08-11-2004, 11:00 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Close Your Drapes (And More!) With the Casio e125
"This was my first major X10 project. As I was working away at the time, I needed something to look after the house and give it a 'lived in' feel. I originally had the usual lamps plugged into timer switches but these were only partly effective as the times for dusk constantly move and I found myself having to re-set the times. I could have used dawn/dusk timers but these just didn't have the flexibility of going off at random or specific times. Anyway, I wanted to get into X10 and here was an ideal opportunity..."
This is a project that definitely falls into the W?BIC category. Combine X10 with a Pocket PC, add a dash of coding mojo, sprinkle generously with some serious geek motivation, and you've got yourself an extremely stable, powerful control system for your house. This guy wrote the code, designed the interface, and even gave it voice capability. Pretty impressive, but I have to ask - where's the robotic capability? This system is just begging for some kind of tie-in with a modified attack Aibo... :mrgreen:
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08-11-2004, 01:06 PM
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,878
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If it weren't for x10's unholy pop-up, pop-under, pop-everywhere ad campaigns, I might actually consider doing something like this! :wink:
Steve
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"My eyes are rolling back in my head so far I can see my grey matter bubbling and frothing from reading this thread....bleh." JD
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08-11-2004, 01:10 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 62
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i wouldn't call this W?BIC kinda project - this is actually quite useful!
re X10..i bought their camera and it barely works - just enough that i can't return it but not enough to use it reliably. their customer support is non-existant...try sending them an email.
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08-11-2004, 01:20 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 541
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Really? I was under the impression that not only did they stop their popup/under campaign, but their products were surprisingly high quality.
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08-11-2004, 01:29 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 559
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And I thought it was cool to walk around the house surfing the Internet! Imagine walking around turning lights on and off! Sweet!
I haven't seen an X10 ad in a very long time. They used to be everywhere and they drove me up the wall, but it looks like they've stopped. 8)
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08-11-2004, 01:37 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 333
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Thanks to Firefox, I haven't seen an X10 ad in ages.
X10 is actually two things. Its a protocol for turning switches on and off over the power lines, and a company that makes devices which use the x10 protocol.
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08-11-2004, 02:33 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 434
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What's so cool about his project is that he's been running his house with this for over three years. A good use for an old PPC lying around and his E-125 is as solid as mine was (so long ago).
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James Kendrick* ...using mobile devices since they weighed 30 lbs
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08-11-2004, 02:47 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 58
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I've had a fully automated house for over 2 years now, all on X10.
There are many awesome packages to control things, I prefer Homeseer (win) and Misterhouse (Linux). I've also added a few 3Com Audrey's, they are the cheapest way to add a color touch screen to control things, read emai, show caller ID, the weather etc... (on ebay for $80!!)
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08-11-2004, 03:50 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ryan Joseph
And I thought it was cool to walk around the house surfing the Internet! Imagine walking around turning lights on and off! Sweet!
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Unfortunately, this doesn't. It relys on the PPC serial port to interface with the wireline TX of the X-10 system. I've had X-10 stuff in various incarnations for probably 20 years. (first was with a Radio Shack Color Computer). Radio Shack sells (or sold) compatible stuff as did other companies.
I have some of the camera stuff too and find it acceptable, for the price. I did have a 2.4Ghz remote phone system that played havoc with the X-10 wireless cameras, though BT and WiFi didn't seem to bother them. Went to a 5.8Ghz phone and cleared that up.
There are options floating around to do wireless control remotely from a PPC. They typically involve having a PC that interfaces to the X-10 system and talking to that PC wirelessly.
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Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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08-11-2004, 04:14 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by sponge
Really? I was under the impression that not only did they stop their popup/under campaign, but their products were surprisingly high quality.
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Yeah they ended up stopping that campaign, they found it drove people crazy.
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