RE: (ukha_d) super cheap home house audio !!!!!!!!

[peter.white@xxxxxxx]

This seems like a pretty good idea.  I'd toyed with the same concept a
year or
so ago, but for microphones, rather than speakers.  For various
reasons the
mikes idea was never going to work, but the speakers might just work.

I've got all the bits (somewhere), so it may be worth trying.  IIRC,
UK phone
wire has 6 wires, of which 4 are used (or at least connected).  The
other 2 are
just terminated, so I guess they could be used.  Anyone know whether
any of the
others can be used as well (i.e. for a stereo signal, rather than
mono?)

After trying, and failing, with RF speakers, this might be a better
solution....anyone see any downsides?

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: MIME:umar@xxxxxxx at INTERNET
Sent: 12 May 2002 07:45
To: White, Peter; ukha_d@xxxxxxx at Internet
Subject: [ukha_d] super cheap home house audio !!!!!!!!


I have been searching for an affordable whole house audio system.

I saw the following on

http://www.hometoys.com/tips/tips26.htm#Entry
3

Any thoughts - certainly is a cheap way - and instead of phone jacks
cat5
would be suitable !!!!!!!

Umar

***********************************************************
Entry 3 - Whole  House Audio for WELL Under $50

John Panicci   john@xxxxxxx
Products
Gadgets
Click Here

I use a program called "Home Seer", which many of you reading
this probably
already have or at least something similar.  Home seer can be set to
report
a number of things via it's 'text to speech' interface. This can range
from
announcements that someone is coming up the sidewalk, motion has been
detected in the backyard, caller id information when the phone rings,
weather alerts, breaking news announcements etc. This is all well and
good
if you happen to be by the computer when one of these events takes place
and
you are in the room to hear it.  If you are using another software
package,
it's audio can also be transmitted easily throughout the home.  Heck,
even
if you are not using  any type of  'text to speech" system,
this is a great
way to pipe those MP3's you have been stockpiling to any room in your
home
easily!

Thus, I was looking for a way to put audio throughout my house easily
and
making it affordable at the same time. There are quite a few options to
do
this, but this is what I have settled on, and it was well within my
budget.

First, I purchased a few sets of cheap AMPLIFIED computer speakers from
Tiger Direct.  These speakers are stylish, and also produce very
good
quality sound for music playback! The first thing I had to decide is how
to
get the audio into other rooms in my home. Luckily, I have a single
phone
line in my house and this was easily solved. There are 4 wires in a
standard
telephone wire that travels throughout your home. 99.9% of the time the
red
and green wires are used for the first line of the telephone. This
leaves
the black and yellow wires unused.  If you are unsure, when you remove
the
jack you can disconnect the red and green wires and test to see if you
have
a dialtone, if not then those are the wires used by your phone line. 
I
currently have DSL access in my home and that also just uses the first
2
wires (the read and green ones) and this setup will not interfere with
DLS
in any way.

IF you are using both phone lines, don't throw in the towel yet! You
can
still run the wire manually to the rooms you wish to have audio in and
still
be able to control which speakers are on. Read on, just skipping the
steps
to install the 1/8 jacks.
I removed the phone jack nearest to my computer and drilled a small
hole
allowing me to mount the 1/8 jack into the phone plate. This was very
simple
and has a professional installation look when you screw on the nut to
hold
the jack in place. I then attached the black and the yellow wires to
the
jack and replaced the wall plate. In rooms where I wanted to place the
speakers, I also drilled and mounted the the 1/8 jacks and replaced the
plates.

That done, now comes the easy part!

Take a 1/8 to 1/8 cable and plug one end into the audio output on your
sound
card. The other goes into the phone you prepared close to the computer
earlier. You now have audio going to every jack that you installed in
other
rooms in your home.

Now to automate the speakers, simply plug in the lamp module close to
the
phone jack and plug the amplified speakers into the module. Attach the
speaker cord to the phone jack. After you have your speakers all
plugged
into your phone jacks, and into the controlling modules, you are ready
to
go!

Grab a handy palm pad or other controller, and you can now switch the
speakers on and off in any room of your choice! Being the speakers are
amplified, you can run all of the speakers in all rooms at the same time
if
you wish!

To automate even further, I have motion detectors set up in each room
with
the speakers so the computer "knows" what rooms are occupied, and
if a call
comes in, the computer turns on the speakers in the room that is
occupied
and announces the caller. This can off course all be programmed in Home
Seer
as to announce only between certain hours, on certain callers etc. I
have
also set the last button on the palm pad to tell Home Seer to ignore
the
motion detectors, and take commands from the palm pad only. This is
great
when there is motion in the kitchen, and I want to listen to the MP3's
on
the living room stereo system.

On another note, I also wired this into my downstairs stereo. Using a
simple
1/8 to dual RCA plugs, I was able to play MP3's from my computer 
upstairs
through the stereo downstairs. Yes, it is in mono, but still comes
through
with excellent sound quality on the "simulated surround sound"
setting on my
stereo system. Of course I had to carry it a step further by using
another
palm pad to send play/pause/skip to the next song commands etc. to the
server.

NOTE: You probably have most of the following items already

List of Components:

* Some form of X-10 Transceiver
* Lamp  Module
* Palm Pad or other controller
* 1/8 jacks and plugs
* Amplified Speakers

Approximate Total Cost of Components

* Amplified speakers  10.99  Tiger Direct Cat# B500-2034 (These
are the
speakers that I am using and actually provide GOOD quality music
playback)
* Lamp Module  $12.99  X-10 Cat# LM465
* 1/8" Female Jacks(2 per package) $2.49  Radio Shack Cat.#:
274-251
* 1/8" phone to 1/8" phone (6 Ft.) $2.69  Radio Shack Cat.#:
42-2420



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