RE: X10-to-Infrared, for controlling your entertainment system

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Martin,

Welcome.

As an aside to the technical details of your current desires, I'm
interested in how your peer group view home automation...

The reason I ask is that I'm, shall we say, "a bit older than
you". When I was at University, only two people in our hall had
computers - Amir and me - and we were the two studying Maths and
Computation. At the time, having a computer was "a bit odd", and
running a (serial) cable up the stairs to network them was "very
odd". Likewise, we only knew one person with a mobile phone - the
father of one student - and he also drove a Rolls Royce with a custom
number plate :-)

My little sister finished a PGCE last year, immediately after a 3-year
B.A.. In her student house in her third-year, there were six of them, with
six laptops, and six mobile phones - none of them were studying anything
sciency, let alone IT. Computer usage/ownership, therefore mainstream.

Is HA viewed as "a bit wierd", "very wierd" or what by
your peers?


OK - turning to your issues.

IR control from PCs - try looking at girder - www.girder.nl

How you'd trigger it from your CM12, I'm not sure - personally I'd use
something like HomeSeer (but that costs $75 - however, it is available on a
30-day trial.

Personally, I use HomeVision, but I'm guessing that that's out of you price
expectations at the moment... nonetheless, a great bit of kit.

Regards,

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: malynchcc@xxxxxxx [mailto:malynchcc@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 15 May 2002 23:42
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] X10-to-Infrared, for controlling your entertainment
system


All,


Ive just starting out in home-automation and having only recently finished
Uni and bought my first house, I have limited money to spend. Ideally I
would 
like to build a system that doesnt require me to buy an out-of the box
system 
(simply because of the costs).

My 2bed house is in need of a major refurb and so I have a great
opportunity 
to run wires for a LAN, whole house audio, voice control, lighting, and
cabling for Infrared control.

My first question is:
Voice control of my automated units could be expensive becuase of the need
for a gated amp and ceiling mounted mics. An alternative solution for 
controlling the devices is via infrared. I understand that a unit exists
transforming Infrared and RF to x10 which is great news. But once Ive sent
a 
command (using a remote control or other device) to my PC, what device
exists 
that will turn x10 signals from PC CM12U controller into Infrared
signals??
You maybe wondering why I want an x10-to-infrared conversion. Well....once
ive got my lighting sorted using x10 modules (ive bought 1 x ld11 DIN rail
dimmer for my lounge lighting) I would my computer to be able to turn the
TV 
onto channel 6, start my DVD player, switch my hi-fi onto video mode and
adjust the volume to a predetermined value...all in response to a single
press of a button on the remote which tells the computer Im going to be
watching a movie and require the above actions to be executed.

All my home entertainment stuff is activated by infrared.

My second questions is:
If an x10-to-Infrared conversion isnt possible, I could wire each room 
independantly of the mains. In this instance I would have a bundle of wires
in the room where my computer is, but no device in which to terminate them.
If a device for connecting multiple Infrared cables does exist, how would I
then connect this device to my computer?


Sorry for the length of this email.
Cheers
Martin 


Nb: My collection of Home Automated Devices so far consists of:
      1 x cm12u controller
      1 x DIN rail dimmer (a module I intend using
for controlling a group of 
lights in the lounge)
and thats it......so far at least. Im still deciding what devices to buy. I
have read somewhere, probably from this discussion group, that its possible
to have whole house audio and to have the output either in every room or
just 
in the room youre in. This is achieved by using PIR detectors which then
tell 
your computer to switch the output from the amp to specific speakers. Is
this 
true???


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