Re: Emergency Water Turn-Off?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"wkearney99" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> > No doubt about that!  I've got a bunch of fun projects.  I want to be
able
> > to tell when FedEx has pulled up to the curb.  If I can sense their
> arrival
> > when I am in the basement, I can get to the door before the "We tried to
> > deliver" tag gets looped on the handle.
>
> How about two simple solutions?  Since you know when you're going to get
> packages (fedex stuff doesn't usually come blind)

Sure stuff comes blind.  That's what started this project.

> then put up a post-it note that tells them not to leave
> without ringing the bell.

How can you leave a note for them if you don't know the package is coming
nor what method it is coming by and if you're out of town?  If the four or
five major carriers all alerted me when they had incoming packages, that
would eliminate the problem, but they don't.

>Then raise holy hell with the supervisor, IN PERSON, when
> they screw it up.  It won't take long for them to stop screwing up.

Well, bitch at FedEx someday and you might find that you, the lowly little
package RECIPIENT is NOT their client.  You have basically no rights of
recovery of fees or much else because the SENDER paid them the money to
ship.  I went up the food chain to a VP at FedEx.  They are doing much
better now and I suppose they'll continue to do a good job until there's a
new driver on my route.

But the bottom line is that I don't just want HA to turn lights on and off.
I want a truly *smart* home.  Part of that rudimentary intelligence should
include the ability to relay to me who is at my front door (or side door or
garage) or whether there are any packages sitting in puddles, visible from
the street or in a package box, should I choose to go that route.  The
technology "bricks" are all there.  I just have to figure out how to mortar
them together into a reliable structure.  Considering that this will also be
an integral part of a remote security system, I think it's time well-spent.

> Bothering with cameras, sensors and the like
> just seems like a surpreme waste of effort.

Lots of folks here have designed annunciator systems with various special
requirements.  I don't think you were here in CHA when the gentlemen with
the image recognition cat door presented his work but it was a fascinating
look at how powerful PC's had become.  Overkill?  Sure.  But people DO this
sort of stuff because they enjoy the challenge.  Some people build ships in
bottles.  If they enjoy doing it, and they derive some measure of
satisfaction from it, then who's to say it's a waste of effort, "surpreme"
or otherwise?

--
Bobby G.