Homeowner Forum / Home Automation / February 2004

I have a radio shack branded X10 outlet.  I noticed only the top
outlet is controlled while the lower is always on.  Is there a
modification or other model where both outlets are controlled?

I'll try to clear up my question I posted earlier. I want to run one RG-6
cable for Satellite to my living room but I want it to go to 3 different
wall plates. (I also need to do the same for my Video and Subwoofer lines.)
I want all 3 wall plates to be active so I can just move my ...

Does anyone know of anyway I can use  my Radio Shack 46 Range Digital
Multimeter to measure/test X10 signals in my house ?
The meter can measure frequency, but I don't think it has a setting to
measure voltage at a certain frequency. Which I think is key to measuring

Just a quick question. I am starting to run my surround wires for the Living
room in my house I'm building. I have run 4 16awg.wires for 4 speakers (one
in each corner) Now for the Center Channel and the Subwoofer and Video
signal. I'm sure the Center channel should also be 16awg. ...

Not too long ago Hometoys (www.hometoys.com) did a piece on the new UPB technology from PCS and reported this claim:
"PCS has now tested the UPBT modules in over 100 test sites. After extensive testing, PCS reports a reliability percentage exceeding 99.95%. More importantly, this ...

Hello again.
Is speech recognition too distant in the future to consider now?  It seems
to me part of the process to accomplish this would be to 'bug' rooms in your
own house with small microphones.  What model of mini-mic is suggested for

Anyone know of a box that will register outgoing calls including number,
time/date stamp, along with incoming caller ID features?
I found one at the link below, but cant find any info on the company, and
buying from an online retailer with the name spy in their name doesn't give

I can't believe I can't find this.
I would like to use USB to turn-on/turn-off 120VAC. No X10,
no RF, no home automation. Computer, USB cable, and a simple cmd
line interface to say "on" or "off" and switch the AC on and

I have a home theater system with a plasma TV.
Because the plasma is wallmounted, I moved all other components into a
corner of my room. This looks a lot better, but now I cannot remotely
control the components anymore because they are facing the tv just

I use the CM11 and I try to make a development with Visual BASIC. I
will like to know which order to use to go to read the status of a X10
module.
Is it possible to request the on/off status of a device, or is that

Hello,
I have a MS14A X-10 Eagle Eye Motion detector by the back door that's
being triggered by vehicles in a parking lot about 30 to 50 feet away,
especially trucks.  I want this detector to only detect someone coming

I purchased an IRman IR controller for my laptop.  I realized, after the
fact, that the Thinkpad lacks a serial port onboard.  I have a straight
USB to serial port adaptor (sans drivers), but I can't get it to work
with the IRman.  The IRman will not find or assign a serial port ...

Why not use Safe-T Beams, the kind that come on all garage door
openers, for use as perimeter detection?  Someone crosses the beam, an
alarm is triggered.  Seems like a cheap way to go for up to 20'
distances.

My 2 years old 8in1 x10 remote was bought in the USA. I want to use my
8in1 remote in Europe so I want to know if anyone can help me to
modify my remotes RF from 418 MHz to 433 MHz.

I just bought one of the all house codes IR transceivers (IR543AH).  I
own a MX500 IR remote to control my home theater and don't want to buy
a Pronto or other expensive PC programmable remote to generate the
full set of codes needed for the IR543AH.  What I'd like to do is use