How best to achieve this...

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  • CWatters
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Nov 2006
    • 19

    How best to achieve this...

    Newbie here with a few questions..

    I'd like to be able to simulate activity in my house when I'm away. I imagine someone probably has a computer program that I could leave running on my PC that would switch a few lights on and off in the evening via X10? Anyone got any recommendations?

    I'd also like to set up an external PIR that when triggered turns on an outside light and after a delay turns on a light (or two) inside the house via X10. Is it best to have that PIR control the lights directly or via the prog on my PC?

    I doubt I will be getting heavily into home automation so I'm looking for the simplest way to do this. I'm familiar with house wiring.
  • toscal
    Moderator
    • Oct 2005
    • 2061

    #2
    The cheapest way to do this is to use the Activehome software that came with the CM11. There is a setting in the software to learn your activities over a period of a day. So you could use this. Or what I have done for my parents is to set say some lights to come on 30 mins after sunset and enabled the security setting for 30 mins. So the lights don't come on at exactly the same time everyday.
    The Pir can trigger a module direct, but I think its beter if it triggers a macro. That way you can have a light coming on outside almost immediately then say after 1 minute a light comes on inside. You can then set a delay so that the outside light goes off after 2 minutes and the inside light goes off 3 minutes later.
    IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
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    • CWatters
      Automated Home Jr Member
      • Nov 2006
      • 19

      #3
      Thanks. My own research led me to the same conclusion so I installed a CM11 and Activehome yesterday.

      Can't get Activehome to talk to the CM11 at present. As soon as I set the COM port under preferences the system locks up with x10com32.exe taking 99% of the CPU.

      I've tried it with the CM11 connected via serial and USB and both appear to do the same. Even tried it with Activehome running in Win95 compatibility mode with no luck.

      Will post this as a new thread.

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      • theautomationstore
        Automated Home Jr Member
        • Aug 2007
        • 10

        #4
        If you want cheap and easy then an MT10 offers a 'lived in' look function. It will turn units on/off within 30mins of a pre-set time. It will also allow manual control, has a clock and an alarm.

        Use an MS13 in conjuction with an X10 Module to control the light directly. That would be by far the easiest solution, and possibly the cheapest.

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        • Home IQ
          Automated Home Lurker
          • May 2007
          • 6

          #5
          Harmony?

          Hi, have you tried Harmony Software from simply automate? much the same as active home i'm guessing, also contains a log of all commands sent over x10, good for seeing exactly what activity has been happening and useful for fault finding, the macros are very easy to set up and test once setup, like the last post suggests the ms13 option is by far the easiest for what you require.

          Carl

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