Submission by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - "Firstly a little bit of background just to get you in the mood... I recently received Homevision as a Christmas present. Most people know what Homevision can do and it was one of these features that I was particularly interested in.. IR... Like most people into Home Automation I have a large(ish) number of IR controllable devices, amps, vcrs etc...

Submission by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - "It's not often that powerline technology gets me excited, most of us use X10 and we know it has short commings. This is different though. The ATL60142E wont turn your lights on and off, it wont close the curtains at night, but what it will do is provide you with a network connection. So what is so special about that I hear you cry. Well, the ATL60142E will provide this network connection anywhere that you have a power socket in the wall. That's right, it uses powerline technology to provide network connectivity...

Submission by Jason Starkie - IR Distribution on a budget.  As your Hi-Fi and Home Cinema set-up grows there usually comes a point where you want to put everything into a cabinet or on to shelves. This can cause problems as more often than not your IR remote(s) no longer have line-of-sight with your equipment and consequently no longer work. Enter the Keene IRDA. This handy gadget receives the IR signal from your remote and redistributes it to up to five discrete IR transmitters. It can even be direct cable-connected to any IR repeater you may have (eg Powermid etc). The Kit will mix and match with other Keene products to solve more or less any IR problems...

Submission by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - WHAT IS ROOMBA? Roomba is an 'intelligent floorvac' designed, as the manufactures put it, to "...keep your floors clean in-between periodic deep cleanings". In normal speak, it's not going to replace your existing vacuum cleaner, but it will reduce the times it needs to come out. It's manufactured by iRobot for distribution in the States. At the time of writing, they have no plans for official distributors in Europe...

What has this got to do with Home Automation? Well a bit actually as you will see when you take account of the features.

What is it? - The Kiss Coolview is a 15" wide format TFT screen which looks very attractive indeed and would fit into many a home or office and not look out of place at all. Nice silver screen surround with just five buttons, one small LED and one small IR receiver on the bottom section...

Submitted By: James Traynor - After the demise of my Nokia 7110 it was time for a new phone. My history of phones included the Nokia 9000 communicator, which was a great device that survived 2 years of very heavy and often rough use. It's main failings were a huge and heavy case, a quirky charger and a slow OS. The phone did it's job and did it well, it had a keyboard, it could send/receive email/faxes/sms, it could browse the internet (not that funny little WAP thing) and the most useful feature was the speakerphone...

I've had some problems with my TiVo signaling the Sky Digibox. I'm using a Pyramid affair to control TiVo from the bedroom upstairs and these seem to be notorious for sending out spurious IR. This noise then interferes with legitimate signal between TiVo and the Sky box. So, I decided to try one of the new RF2Links from PaceLink.

The RF2Link is a "hard wired" solution that takes the IR output on the back of TiVo and inserts it into the Sky Digibox on its RF2 connector in the same way the Sky TV Link IR extenders do...

Well, Christmas is upon us once again, and recently it's all been very serious here at Automated Home what with talk of X10 this and KAT5 that. Therefore in a more lighthearted spirit, I present for your enjoyment the Tomica Bitchar-G Miniature Radio Controlled Car! And in case you're still wondering, the home automation content of this article is as close to zero as makes no difference...