Submission by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - I imagine that I began my first experiments in home automation in the same way as most people, with a vague idea about how cool remote controlled scene lighting would be. A few quick searches on the web led to the discovery of X-10, and the realisation that all I would need to start would be a lamp module, a wall switch, an Infra-red (IR) to X-10 converter such as the IR7243 and a remote control It quickly became apparent that the affordable learning remote controls were nowhere near cool enough to do justice to remote controlled lighting, which really only left the touch-screen remotes...

One of the most basic elements of any system that uses X10 as part of it's control solution is the LM12, or lamp module. The fact that it's a cheap and often comes as part of a starter pack means that, along with the AM12, it's a common peice of kit in any HA beginners arsenal.

Submission by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - Li at Laser.com kindly lent me a Robocam to try out with my existing X10 camera. The robocam is a pan & tilt base for mounting your X10 camera on allowing you to keep a watchful eye on a wider field of view than the camera currently provides...

Submission by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - First a big thanks to Li at Laser.com for lending me the X10+ Light Spike to play with and review. The X10+ light spike is advertised as "a convenient way to automate garden lighting" but is it? Well the look and feel of it is chunky enough, the 80W bulbs are reasonable substantial and bulbs are available in a variety of colours (white, green, blue, red and yellow). As you would expect it also has a spike on it for sticking it in the ground...

Having obtained a number of Mini Timers from Homebase for £2.99 each, the first thing I needed to do was remove the electronics from the nicely styled case. Turning the case over I saw two screws at the back. There are in fact four screws to be removed, the other two are at the front under the rubber feet...

 Submission by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - I got a weather station from Skyview in the UK and it turns out that the system is the Oregon Scientific WM-918, which in this case is branded as Huger, from Germany. After several months of use it has proved to be incredibly reliable and stable, my only complaint was that the software that came with it was a bit pants really and offered little or no hope of integrating it into the Homevision setup...