Re: NOT OT: Remote Control Socket.

["mark_harrison_uk2" <mph@xxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Rob Mouser" <rmouser@t...> wrote:
> Hmmmmm, I like the sound of the music following bit. Come
> Keiran tell us more?

It all stems from a UKHA London mini-meet at a pub on the river back
in June 2001...

... at the time, the world of HA in the UK was all about remote
control. Prontos were new, sexy, and expensive - and lighting control
was done by (computer) timers or remotes.

We had a discussion, in which Kieran came up with some forward-
thinking stuff.

In the meeting write-up, on the 22nd June, 2001, I wrote:

> Kieran has some interesting ideas about sensing, and automatic
> control of what happens in the house based on what the house
> detects is going on, rather than everything being
> remote-control-centric.

Then, on the 7th August 2001, I wrote:

> Well, I finally got around to trying to implement some of this,
> on a very small scale, in my dressing room. The only sensor
> I'm using at the moment is an MS13E, which is using a TM12U
> to signal back onto the "real" X-10 carrier. The control
> system is Homevision.
> [...] then one of two things happens. During the daytime,
> nothing. During the night, however, walking into my dressing
> room causes the lights to come on (and then go off again a
> minute after I've left). I know that there's a latency problem
> in switching on, but to a large extent, 3 nights has been
> enough to allow me to walk into the room confidently, rather
> than stopping and reaching for the wall switch.

Since then, I've made a few changes.

1: I've moved away from the MS13E (X-10 PIRs) to an Ecolume PIR
directly connected to one of HV's input ports. This has improved both
the latency and the reliability of the system.

2: I've set things so that as well as the lights coming on, an
Appliance Module turns on an amp, which is fed from the bedroom via a
KAT5 pair. This feels really nice.

3: I've dumped the "whether it's day or night makes a difference"
logic. Now, the light comes on every time. Basically, I found that
the downside of the light coming on during bright days was
negligible, but the upside of it coming on on overcast days was good.
In principle, light-level detection could be added to the mix, but
not yet.

4: This is all xAP-controllable as well. By virtue of this, I have MY
look-feel on the house Intranet, which sends a xAP message that the
HomeVision xAP-plugin picks up. Nothing wrong with the HomeVision
built in website, but doing it this way means that the visual
identity of the house Intranet is far more cohesive.

Next steps:

5: Do the same in the en-suite shower (my bathroom) vis occupancy
detection, lighting, music control, and in this case, control of the
extractor fan as well (already on an X-10 module and thus xAP/web
controllable.)

6: Assuming we like the sound of the Sonance speakers in our
environment, add music to the family bathroom (Mary's bathroom) in
the same way.

Basically, Kieran's premise was that houses that REACTED to you being
there and doing things, rather than waiting till you had to make a
control action has proved very good for living with.

Mary likes it, since it means I leave the volume down in the master
bedroom when I'm dressing, because I've a local, automated system in
the dressing room. Previously, I used to turn the volume up :-)

Haven't set up the Sonance's yet - got a subwoofer as part of the
same delivery this afternoon, which took priority :-)

Regards,

Mark