Lamp Control Starter Kit

   This kit includes

   RemoteLinc
   2 Access Points
   2 LampLincs

2. PowerLinc USB Controller

This kit is available for purchase at Amazon.

The starter kit will give you enough hardware to connect the lamps in a small room. The RemoteLinc is useful for controlling the lamps, while the Access Points improve the reliability of the communication between devices. The PowerLinc USB controller allows you to manipulate the devices from a Mac situated in the room.

Since you are only controlling two lamps in this setup, you may use the free version of Shion to control the room. (A paid license becomes necessary when Shion is used to control more than three devices from a single Mac.)

The elements in this starter kit may be reused if you decide invest in more home automation hardware and typically sells for less than $200. If you are less than satisfied before 30 days, you can return the hardware for a full refund.

Installation

This section assumes that you are using the hardware suggested above. The follow instructions may differ slightly if you are using something different.

Step 1: The starter kit will include a set of instructions that explain how to set up the lamp modules, access points and the remote control. Follow those instructions first to set up the room and the local power line network. Before you plug in the LampLinc modules, write down each device's address. (This will look something like A5.8F.32.)

Step 2: Once you can control the lamps in the room using the remote control, unpack the PowerLinc USB and plug it into an outlet on the same circuit as one of your Access Points. Typically, any outlet in the current room should work.

Step 3: Connect the PowerLinc USB to your Mac using the included USB cable.

Step 4: Download and install Shion. You may have to unpack a .TBZ file by double-clicking it in Finder. Copy the Shion application to the Applications folder on your Mac.

Step 5: Launch Shion. If everything has been connected properly, you should see a small window with your PowerLinc USB in the list to the left. If you do not see the PowerLinc listed, check that everything's been connected properly.

Step 6: Add your LampLincs to Shion by clicking the small + button in the bottom-left of the window. A small dialog will appear asking for information. Give each device a descriptive name (e.g. "Desk Lamp", "Bed Lamp") and enter the corresponding addresses that you wrote down when installing the LampLincs. Select "Continuous" as the device type and uncheck the "one-way" checkbox.

(Note: If you have connected the LampLincs to lamps with fluorescent bulbs, select "Toggle" as the device type. Fluorescent light bulbs should never be dimmed.)

Step 7: Test out your devices by dragging the slider to turn the devices on and off. The lights won't respond instantaneously, but they should change within a second or two. This 1-2 second delay is normal.

Step 8: Change a lamp using the remote control. Within 5-7 seconds, you should see the slider in Shion automatically change to reflect the new state of the lamp.

If Shion is responding to the commands sent by the remote control, you now have a fully working home automation system. Congratulations!

Existing Home Automation Aficionados

If you already use an existing home automation setup, Shion can communicate with your current X10 and INSTEON devices. You can try Shion for free with three or fewer devices or purchase a license for unlimited usage.

However, here are a few notes and caveats for use with existing setups:

1. Shion communicates with PLCs using user-space device drivers. Other home automation products (such as Perceptive Automation’s Indigo) use kernel-space drivers. The difference between these approaches is that user-space drivers only reserve the controller while the application (Shion) is running, while kernel-space drivers exclude other applications from using the device while the computer is running (regardless whether the home automation software is running). Consequently, you may need to remove or disable any kernel-space drivers installed by other products. See this document for instructions.

   Note that you will not have to remove any drivers if you decide to stop using Shion. Simply trash the application to resume using your previous software.

2. Other home automation software packages often rewrite portions of the PLCs’ internal software to implement features such as timers and events. In our testing, these alterations sometimes prevent the PLCs from conforming to the published hardware specifications. If you install Shion into an existing setup and it does not seem to work, please reset your PLC to its default factory settings. We have a collection of instructions available here.

3. Shion 2.0 is a complete rewrite of a prior open-source version of the application. Consequently, we are still in the process of adding support for different devices and technologies. As of version 2.0, Shion does not yet support the following types of devices:

   • 2-way X10 modules
   • Non-X10 & INSTEON home automation technologies
   • Serial & Ethernet INSTEON controllers
   • X10 controllers other than the CM11A and CM15A
   • Power modules other than lamps & appliances

   If you have any of these devices, and are still interested in trying Shion, please place a vote on the Shion UserVoice forum for your specific hardware. We are working diligently to support more hardware in the upcoming releases, and your votes help us prioritize which devices get our attention first. To review our current priorities, please see the Shion roadmap.

4. While we’ve put Shion through its paces in a variety of environments, there will always be challenging environments in the wild that Shion could handle better. If you have any suggestions for improving the application or identify a bug or other issue, please submit it using the integrated issue reporting system. Your feedback will help us resolve the issue and produce a more capable and robust system moving forward.

If you have questions about Shion, please don't hesitate to ask us via e-mail.