HouseBot

Hi y'all - I was able to extend the reach of the USB-UIRT device by using a Cat-5E cable and an IR terminating block. I'm including a writeup with pictures on how I did this so that it helps others that are interested in doing this. Right now, this only works one-way (IR blaster) because the USB-UIR...

I forgot about the IR extender idea! I could do an IR extension over Cat5 cable and have the IR signal boosted locally. What would you suggest for an IR extension/blaster set up? Something like this perhaps: USB-IRT -> IR w/ Cat5 extender -> IR blaster (with local power source) I believe the IR blas...

Hi Y'all - Got a bit of a thats-out-there situation with my HB. I currently am using an USB extender over Cat5E cable so I can hook up the PC that runs the Housebot server to control my USB-IRT over the cat5E wiring. What I have is an USB-IRT in my living room that I would like to use to control my ...

Richard - I checked out your post regarding your temperature sensing network. Very impressive - all homebrewed! However, I'm not sure what part of your sensing network is wireless? It appears that your temperature sensors connect to a microcontroller to obtain the temperature data. Are all your micr...

What did you use for the wireless temperature sensing network? Where did you get it from? I don't see why a wireless network couldn't have a long battery life - my alarm system has wireless components and the battery in those sensors have been still working for the last 3 years since I got the syste...

I want this!! http://www.pointsix.com/cgi-bin/PointSix.cgi?PointSensor How do I get this stuff? It doesn't look like its sold to customers in residential markets. I'd love to have an array of wireless sensors like this around the house and have it communicate the temperatures to HB without wires! Th...

YES!! I second this! It would be nice to build a tree view of the devices to show the dependencies. I've often wondered where all my property values are being used, and which task depend on which device, etc. It happens if I haven't touched HB in a long time. Which really a testament to how stable a...

I have a problem with my caller ID on my modem, but of a different sort! I have distinctive ring service on my phone service. For those unfamiliar with distinctive ring, what it does it rings normally for one phone number, and gives two short rings for a second phone number, but is on the same physi...

Scott - Thanks for the link. I created a quick table for the same day each month and it turns out that the time elapsed between the sunset and civil twilight is the same! That is odd because it gets darker here quickly and I have to turn the lights on sooner in the wintertime and when its summer tim...

Scott -

That sounds great! It sounds like you already thought of this! Are the offsets constant throughout the year or do the offsets change depending on the time of the year?

When are we going to start beta testing HB v3 for you???

Hi Y'all - I have a bit of an odd question here. I use HB to turn on and off my exterior lights at sunrise and sunset, but I don't turn them on just at sunrise and sunset, but sometime before (or after depending) these events actually occur. Now, I'm wondering what HB defines as sunrise and sunset. ...

It could be that the keys on the UMPC are special keys with their own device driver. As an example, the MCE remote that came with the MCE windows machines had a special driver. Even though the remote appeared to function as a keyboard in some cases (numbers and arrows), the driver was doing the actu...

I had this problem with my USB Powerlinc - at some point, it stopped responding to any of the software (both Smarthome and Housebot) after providing months of service. My conclusion - it malfunctioned and I contacted Smarthome. Since it was within a year, they provided me a new one, free of charge u...

Hi - Sorry for the late reply. My log file is actually created by a custom VB script. I have a USB Templinc which I wrote a VB script to query and process its temperature data. Because I'm a nerd, I have the script tracking the highest and lowest temperature recorded for the last three days (actuall...

I use the GIF (really, PNG) format for my plots that are to be displayed in my SW remotes and you can specify a transparent background so that the background in the SW remote can be seen (and its color). If you look in the gnuplot documentaiton, there are qualifiers to use for the GIF format (size, ...