Archive for December, 2009
Mmmmm Insteon
by on Dec.23, 2009, under Home Automation, insteon, lighting control, zwave
It’s pretty well known that for technologies related to home automation I watch pretty carefully some of the new stuff available from consortiums like Power Control Systems and SmartLabs.
The thing is these recent products available aren’t really as new as they appear seeing as they could all be created before working with other off-the-shelf products but nowadays they are offered as a tidy kit. As a side benefit now you don’t need a complicated circuit diagram to set things up.
Looking closer we see a few resemblances between the major players. As an example, none of the product lineups use handheld remote products as RF relays, and it seems like all use radio waves as a backup. Looking deeper though, things get involved – I’m not going to venture to portray it now and make a bunch of errors, this site Z-Wave home automation has pages dedicated to highlighting some of the discrepancies.
So anybody having any thoughts for how I can pull together a bit of cash to pay for the new obsession, for pete’s sake let me know!
Argh, I daydream to avoid accidents on the way in!
by on Dec.22, 2009, under Home Automation, insteon, lighting control, zwave
Most weeks I like my day job, but every so often the travel alone is sufficient to cause me to move far away. One in three are sleepy sheeple with a passing interest in attention to the thing in front of them. Making things worse, I then knocked over my coffee making my way in to the parking garage...
Grrrr.
My call with Quinn made me think
by on Dec.22, 2009, under Home Automation, insteon, lighting control, zwave
I recently saw a wicked place on extreme home makeover which almost made me stare – They were using lighting control and had done a so-so job of the implementation. Almost every sprinkler knew what the rest of the house was doing and I think even the car starters and pool were accessible from the controllers everywhere.
I always liked X10 for years but I’d never seen systems like this, it was sensational and I’m still in shock.
We talk about letting our home do neat stuff such as turning on the shower in the morning or voice alerting us to someone at the door. Many things are most realistically a couple years in terms of general accessibility (although some average people are doing it) despite this more practical items like environment modes that can be remotely controlled have come down in price and economical lately. I really should convince my other half... following which she can focus her energy on the site that got me started on all this: ISY-99
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THE BEATLES JOHN LENNON 8X10 MUSIC PHOTO LOOK MUST SEE RARE |  |
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US $8.95 | 13m |
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Jonas Bros Autographed 8x10 Glossy w coa | |
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US $99.99 | 16m |
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Shiseido Health Supplement For All Skin Type Collagen Drink 50ml x 10pcs | |
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US $69.95 | 16m |
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Walt Disney Picture The Whole Gang 8x10 In Color | |
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US $5.50 | 19m |
Some days, I daydream to avoid pileups on the way to work!
by on Dec.21, 2009, under Home Automation, insteon, lighting control, zwave
Most weeks I take satisfaction in my workplace, but once in a while the travel by itself is enough to force me to resign. A million poor people driving with barely any attention to the roadway. To top it off, I then hit my coffee driving into the lot...
So this is life.
Scoping the merger of entertainment centers despite having whole home automation …..
by on Dec.21, 2009, under Home Automation, insteon, lighting control, zwave
Branching out starting with automation into home movie rooms isn’t that big of a transition bearing in mind many people (including me) probably kicked off the curiosity for mood lighting through a integrated control unit to make the uber-cool movie room experience ideal. We found that the AMX remote controls are a favorite item and we now own one for every one of the plasmas. Considering I don’t watch that live programming thing anymore, there is frequently a million different items to switch on and it I hated - using one remote control followed by the next until things were setup, only to reverse the procedure after the movie was completed.
With that in mind, the incorporation of automation and entertainment is moving nearer by the week with quite a few of the well known producers releasing IR control from your home automation network as of late and as a result anyone with an interest can then perform things we couldn’t do before like controlling a tuner that is across the apartment having just your remote Insteon device. It’s exciting, although the whole thing is illustrated better at this Insteon site Insteon when contrasted against most X10 sites so it’s for sure a good place to learn from.
I love that he is almost scarily passionate about technology.
