Re:SWMBO and HA

[Robin Edwards <robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I too have messed around for 3-4 years, nowhere near as serious as
most on this
list.  My 'words of advice' from experience:
1: Make sure what you do has desired effect.  I sold my wife on motion
detector
in our very small utility room to see in dryer/washing machines easily
using
angle poise lamp.  I deployed successfully and she thought it was great for
two
or three days then the TM13 (or whatever) forgot it was supposed to spot
motion
signals from the PIR and didnt turn on.  Loads of fiddling/discussion here
and
on MrHouse list showed how crap the TM13 is.  Bought a WGL800 in place of
it.
Worked perfectly for last two years... but the foot had already been shot
off.
Message: family are descerning and demanding users, no second chance.
2: Dont give up
3: This is 7x24x365, it must work all time regardless, just like ATMs and
their
backup systems.  Its not as important to the population of the UK, but it
sure
is to your family.
4:Dont give up
5: I spend maybe an hour or two fiddling per week.... its fun and one day
you'll
hit the killer application for your house and be a hero (when you do let me
know
what it is!)
6: Start where it will be well recieved, whilst not HA I deployed a Slimp3
or
Squeezeboxes to listen to music in each room and enabled MrHouse to send
messages to them.  Its interesting to watch the first time 'xxx has email
from
yyy) scroll across the device and people actually got up, left the room to
see
the content of the email!
7: Dont give up
8: The second item thats worked for me is the Slimp3 in the bathroom
(actually
its outside as its 240V) but the waterproof speakers are in the ceiling an
a
DrAmp inwall amp is also in the ceiling.  The amp and LV shower LEDs are
plugged
into a pair of 13 amp sockets in ceiling void and controlled by an SS13(?)
stick-on switch next to Slimp3 outside bathroom door.  Nobody knows or
cares how
it hangs together apart from me, even better and even relatives who have
stayed
over have been impressed with the music in the bathroom.

robin