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Chris Coutures Idea Page!
This thread has 13 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Friday September 3, 1999 at 03:35
Chris Couture
Historic Forum Post
I have come up with this thread for those whom can follow me. I am a 27 year old who has grown up in the sound business. My father worked at a hi-fi store when I was born in 1972 and started his own company in 1980. Since then, we have been installing home ,car audio and professional products. We just completed the new Auburn University stadiums sound system and are currently working with FSU on their new plans...Anyway, in 1989 I started working with with the company building car audio speaker boxes and doing simple installs. With my "What can I make this do?" attitude, I quickley became interested in the auto security side of the car audio field. It didn't take long before I had vehicles starting themselfs and rolling up their own windows when it rained (features not available back then). Anyway, later, I purchased a new car. The day after I get it, I took it apart and started installing the security and sound system. "Who cares" you say but it took me over 2 1/2 years to complete it. I was shooting to use it in I.A.S.C.A. (International Auto Sound Challange Assosiation) sound and security competitions. Well, we did it! We took the car to the ultimate competition, the I.A.S.C.A. Finals in Tulsa O.K. and guess what? We won! This ment that we had the badest security system in a vehicle in the WHOLE U.S.A. Anyway, this car could: start and shut off via remote or over the phone, turn the radio on and off by the remote, open the trunk, open the windows, if you would come close to it with the windows open and it would roll up the windows, motorized panels, radio on/off from the alarm remote, call the car to see if it is armed from a standard phone, start it from the phone, advance the track on the CD from the alarm remote, turn on or off sensors from the remote, turn on or off sirens, pagers, strobe lights etc... from the remote... Anyway what I am getting at here is that I have grown up and my car is now my home. I am gonna share any ideas I have with you guys who are interested! Here is just a few things my home does for me using X-10:
I wake up to the sounds of 80's music on my bedroom and bathroom speakers every weekday morning at 7:10am. The Bedroom fan, which was turned on by the bedroom macro the night before, turns off. The bathroom lights turn on and my wife and I figure we better get moving. We do the morning stuff, take a shower, get dressed and we leave... never touching a single thing. At 8:10am the house shuts it's self down. We sometimes meet at the house for lunch. A simple touch of the Touchlinc keypad and we are watching or listening to whatever we choose. So anyway, shes get it good, the end of the day for her, it's only 1:00pm! So, I go back to work and she does those wifely duties, you know, the cloths and dishes. Anyway, I come home at 7:00pm. The outside lights turn on shortly after at sunset. We hit Movietime on the Pronto and it ask "what do you want to watch" we reply with a satellite button. Not a problem the system replies as the houselinc turns on all the Audio and Video equipment and adjust the lights to the perfect level, tunes to satillite and... So we watch the movie and it's over. We press power on the pronto and it ask "are you sure, do you want to turn everything off, go to bed of disregard the button press?" We reply with a "go to bed" and the macro starts to turn the A/V system off, the bedroom lights on and the bathroom light on. So we settle into the bed after we wash out face and hands. We push a Slimfire remote button to turn off all the lights. Snoor, Snoor, Snoor... did we leave the garage door open? No, the close door macro always shuts it if it were open. BUT! there was a box in the way and the door didn't shut! Well luckly we have motion dectors that will detect intruders and cause a "intruder" macro to happen which flashes the bedroom lights, sounds a remote chime and turns on the outside lights... anyway that guy in jail wa continue to sleep...suddenly at 7:10 am we are awakened by the sound of 80's music. Thats right we had a macro to tuen on the bedroom speakers and tune the satellite to 823. Cool if your ready to wake up but where is the snooze? It's only a reach away... one push of the slimfire remote and a delay on happens... 10 min. later you experiance the same anoying sound, it's the Bangels with "Just Another Mantic Monday" O'well it's time to get up so you do and you go off to work...

The rest is up to you!
Chris Couture "with a few drinks in me"







OP | Post 2 made on Friday September 3, 1999 at 10:26
Chris Couture
Historic Forum Post
Please visit New products, Tips and Tricks... for eairlier ideas. Any future cool ideas will be posted here.
Thanks,
Chris Couture
OP | Post 3 made on Friday September 3, 1999 at 10:31
Chris
Historic Forum Post
Do you have a motion sensor mounted outside that notifies you someone has entered your driveway via a remote chime? Are you tired of the chime going off through out the day? Simply plug it into a cheap wall timer to only come on at say 9:00pm to 5:00am. This way it will only activate between those times.
OP | Post 4 made on Friday September 3, 1999 at 14:30
Daniel Tonks
Historic Forum Post
Hmm, sounds like someone's got WAY too much time on their hands. ;-)
OP | Post 5 made on Friday September 3, 1999 at 15:59
Chris
Historic Forum Post
I don’t know if its too much time or to many wheels spinning in my head. I haven’t really spent that much time on the project, maybe 40 hours total. That is programming the houselinc, the touchlinc and the pronto and installing everything. I spent over 1500 hours on the car! (Boy was that stupid, when I finished it I ripped it all out in 2 hours and sold it). Anyway, I don’t want to come off as a “peter head” and act like I am bragging, I simply want to give you all the opportunity to look at my ideas and maybe use them if they work for you. I hope others will share their ideas for me to see and use.

Also, Daniel, this is a wonderful website. I want to take a moment to say “THANKS!” The information that is available here is awesome.

Thanks,

Chris

P.S. Sorry about the novel I wrote this morning. I get a little long winded when drinks are cold.
OP | Post 6 made on Friday September 3, 1999 at 16:30
Daniel Tonks
Historic Forum Post
LOL, now that I think about it I'm not one to speak - even in jest. Even though the visible signs may be minimal, it takes a lot to keep a site of this size (190 pages + 13,000 messages) running. I haven't even found time yet to purchase and install a simple X-10 system so I don't have to keep getting up to adjust the lights. :-P
OP | Post 7 made on Friday September 3, 1999 at 16:48
Roland S
Historic Forum Post
Anyone have any suggestions on a mailbox "mail is here!" notifier? Something that just flips on a nightlight to notify you the mailman(woman) just put something in the mailbox.

I tried to put a Hawkeye II in the back of the mailbox, but the signal wouldn't get to the house. Is it because of the metal mailbox? The house is only about 40 feet from the mailbox.

Smarthome sells something specifically for that, but it's $70. A little too expensive for that simple task.

Maybe i'm being a little lazy be not taking the extra 100 steps out to the mailbox, but this is what home automation is all about! :)
OP | Post 8 made on Friday September 3, 1999 at 17:24
Chris Couture
Historic Forum Post
Four ideas:
One: Extend the antenna in the Hawkeye so it can be placed outside of the mailbox. Inside the Hawkeye there is a small loop of wire. I don’t know if this can be extended by cutting the loop and placing a wire in series or if just attaching a wire to it would work.
Two: Use the sensor for the garage door detector. The mailman would wonder what the heck that big box on the door is but it may have better range.
Three: Buy a plastic mailbox.
Four: Get one of those vacuum delivery systems like the banks have. This is probably more expensive than the RF extender you spoke of but you wouldn’t have to check it at all than.

Chris
OP | Post 9 made on Saturday September 4, 1999 at 16:50
Robert (RCI Automation)
Historic Forum Post
Roland:

What we normally use for this type of application is a long range transmitter and receiver (500 to 700 feet). If it is a mailbox that the customer wants notification for, we use a magnetic contact on the mailbox door, that is connected to the long range transmitter. The digital receiver is installed in the customers house where it is connected directly to a digital input of a Stargate, or a Powerflash module. If a Powerflash module is used, it sends an X-10 signal when the mailbox is opened. What's nice about these digital receivers is that they are available in 4 and 8 channel versions so you use use other wireless transmitters in other locations using the same receiver. This product even has a wireless smoke detector that can be used as a transmitter on one of the channels.

Robert
RCI Automation
rciautomation@compuserve.com
[Link: ourworld.compuserve.com]
OP | Post 10 made on Thursday September 9, 1999 at 15:37
Chris Couture
Historic Forum Post
You CAN add more that one IR543 in the same room and have them set on different house codes. The problem is that when they are both on, the signals collide and become lost. The X-10 IR codes are not house code specific so both IR543’s would send out a 4 on one on one house code and one on the other. Use a contact module to trigger a time delayed relay set for 10 seconds. Then when the module makes its contact, it will start the delay of 10 seconds. One IR543 is hooked to the N.O and one to the N.C. The one on the N.C. and the contact module are set to the same code (lets say A for example). When the number code to the contact module (lets say 16 for example) is sent, it will start a 10 second delay which allows the other IR543 to become active (lets say B). 10 seconds later, house code A returns for use. You could have a macro in the pronto to “automate” the A16 to allow the second IR543 to become active for 10 seconds. Later in the macro you could issue the unit information.

Example macro: What is happening

16 on contact, ten second delay starts allowing IR543 (B) to be on, contact off (momentary)
1.0 sec delay allows unit to be come active
4 on triggers 4 on, on house code B

About 6 seconds later, house code A becomes active again. Unless retriggered by another “change macro”
Use the B code to Trigger all your “home automation” macros and A code to do direct lighting control.

Chris Couture
OP | Post 11 made on Friday September 17, 1999 at 19:16
Chris Couture
Historic Forum Post

I programmed a macro to turn the PIP on the TV on when a motion was sensed at the front door. This macro switches the video input to display the camera at the door and switches the program I was watching to the PIP menu. It also triggers the remote chimes and turns the outside lights on. After a while of the chimes going ding dong for several times when someone visited, I came up with this idea. I started the macro with a command to disable the RF transceiver using an appliance module in line with it. The macro turns the RF transceiver back on after 10 minutes and sends a few on commands are sent throughout the day to insure the RF transceiver is in the proper mode (the on mode). It works great and no longer do the remote chimes drive we crazy. This could be incorporated into various situations where if the motion sensor is tripped several times, it caused problems.

Chris Couture
OP | Post 12 made on Tuesday October 5, 1999 at 10:43
Roland S
Historic Forum Post
Here's something I thought about that I'd like to do in the future.

My front yard has a light post. I would like to install a pinhole camera (wide-angle) inside it facing the house. Power source would obviously piggyback off the lamp.

I can then monitor the exterior of the house remotely (i.e. from work or vacation) via the internet. Or I can see who has approached the front door (albeit, their backside) in a PIP box on my TV.

X-Cam obviously wouldn't work because of it's size.

Just another idea...

Roland

OP | Post 13 made on Tuesday October 5, 1999 at 10:48
David B.
Historic Forum Post
Roland (or anyone interested),

http://www.supercircuits.com/ is a great site for tiny cameras.

Dave
OP | Post 14 made on Tuesday October 5, 1999 at 11:44
Chris Couture
Historic Forum Post
Roland,
We purchase a lot from these guys. Check them out for the camera.

[Link: atvresearch.com]

Chris Couture


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