HouseBot

Steve - 1) I am using the Insteon Appliancelinc switches for the CFLs. The problem is once you turn on the CFL's, some of them generate enough noise to prevent the "off" command getting through. This impacts both Insteon and X10 commands. I have the odd situation where two CFLs turn on at ...

Bump... wondering if this is a limitation in the Insteon PLM no longer able to see X10 traffic on the powerline that the X10 Powerlinc V1 was able to (RIP)...

Hi All - Sorry for being away so long. I have some updates to share.. Two highlights to share, longer version follows for the curious... 1) I RMA'd my Powerlinc Modem - the new one seems to work MUCH better. No lockups requiring reboots. 2) Housebot does not seem to see X10 information coming on the...

Unfortunately, the Insteon PLM with the USB is actually a RS232 with a USB to serial converter built in. The reboots sound eerily like your earlier experiences with the RS232 board. I'll try an RMA and get another USB version of the PLM and see if it helps, if not, then I'll try the RS232 version.. ...

Lot of good questions here! :) Steve: When I had an earlier version of Housebot, I've never had to use task manager to force it to quit. Now when the comm with the Powerlinc Insteon PLM goes down, I usually have to reboot the machine to recover. This is extremely annoying as this is a server with ot...

Hi, Thought I'd post one more question before giving up on this forum altogether... ;) I have the USB interface version the Smarthome Insteon PLM, but it really is a USB to serial converter inside. However, I seem to notice Housebot "losing" communication with the Insteon PLM and I am wond...

Hi Steve - Thanks for replying! I could be persuaded to keep using the Insteon but I'd like to do it gradually (ie. phase in more Insteon products). Do you have the Insteon PLC or PLM? If the PLM, are you using the serial or USB interface version? I have the USB interface of the Insteon PLM, but it ...

Hi All - I have a script device that triggers when it sees a certain X10 command on the powerline traffic. I have an X10 transmitter that turns on a set of lights. With the POwerlinc X10 module, I was able to snoop on the X10 traffic and execute a script when it saw "M2 ON" command. Now I'...

Hi All - Longtime Housebot user. Haven't logged into this forum for years. I'm still running Housebot all this time - writing my own VB code, etc. I've been using the Smarthome X10 stuff (toggle lincs, lamplincs with a few 3rd party X10 modules here and there). I had been using the original X10 Powe...

Richard - I ran out of serial comm ports because my PC only had 1. I'm aware you can buy expansion serial port PCI cards but I didn't think it was worth the hassle. yaccri - The UPS is an APC Back-Up XS900 model. It does come with software, but I don't know enough about it whether it offers what I n...

Hi Y'all - I finally got around to getting a new UPS with a USB interface. I prevously had my HB server on an older UPS with a serial interface. However, I didn't have enough comm ports on the server to connect it to the UPS. The new one has a USB interface. I do know that Windows can detect when th...

Hi all - I have several Pocket PC's that I use as SW remotes for my HB. They all have WiFi capability. I would like to set them in a cradle and have them turn on automatically during the evening and weekends (when we're home) and turn off during the nighttime when we're asleep and during the weekday...

Hi y'all - I searched the forums for an answer to this and I did turn up an old post from 2004 - but alas, no solution. What I have is a timer that counts down to turn off the lights, but I'd also like to display the time remaining before the lights turn off (timer expires). For example, when I star...

Richard - I agree, I thought it was somewhat expensive too - the AT termination block was pricey and so was the IRE-5.0 blaster. However, it can be done more cheaply by using a passive terminator (that still has some active circuitry). One can be found here at Smarthome: http://www.smarthome.com/972...

All - just to bring closure to this thread. I decided to extend the reach of my USB-UIRT by extending the IR signal using the Cat-5E cabling and an IR terminating block. More details can be found in this post:

http://www.housebot.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=855949