Frank McAlinden has contacted us about a special offer of 20% discount on his I/O Expander for HomeVision (now only £39.96 + VAT)...

"Attention all HomeVision Users - Got some Christmas Home Automation that needs some extra I/O? Then take a look at my HV I/O Expander. It's a little device that hangs off the HomeVision Expansion Bus, allowing up to eight input or output devices (or combination) to be connected to the Expander. For example, in my own setup I use an Expander setup as an input device to monitor the status of my alarm pirs and this is used to trigger lighting commands at scheduled times. In the very near future I will be using an Expander as an output device to control my curtains and it's also going to replace an IR relay interface in my setup. Another user has employed the Expander to monitor his Home / Away status via his Keyrack Interface Project. Maybe you need to control some LED lighting? Give it a whirl, especially now as Laser are giving 20% OFF over the Christmas break...

One of our readers has just informed us of this half price offer on the BT Home Monitor system - The offer ends at midnight TONIGHT. The package is reduced from £179.99 to £90.00. At checkout enter the Code BTHM50...

Over the last few days you may have noticed some odd blocks of code appearing on the site, and a lack of updates.

Well, it looks like most of the bumps have been ironed out and we are now on a new super fast server (special thanks to Li and Stuart for all their help).

You should now find Automated Home faster and more responsive than ever.

I'd always been interested in gadgets, and especially connecting stuff up together. While my soldering skills have always been pretty awful, I had wired my black and white portable telly to my record players amplifier when I was about 14. Playing the TV through my big speakers just seemed such an obvious thing to do. Various other teenage projects included controlling my bedroom light by infrared remote and creating a pressure pad from a wire coat hanger, some tin foil and a magazine to alert me of incoming sisters...

Here's another external hard drive bargain we've spotted. The Seagate 320GB USB drive is now available at the reduced price of £129.99 £79.99 (a saving of 38%). You can reserve and collect one at your local PC World Store, or have it delivered for just £4.99 CLICK HERE TO BUY

• 320GB Storage Capacity
• Back up all your Important Data
• Store 5,330 Hours of Music
• Store 102,400 Digital Photos
• Store 320 hours Digital Video
• Whisper Quiet Technology
• Simple USB Connection to Setup

Rolec have just announced the completion of their new smart home demo room... "The Rolec Group are please to announce the opening of their new Demo Room - Following extensive refurbishment of their 19th Century Coach House Offices they have created a dedicated meeting and demonstration room ideal for showing potential and existing customers alike the benefits of various Home Automation products. All in one room they have working displays of...

RemoteCentral.com have released another of their excellent videos, this time it's from the CEDIA Expo 2006 held in Denver. The video includes the first footage we've seen of the new Philips Pronto Professional TSU9600...

"I'm very pleased today to release a milestone, namely our tenth video so far, the CEDIA Expo 2006 Video Report. In this year's extended eight and a half minute video you'll not only see all of the latest handheld universal remote controls and accessories as exhibited at the show, but you'll also get special spoken introductions to four of the remotes, you'll be able to see a little bit of the city of Denver, and you'll even experience the ever-famous Amp Toss...

Here's another hot bargain for your smart home. The Western Digital WDXE1600JBU is a 160GB external Hard Drive with an ethernet port so you can just plug it straight into your network and start sharing its files. At just £64.99 Delivered it's a real bargain.

"Now its easy to share pictures, video, music, files and even a printer in your home or office with WDs NetCenter network hard drive. With just 3 simple steps youre up and running: 1. Plug the drive into your router. 2. Run the wizard. 3. Use WD's EasyLink utility to set up NetCenter as a local drive on any computer on the network."

Buy it Here

We've been sent this interesting essay from Alex Chelmis. Take a few minutes to read his ideas and let us know what you think on our FORUMS or MAILING LIST...

Submission by: Alex Chelmis

Preface
Since I remember myself, I have always been fascinated by robots. As a kid it was my favourite day-dreaming subject and loved all the movies that featured robots of any kind. Soon I realised that I was also attracted by other gadgets you could use in order to perform an operation that would be too difficult, or need too much time and effort for a human. At some point it became clear that what actually fascinated me was anything that would automate an operation which otherwise would need a human interaction. It was inevitable to fall in love with the new "up-coming" world of home automation. Unfortunately, every time I tried to follow a project published or advertised about home automation, I found myself getting confused and finally bored with the details. During the past 15 years I have visited exhibitions and read many articles and white papers offering "all in one" home automation solutions. After the initial excitement, I got confused with unnecessary complicated processes, giving me the feeling that they have completely missed the point. Everything that currently exists under the title of "home automation" or "smart home" is a proprietary idea customised to somebody else's requirements who is trying to convince you that his everyday needs are similar to yours. Any attempt to create open standards (X10) has failed to get broadly accepted and any only appeals to computer & electronic "geeks". I think we got into this situation because people have forgotten the reason they wanted to automate something in the first place. This is what this article is all about. Reminding people the basics, and help them maintain the focus on satisfying the "why" while they come up with ideas of "how" they need to automate an operation. I believe there is a need for projects to change the way they are developed, in order to become more appealing to the average person. It is about time for this industry to hit the mass market and you can only achieve that by talking to the non-technical person. There is some much to gain from home automation, enough to change our everyday lives; forever...