Homeowner Forum / Home Automation / October 2003

Hi everyone;
Is there a cheap way to put a 3 way X10 switch on an overhead
florescent light fixture? Can an existing 3 way X10 incandescent
switch be modified somehow, or is there a cheap supplier of proper 3

Does anyone know of a site that compares and contrasts features/capabilities
of HAL2000 versus Homeseer?

Can someone recommend a device that will allow me to switch an AC load up to
several amperes using the switched outlet from my AV Receiver? The specs on
the switched port are too low to use it for the stuff I want to have turned
on automatically.

There must be, but can't find: I want a small device that will convert
120VAC (like from a stereo utility outlet) to a 0 or 5VDC signal (0 if no
power, 5VDC if power on) for sensing when devices have power. Are there
commercial offerings like this for a reasonable price?

I'm about to embark on an X10 home automation for our outside
landscape lights and hope that someone with more experience can help
answer some questions:
1. X10 is a standard that a number of manufacturers conform to. Are

I'm kinda a newbie to home automation, but have alot of experience with
electronics and computers.  I'm looking to dabble a bit on my own in my
house and need have am looking for ways to communicate with the devices I
want to create. I'd like to know what methods other people have ...

Im leaning towards using housebot because of my simple setup, blah blah blah.
I think the real deciding factor here is the end GUI...Housebot has a
customizeable End GUI...what about Girder?  The screenshots all look relatively
complicated, at least to one who just wants a NON ...

Curious how the messages are handled here... began posting on Thursday
(I think?) and it appears that those initial messages and related
threads are already gone.
What's the message life supposed to be and is there a bot clearing

LS,
For a Halloween setup I'd like to set some lights to turn on and off
triggered by X10 motion sensors. I would like to be able to have them turn
on, and off again after, say, 5 or 10 seconds (the software I've seen allows

I've spent some time developing and building a Power status detector. It has
four inputs and detects the power status of equipment by sensing current on
a power cord or equipment pilot lamps. It connects to the Ocelot though a
SECU16. I'm am willing to sell PC Boards at low cost for ...

Professionals (office buildings, care for elderly and handicapped)
tell me X10 is not reliable. Instead, they use dedicated, mostly hard
wired products like EIB (Europe), HomeTronic (Honeywell).
Now, someone told me that I should bet on TCP/IP for future use. I

The subject pretty much says it all.  I have a cable that is left and
right RCA on one end, and mini 1/8" stereo on the other.  I cut the
cable in half, and want to use cat5 to extend it.  One end will be
connected to the audio card on my HAL PC (the 1/8"), and the other I

I have a hardware device made by Animated Lighting that is supposed to
support the TW523 interface.  They have not tested the CM11a which is
the device I already have.  Does anyone know if these 2 devices are
interchangable?  Do they use the same instructions?  Or maybe the

One more X10 question for everyone.
Is the X10 USB video capture devise needed or can I use an video capture
device to view a X10 camera on my computer?
TIA,