Re: Suggestions Please!

["mark_harrison_uk2" <mph@xxxxxxx>]

Mike,

I guess the obvious thing would be some fancy lighting effects for
your home cinema room. This is somewhat predicated on your having a
set of lamps that could be plugged into lamp modules, but that's a
necessary thing for making use of the lamp modules in any case.

Best way to acheive this would be to use Homeseer so that it
responded to certain X10 events something like:

- M1-ON - fade all lights to black
- M2-ON - turn all lights up to full (housecleaning mode)
- M3-ON - turn lights 1,2,3 on to x%, 4,5,6 to y% (lighting effect)

None of the actual lights would BE on the M housecode - M is reserved
for Macro triggering, which is what you use your remote control for.

Now, rather than simply "all lights off" to fade to black, you
could
do something like:

- Dim lights 1,2,3 by 10%, wait a second (repeat 10 times)
- Dim lights 4,5,6 by 20%, wait a second (repeat 5 times)

... and generally make like a cinema. I'm afraid I'm a HomeVision/xAP
user, so I don't know how to implement stuff like that in HomeSeer,
but I'm sure it can be done.

Regards,

Mark

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "krellboyne" <aardvaark@b...> wrote:
> Hi Everybody,
> I have been collecting bits of HA equipment for a couple of years
> with a view to getting a new house  and starting with HA seriously.
>
> Well the house price hike has resigned me to living in a rented
> house for quite a while. This is where you folks come in!
>
> It would be great if you seasoned HA veterens would offer me
> suggestions as to how I can use the equipment I have in a fun and
> useful way, without doing too much damage to walls & ceilings etc
> and can be easily taken with me when I do get my own place.
>
> The main things I would like to try are projects that will enhance
> my Home Theatre set-up and help with security matters (the house
has
> a next to useless old alarm system, and is in an area that is
> getting more dodgy by the day) anything that will help on these
> fronts will be well received.
>
> For my part I will offer as much feedback as I can. on the success
> of these ideas.
>
> The equipment i have available is as follows:
>
>    .................MY HA EQUIPMENT...........................
> 1x dedicated PC (90MHz Pentium 64 RAM 4GB HDD, LAN, Modem, Win 98)
> 1x Copy Homeseer v5
> 1x Marmitek HA Starter Kit (containing 1x 4in1 Remote + 1x X10
Radio
> receiver)
> 4x Home control Starter Kits (Each containing 1x Lamp Module, 1x
> Appliance module, 1x PC Serial Port interface "Home Control"
> Software)
> 2x Bayonet fitting Light Modules (no dimming)
> 5x Appliance Modules
> 3x lamp Modules
> 1x marmitek Radio Key-Ring Remote
> 2x US-UK Voltage Inverters (waiting to be used with something cool
> that is not available in UK)
> 2x 500watt Extenal Halogen lights with built in motion detectors
>
>      ...............ARRIVING THIS WEEK.........................
> 1x Touchscreen tablet PC (Just bought from EBay in the US spec as
> follows:
> CPU: 133 MHZ Pentium AMD Am5x86WB. Memory: 32MB EDO RAM
> HDD: 2.5" EIDE, shock mounted, 1.0 GB.
> LCD Resolution: 640X480 dot displays 65,536 colors.
> LCD Size: 8.4 in.
> Dimension: 10.25 X 7.0 X 1.5 inches
> Audio: Sound Blaster Pro Compatible.
> Battery: Rechargable Lithium-Ion: 10.8 V, 2700 mAH.
> External Power: 16 VDC, 2.5 A. Voltage 115/120V.
> Built-In I/O: (1) 2 PCMCIA sockets - Type II/III (2) DB-9 pin-male
> Serial Port RS-232 (3) Parallel 25pin-female port (4)
> Keyboard/Mouse:PS/2 Mini DIN (5)DC power socket-In (6)
> Microphone/Headphone: 3 mm jack (7) Infrared Port: IrDA 1.0.
> Network: Ethernet 10/100 MBPS.
> Modem: V90 56K Data/Fax Global Access.
> LCD Technology: TFT (active matrix) Color LCD with backlight
>
> ..........................MY A/V EQUIPMENT..........................
>
> 1X 32" 100Hz Widescreen TV
> 1x Thompson Tivo (unaltered)
> 1x LG Multi-region DVD (No Macrovision)
> 1x Panasonic S-VHS Nicam Video
> 1x Pioneer Laserdisk Player
> 1x Sony STR-DB8930 A/V Amplifier
> 1x Sony Playstation 2
> 1x Epson EMP500 LCD Projector (s-Video, Composite, SVGA inputs)with
> IR remote control
> 1x Bedroom Nicam Video & TV
> 1x Telewest Digital Cable Box (Can be controlled By Tivo)
> 1x Gigavideo 30 Wireless Video Sender/Receiver with IR transmission
>
>     ......................COMPUTER EQUIPMENT.................
>
> 1x Broadband Internet Link
> 1x Wireless Router
> 2x Non-dedicated PCs (Athlon 2200XP + decent Specs)Wireless-
Networked
> 1X palm IIIc
> 1x HP Jornada 454 Pocket PC
>
>
> I really hope you folks take me up on this offer
>
> Best Wishes
>
> Mike Lucas