home automation

Well, you got everything you needed for a billing, vehicle presence, good tag read, vehicle gone twice, so it looked like the same vehicle went through it twice. It was far enough apart that it didn't look like a normal multi-read!

Charlie

I saw a little automated curtain that would lower itself over the car license plate when activated, allegedly to preserved privacy when the car is parked. Totally impractical for any place cold, of course, but I think there are LCD versions as well.

I've heard it as well. IIRC there were attempts to make it work but at least part of them were not successful.

One issue with many current home automation systems is that they work very nicely and seemingly reliably in a just completed or renovated empty house. Once you plug in TVs, computers, electric toothbrushes and whatnot the whole thing begins to fall apart. To the technically inclined the reasons are usually obvious.

More than the usual 20-30 minutes you'd need for a complete round trip to the same point? The only vehicles I could imagine to show up more than once enery two hours would be taxi cabs.

Amen to that. My small X-10 "system" has failed several times when we added or changed something in the house that was not even controlled by X-10. The last two: added outdoor light with motion detector and X-10 "lost its mind", and replaced an electric toothbrush with a new one and X-10 lost its mind again. I had to build filters both times.

Yup, after a time or two. I did some hair pulling to diagnose the first problem (years before the ones above), & less hair pulling the second time. By the time I installed the outdoor light, I was wondering if the X-10 would go crazy _before_ I started the installation. While diagnosing the toothbrush problem was easy, I have to admit that I was very surprized that it occurred.

Ed

At those speeds, it takes about 100 miles for an SR-71 to make a U-turn. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

I've used X10 in three houses and an apartment now. Other than one circuit it's always worked for me. I don't use it much anymore but I just plugged in an appliance module to run my outdoor Christmas lights and a 27-year-old base. It works perfectly. I'll add another appliance module for the tree on Sunday. Next month I'll pack all the X10 stuff with the tree for another 11 months. ;-)

Yeah, for that it works (short distance). We have the tree and nativity scene on X10 as well. But that's about all it's really good for out here.

Ours are running on good old-fashioned programmable timers ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Short distance? How big *is* your house?

the

Most of this was done between some large defense contracts so they had to use the people, or lay them off. It was cheaper than paying the unemployment, and gave them a new product line. :)

They don't use UHF radio control in California? It's been used in some areas for over 20 years. A pole mounted low power repeater serves a mile or so to poll the controllers on homes that agree to their conditions. First generation equipment was all over the surplus market a few years ago. With FIOS becoming more common it will be easy to not only get reliable communications, but to monitor for power outages.

All they can presently do out here is, for example, turn an AC on and off. That's it. And you get $25 discount. Needless to say hardly anyone in the neighborhood did that, this is _not_ smart grid, automation or whatever. It's crude.

If I find a realiable wall switch timer we'll go back to timers as well (for outside lights).

LCD is also not so great for any place cold.

I don't worry about such things. I utilize a Christmas lighting "service". They put up my lights the day before Thanksgiving, take 'em down and store them for me, after New Years (gradually switching me over to all-LED ornaments in the process ;-) ...Jim Thompson

the

Or hot, for that matter.

Then, next year, you'll also let them handle the Christmas shopping for you, setting up the dinner table, uncorking the Syrah and all those other chores :-)

I don't know about Jim, but that's what I have a wife for. ;-) Of course she keeps me around to climb the ladder and put all the blinky stuff up outside.