Big Irish blokes are digging big holes
where my house is going to be as we speak (well not quite they’ve
clocked
off for the weekend, but…)
I’ve been going over what I want
out
of a Home Automation system over the past few weeks, and have come to the
glaring conclusion that in
my particular case all I need is an architectural lighting
system, which also opens and closes the curtains.
With a couple of exceptions (opening
front
door when it is dark and alarm is on – i.e welcome home, security
lights
come on outside when movement is detected and it is dark, and going into
vacation mode when alarm is armed), I’m going to do the automating
using
my particularly easy to program and adaptable HA controller that keeps my
ears
apart J
Provided the keypads are strategically
located, with enough buttons, IR remote control is available and the right
scenes are programmed, that is the right solution for me, and I’m
sure
the vast majority of the population. I really think it is easy to get
carried
away and automate stuff simply because we can. Do I need to be able to turn
the
lights on over the web from South
America? No, but it would be nice to view the video cameras from time
to
time, and review the automatic hard disc recorder activated by movement
(just
for reassurance purposes), and bring the heating forward if you know you
are
going to be home half an hour earlier (but not if you have underfloor
heating
eh Mark J)
I’m occupying 3 rooms on a
single
floor so I have no need for whole house audio, wireless LAN is more than
adequate for day to day needs, and if I need to copy a big file, I can just
get
a “crossover” cable out of the drawer. Again because the
maximum
distance is around 15 metres I don’t need to cable for IR, I can use
RF.
I don’t need to worry about KAT5 because RGB or Svideo is fine over
those
sorts of distances. I’ve got a fantastic ISDN cordless PBX with three
built in answering machines, door entry transfer etc that would put most 50
user PBXs to shame in terms of features.
It is all because over the past few
weeks
I have with the advice of others brought myself back down to earth. I
realize that
my requirements are peculiar because of my particular situation, but
perhaps
everyone can learn from my experience. Don’t automate it because you
can,
automate it because it makes your life better. Sometimes the manual
solution is
actually the most effective, and it is usually the
cheapest!
Tim.
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Gordon
[mailto:paul_gordon@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 14
June 2002
19:17
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] The
Solution
to Room Occupation Detection
>This solution has major flaws
surely.
>
>Are you going to greet your guests by
giving
them a tag to wear?
>
I believe that's what Bill Gates does...
;-)
Paul G.
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