Re: MMIR X-10 Macro IR Module

["John, SW Missouri" <jmjones@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bobby,

If you want to contact the seller to see what offers he might
entertain you can get to him from the listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110168798519

He was asking $199, but received no bids.

Considering these sell new for $600 it was a fair price.  In the event
it needs an upgrade (EPROM) it's only about $15 from http://www.csi3.com/homevis2.htm

In my opinion the Homevision controller is much easier to program than
the Ocelot.  I've had both.  I currently use a Homvision Pro and an
Elk M1G.  I'm still a long way from getting all my home automation
back up and running.  We're having a new porch put on the back of the
house and I'm making my own wrought iron railings - which is taking up
way too much of my time ;-(

You might take down the Homevision manual here and look it over before
making an offer.

http://www.csi3.com/HOMEVIS/manual.pdf

Because HV is a hybrid looping/event driven controller it can often
respond more quickly to events like IR or digital/analog inputs.  It
has many neat features built into the programming to make life easier
like,

if receive x10 A1 A2 A3 within 5 seconds
  do whatever

This would be possible, but cumbersome in the Ocelot - and many other
HA controllers.

For me IR recognition and transmit work flawlessly on the HV, but was
a pain on the Ocelot.

I'm not knocking the Ocelot, just pointing out some of the advantages
HV has.

I picked up a device similar to your MMIR on eBay awhile back and it's
sitting on the shelf.  It does NOT have the IR capabilities, just
macro expansion.  The first thing I didn't like about it is there's no
way to tell what you have in it and it would be very easy to overwrite
one macro with another.  The thing I bought is called a Macro Module
16 (MACMOD16).  Rumor was that it was made by the people that produce
the Monterey Signal Analyzer.  It does look very similar to the MSA.

See you're thinking your wife can handle the MMIR reprogramming, but
if you had a Homevision you wouldn't have to worry about resets - it
just runs and runs ;-)

If you're turning your outside lighting on/off with mini timers then
you're wasting electricity.  You need to follow sunrise and sunset to
do it right ;-)  The Ocelot will do that and I suppose you're using it
for that purpose.  I have compact fluorescents in my post lights which
stay on all night.  However if someone enters the drive in the middle
of the night the M1 turns on the 3 lights on the front of the house,
besides announcing an arrival.  The HV currently does just lighting
and some temperature recording, oh and it records all security events
like arming, disarming, alamrs, etc.  It prints these on a POS printer
- another eBay find.  In my prior install I had quite a few messages
that would pop up on the TV to remind us to take the garbage out,
birthdays were coming up, time for medication, etc.  With HV and your
IR remote you can control all 256 x10 devices, control macros, timers,
virtually anything in the HV controller can be run with your remote.
I sound like a salesman for them, but I'm just a happy customer.  I
have a touchscreen laptop with HomevisionXL ( http://hv.tclcode.com/ )
running that lets me turn lights, fans, etc on/off with a simple touch
on a graphical screen that shows what's on.  You can use this same
touch screen to control your TV or other IR appliances through HV.

Bobby - I have to admit that my wife can shoot her p3AT in .380 acp
way better than me - it hurts my hands.  But I can whip her with any
other firearm ;-)  She is a good sport though and trys her best with
everything I teach her.  I'm a .45 fan as well - I particularly like
my Para Ordnance P13-45 which gives me 14 with one in the snoot.  I
like Glocks too, but then there aren't many firearms I don't like ;-)

Last comment - send the MMIR back and put $100 with it and buy the
Homevision.

Cheers,

John