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click here to shut off the pop up until Tue Sep 22 12:38:09 2009, and it even redirects you to a friendly page instead of more x10 crap. By 2009 I think they should be sufficiently out of business. ;)

Heh, actually with the trend of the market today, I probably could've set it for 60 and I would've been fine.

1) If we don't let them advertise, the websites will become pay, or worse, disappear.

2)If you're really adamant about the ads going away don't click on them!

3) Honestly, is it that big a deal? Frankly, how hard is it to click once? You're doing it all day! The only ones that really annoy me are the ones that take the "spam the respawn room" strategy.

The link to "opt out" of their ads is as follows:

http://www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=30&PAGE=htt p://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm

Will altering the "DAY=30" part mean we can opt out for even longer? e.g.

http://www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=500&PAGE=ht tp://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm

I hope so. I'm getting dozens of these damn popup ads every day. To make matters worse I bought one of their wireless cameras over a year ago via a banner ad (one of the few times I've ever actually clicked on a banner) so am in part responsible for encouraging X10 in the first place. :o(

The link to "opt out" of their ads is as follows:

http://www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=30&PAGE=htt p://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm

Will altering the "DAY=30" part mean we can opt out for even longer? e.g.

http://www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=500&PAGE=ht tp://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm

I hope so. I'm getting dozens of these damn popup ads every day. To make matters worse I bought one of their wireless cameras over a year ago via a banner ad (one of the few times I've ever actually clicked on a banner) so am in part responsible for encouraging X10 in the first place. :o(

The link for the opt out is:
http://www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=30&PAGE=htt p://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm

I wonder if changing the DAY= value will actually work... looking at the resulting cookie didn't tell me much, but I've never actually used cookies, so I am not familiar with the format.

We are forgetting the obvious... how much would a company like X10 pay Microsoft for a Smart Tag on a simple character like a or worse... e? Imagine the new surfing experience then.... and we thought it was getting annoying now!

I took a tour of this lab last Fall. While it was impressive from a consumer usability perspective, the technical decisions they made were at times curious. Like Microsoft, IBM sees the home of the future as a collection of dumb appliances that are dependent on a big, smart server to operate. Microsoft sees the server as the Windows XP platform, while IBM sees it as some form of their Websphere application server.

So there were no peer-to-peer technologies like IEEE 1394 or JINI to be found in their lab. And no Bluetooth or X-10, either.

In fact, the connection technology of the future, if the PvC lab is to belived... is CeBus! Now, CeBus is mighty fine at what it does, and fits well into IBM's architecture where everything is controlled by a Websphere set-top box, but it is much more expensive than the competing technologies. Right now, I can't see anyone (except Larry) paying a couple of hundred bucks extra for blinders that go up and down at different times in the day.

Corby

Some of them make a lot of sense: remote access to temperature and lights in the home can be useful. Others don't. For example, I don't think more automation in the kitchen does much good: people would probably benefit more from a healthy relationship with food (cooking themselves with fresh ingredients) than minute tracking of soft drinks and junk food. And short of automated driving and road following, I don't really need or want any additional gadgets in my car.

It's not quite parallel per se, but my serial port has the X-10 FireCracker remote control module hanging off it.

It's not quite parallel per se, but my serial port has the X-10 FireCracker remote control module hanging off it.

OK, not forever, but until 2028. Just follow this link.

-Waldo

Or you could run some more cable to your wiring closet and feed the audio across the house to the computer, along with an IR/RF remote (or repeater) for remote control of the computer and a speaker so the computer can reply to commands...or a network terminal of some sort (WebTV? Webplayer? iOpener?) for chatting with the computer.

There also are wireless audio devices which could send the audio across the house to the computer. X10.Com has some, and I see that CompUSA has one on sale this week.

that there's still plenty of free pr0n.

and I'm also glad I got in on x10.com's free firecracker kits which now go for 49.99

X10 has a ton of neat shit. My brother uses a couple of their cameras, they seem to work pretty good for him. Sadly though, I don't believe any can be used with linux.

Go check out X-10's web site. In addition to the very cool Firecracker that every /.'er should have by now cause it was just about free, they have wireless XCam2's that transmit to a receiver on the 2.4Ghz band. Plus lots of accessories to hook those to websites, wide-angle views, VCR recording, and such.

Plus, it's always nice to support a company that makes cool hardware and opens up the control protocol for those of us who can write our own drivers.

Either way, you should check out X10.com. They don't have anything to interface the cam to a cell phone, and I'm not sure how you would do that. You might look into whether Metricom's Ricochet (which offers wireless internet in Washington and Baltimore) happens to extend to your area of the bay.

X10.com has lots of remote controls, switches, and cams. You will want to read carefully, as they come in several confusing packages and "specials."

Some of them are inexpensive and work with VCRs to only record when there is motion. They also have also have multi-camera/motion-detector/Internet systems that record one cam at a time. The site is kind of cheesy, and I have not purchased from them, but they have been around for a while (over a year).

Good luck.

Get a camera and motion detector from X10.com . You can probably right a small program that will dial out when the motion detector goes off and have it email you a picture. Look here

What about Ricochet? It would give you a nice, high speed connection and you could use any old hardware you have lying around to connect the camera to. When you don't need surveillance, you've got a nice, mobile high speed connection for your laptop or PDA.

You don't mention how far away the remote location is, but there are video transmitters from X10 that can send a video signal a few hundred feet. You could watch on a TV... no computer required.

(And no, I'm not a shill for x10.)

You don't need those heavy bricks to use X10. There are wired-in x10 outlets and wall switches. These units fit inside the regular electrical boxes that wall switches and outlets fit.

In my apartment, I replaced three outlets around the kitchen counter with X10 in-the-wall outlets. Each outlet has one controllable plug and one always-powered plug. From those, I got some of those 20" light rails, and adhered them to the underside of the kitchen cabinets. These come on at dusk, and go off at 2am, by a perl script I wrote. I can control them (and the rest of the lights in the house) any other time with remote controls I have placed here and there.

The wall light switches are also wirable; they have "decorator" versions now that look like the flat rocker switches (but they actually aren't rockers, they're spring-loaded momentaries). Tap to toggle, or hold to dim.

I just started using the motion sensors to turn lights on in the closets and hallway. Keychain remote controls to flip some lights from the car.

Some of the 1980s x10 stuff is big and clunky, but they're definitely getting smaller and slicker. They have their oddball stuff, though. A universal remote control with a built-in corkscrew bottle opener? Glad they gave that for free, I wouldn't buy it.

(And no, I'm not a shill for x10.)

You don't need those heavy bricks to use X10. There are wired-in x10 outlets and wall switches. These units fit inside the regular electrical boxes that wall switches and outlets fit.

In my apartment, I replaced three outlets around the kitchen counter with X10 in-the-wall outlets. Each outlet has one controllable plug and one always-powered plug. From those, I got some of those 20" light rails, and adhered them to the underside of the kitchen cabinets. These come on at dusk, and go off at 2am, by a perl script I wrote. I can control them (and the rest of the lights in the house) any other time with remote controls I have placed here and there.

The wall light switches are also wirable; they have "decorator" versions now that look like the flat rocker switches (but they actually aren't rockers, they're spring-loaded momentaries). Tap to toggle, or hold to dim.

I just started using the motion sensors to turn lights on in the closets and hallway. Keychain remote controls to flip some lights from the car.

Some of the 1980s x10 stuff is big and clunky, but they're definitely getting smaller and slicker. They have their oddball stuff, though. A universal remote control with a built-in corkscrew bottle opener? Glad they gave that for free, I wouldn't buy it.

(And no, I'm not a shill for x10.)

You don't need those heavy bricks to use X10. There are wired-in x10 outlets and wall switches. These units fit inside the regular electrical boxes that wall switches and outlets fit.

In my apartment, I replaced three outlets around the kitchen counter with X10 in-the-wall outlets. Each outlet has one controllable plug and one always-powered plug. From those, I got some of those 20" light rails, and adhered them to the underside of the kitchen cabinets. These come on at dusk, and go off at 2am, by a perl script I wrote. I can control them (and the rest of the lights in the house) any other time with remote controls I have placed here and there.

The wall light switches are also wirable; they have "decorator" versions now that look like the flat rocker switches (but they actually aren't rockers, they're spring-loaded momentaries). Tap to toggle, or hold to dim.

I just started using the motion sensors to turn lights on in the closets and hallway. Keychain remote controls to flip some lights from the car.

Some of the 1980s x10 stuff is big and clunky, but they're definitely getting smaller and slicker. They have their oddball stuff, though. A universal remote control with a built-in corkscrew bottle opener? Glad they gave that for free, I wouldn't buy it.

(And no, I'm not a shill for x10.)

You don't need those heavy bricks to use X10. There are wired-in x10 outlets and wall switches. These units fit inside the regular electrical boxes that wall switches and outlets fit.

In my apartment, I replaced three outlets around the kitchen counter with X10 in-the-wall outlets. Each outlet has one controllable plug and one always-powered plug. From those, I got some of those 20" light rails, and adhered them to the underside of the kitchen cabinets. These come on at dusk, and go off at 2am, by a perl script I wrote. I can control them (and the rest of the lights in the house) any other time with remote controls I have placed here and there.

The wall light switches are also wirable; they have "decorator" versions now that look like the flat rocker switches (but they actually aren't rockers, they're spring-loaded momentaries). Tap to toggle, or hold to dim.

I just started using the motion sensors to turn lights on in the closets and hallway. Keychain remote controls to flip some lights from the car.

Some of the 1980s x10 stuff is big and clunky, but they're definitely getting smaller and slicker. They have their oddball stuff, though. A universal remote control with a built-in corkscrew bottle opener? Glad they gave that for free, I wouldn't buy it.

another thing...rather than spending all sorts of money on special wiring or even the wireless stuff, x10.com has some great cheap ways to make all sorts of household appliances and lights wireless..it even has an interface for your computer, so you can turn the toast on and off from europe if you needed to. :)

it also works as a great annoyance to someone who is upstairs reading and didn't realize you installed a bunch of x10 modules.

to add to my previous post....my friend matt has pictures of our in-house network on his webpage (with the picture of our jury-rigged computer rack) at matthoppes.org

Also, of course, not to be confused with the X10, which is a whole different kind of fun altogether. :D.

Yes, I know, most people see X-10 and relate it to their wireless cameras. However, it appears that they have quite a line of home automation equipment, as well as some touch-tone controlled and PC controlled things. They can control air-conditioning, and other things... this new air-conditioner doesn't sound all that innovative to me

I keep all my servers in the basement of my parent's house, and use my mother as the control mechanism

Heh, mine's under the stairs, and my girlfriend is my on-site admin. We're still at the "it's the little black picture with the green squiggle" stage. I like the sound files idea.

And I've just had a great idea for using an X10. I could get a linux box to listen for keepalives from my (sorry) Win98 box on the LAN, and cycle the power on it whenever it hangs. Neato! ;)

I've been happy with my firecracker and there's tons of software for it, open source and not. It's serial controlled, and wireless. no soldering, semi-expensive, but good nerd value.

I've been happy with my firecracker and there's tons of software for it, open source and not. It's serial controlled, and wireless. no soldering, semi-expensive, but good nerd value.

Look at a good pianist. I don't think the bandwidth limitation is with human hands and fingers. Radio remote controls as used in battlebots are legacy systems, designed to control model cars and kludged to control model airplanes. These applications don't involve combat and really just don't require that much bandwidth.

I also think that microsecond reflexes are probably overkill; useful reflex time is limited by the inherent acceleration and deceleration times of the robot's parts. Even cats and mongeese get by with millisecond reflexes.

I'd like to see somebody design a battlebot where they focus on a high-bandwidth control system rather than a bad-ass weapon. (Most of the weapons end up looking pretty lame anyway.) Video cameras are cheap these days, so no reason the operator can't where a headset that gives him a robot's-eye vantagepoint. There are analog joysticks and 6DOF controllers. Bitstreams from multiple controllers could easily be shipped over a radio channel (though it probably makes sense to keep the video stream separate.

You should look at stuff that already exsists.. it's not that expensive. Here is a place that sell what you are exactly looking for.

Have you ever thought about using a radio modem to a chase vehicle? When I was working on my school's solar car project in 1995, we had a van loaded with various telemetry equiptment, including a radio modem connection to the car, so that we could get speed, battery consumption, etc.

I don't know enough about your race, but with a power inverter, a few space car batteries, and someone willing to follow you in a car, this wouldn't be that hard to pull off.

[If, however, the race route is completely closed off to vehicles, this would be more difficult].

You might also look into other forms of communication. Check to see if Metricom has access in our area, or someone like them. [I haven't had one of their modems since '97, but the modem at that time had a battery which lasted me a good 3-4 hrs of constant use.]

With the chase vehicle concept, you might also try looking at X10 gear, but I don't know what their power consumption is.

I'm about to buy a Matrox Marvel G400. It is dual head - meaning you can display video on an analog monitor and an NTSC TV at the same time. There isn't a dual analog monitor option. This card also has hardware MJPEG encoding so I can capture video also without the audio sync problem.

I have watched the Matrix DivX using the composite output of my TNT2 card - not too bad. My computer and TV are placed far apart from eachother so, yes a remote will be nice. X10 has some remote control options. I might try one of the RF ones since the computer and TV are in separate rooms. Anyone try any PC remote control options?

BTW, you could also build a computer entertainment system based on PC hardware instead of using your main computer. Here are a couple links for the BookPC:

http://www.directron.com/bookpc.html

http://www.dansdata.com/bookpc.htm

Nice remote!

This is the best info I have got so far. Thanks for the scoop. Another idea I had since posting this is to actually put a "normal PC" (mini tower case in a separate room and use it with a monitor as a normal PC. This reduces the cost and restrictions on the PC. How does this help you might say ???? Well there is a unit that transmits the video signal wirelessly to a receiver unit. X10 DVD anywhere After all it is only the TV that displays the video or PC screen. In this way you can put all the noisy equipment in a room where the low frequency electronics hum does not really matter and leave the serious watching to the lazy chair room. Another problem I found is the resolution when using the TV monitor as a PC screen. It sucks! here I can use the PC on a PC monitor and watch TV in the coner if I want or watch DVD's in comfort at the TV. The only down side is that you have to put the DVD in and then walk over to the TV :-p Might be good for all tha Xmas padding!

The Trendmasters unit is a simple battery-powered camera. It will find other low-resolution uses (I saw the TV ads, and the video looked like toy quality). I also notice that the link in the article has a picture with a flap open on the far side -- that is not an LCD monitor, as that is not mentioned in the Trendmasters description.

go down to X10, and pick up a DVD anywhere so that you can throw that noisy beast in the basement, and have it play video/audio up in your livingroom. And of course it also comes with a RF remote so you can control your mp3 player/dvd player. (and it is a universial remote too, so it'll control a TV/VCR).

add in a TV tuner card, and write a little software and you have a TiVo.
Works pretty well.

Is it worth it? I bought some X10 controllers because it was cheaper and more convenient than having an electrician do a lot of rewiring. The thermostat may help save you energy since you can leave your heating off and turn it on remotely with a telephone call or via the Internet before you get home. Beyond that, it seems like it's a gimmick.

How well does this thing really work? Voice recognition alone is a huge project in which there are only very narrow inroads of open source work (indeed this was brought up here a while ago). I went to the webpages were they were selling some of the hardware to interface with appliances, and it seemed like a like a lot of hype.

Do you know of anyone who has this working, at least partially? As one poster said, this would definately make a good part of the /. front page! This is the kind of do it yourself geekiness that it is all about. Rather than features about people who paid a lot to have a bunch of fancy crap they never use, features of people who have added cool mods to their own houses. Sort of like a high tech version of this old house. :)

With the help of a new company called Voxeo and an X10 firecracker, I created something that allows me to control my own house lights and appliances for free with my cell phone or a web browser.

I'm Sure X10 has a device or two that could be hacked up or already fits your purpose.

you can always check out x10.com and if they don't have what you are looking for you could email them and ask about it and they might be able to come up with something, or tell you where you could find something. x10 has some Great radio controlled devices...my room at home has x10 units hooked up into the lights and such...all by remote control...we even have motionsensors and are looking into getting some other stuff.

Of course...ethernet cable would work just fine for distances over a hundred feet....as long as it is less that 1500 ft (or whatever the max for ethernet cable is) That would offer excellent speed and would be useful for other things as well.

There are several Linux X-10 programs.

Also note that there is an alarm interface which simply transmits an X-10 code when a contact is changed (I forget if normally-open or normally-closed is default) -- these can basically be connected to many detection switches.

Most X-10 technology fails when the power is off. I recommend main protection with a standard alarm system, perhaps with the Linux box being told when there is an alarm -- and the Linux box could also have other sensors, such as reporting to you when outdoor cameras detect suspicious activity (and the perimeter alarms dealing with actual breakins). The Linux box could also store remotely captured images in case they're needed after the box vanishes.

Wireless connectivity is fast outpacing your projected needs. With devices like DVDanwhere, you can (today) broadcast a video signal from your computer to any tv in the house. Store video on the computer and broadcast it to your tvset in the bedroom, or whatever. It becomes a PITA as far as the remote-control issue goes, but x10 will gladly sell you something to help with that too. (Just never, NEVER, give them a valid email address unless you want daily spam.)

Is right here...

Anyway, it's the coolest damn thing I've ever used.

It's essentially a universal remote with PC control and a mouse built in, with left and right mouse buttons on the bottom.

It's an RF device, and I've used it from the lawn to control the PC upstairs. There's software for it to reprogram the buttons to launch anything you want to on your PC -- I have all of the # keys programmed to launch different playlists, and because it's RF I can launch them and control the volume from anywhere in the house.

This software I've been using is for Windows, but there are Linux projects out there as well.

I can't recommend this thing highly enough, I use it constantly.

Linux is the ideal platform for such a system. The problem with all efforts so far to do something like this is that they have all centered around "the home computer" (typically a Windows box). To make something like this work, you have to have something a little more "hands off." It's got to be a box that you mount on a wall in the basement, plug your services (power, telephone, DSL/cable, etc.) into, and forget about it. More likely for most homes, an installer will perform this service. Then you have everything available, a truly automated home. With that shaky PC out of the way, it can actually work.

I have friends with X-10 installations, and they all complain that the problem with tying it into your PC is that they don't want to encumber the PC with home automation tasks. I've had mine running for about two years now, though, with no problem -- I use Linux. My main server, which is also running IP masquerade for my LAN, file/print services, as well as my BBS, handles it all without so much as a hiccup.

Truly effective home automation requires a system that was designed to be "always on" -- and to me, that means more than just the ability to reduce a service down to a tray icon, it means the ability to truly jump into the background, to start automatically even when nobody is logged on, and to seldom (if ever) stop. Once that pesky PC is taken out of the picture, this stuff can really fly.
--

Just a few cents...or maybe more

~KONala

With a computer monitoring X-10, you can have radio-linked remotes or wired X-10 switches sending codes for the computer to interpret, such as "Next CD", "Next Track", or "Say Menu".

A computer does not have to monitor if you're speaking directly to X-10 devides, such as using X-10 relays to do switching.

X10.Com also has assorted other home audio/video products, particularly wireless links (it's not clear if there is more than one "channel" nor if receivers can be tuned between "channels"). There also are some ways to send "remote control" signals around the house -- apparently the Anywhere 2000 Remote sends both IR and RF signals, but there also are IR repeater devices available for other remotes. Incidentally, if you use this referall link you can get a coupon for a discount from most of their items.

With a computer monitoring X-10, you can have radio-linked remotes or wired X-10 switches sending codes for the computer to interpret, such as "Next CD", "Next Track", or "Say Menu".

A computer does not have to monitor if you're speaking directly to X-10 devides, such as using X-10 relays to do switching.

X10.Com also has assorted other home audio/video products, particularly wireless links (it's not clear if there is more than one "channel" nor if receivers can be tuned between "channels"). There also are some ways to send "remote control" signals around the house -- apparently the Anywhere 2000 Remote sends both IR and RF signals, but there also are IR repeater devices available for other remotes. Incidentally, if you use this referall link you can get a coupon for a discount from most of their items.

With a computer monitoring X-10, you can have radio-linked remotes or wired X-10 switches sending codes for the computer to interpret, such as "Next CD", "Next Track", or "Say Menu".

A computer does not have to monitor if you're speaking directly to X-10 devides, such as using X-10 relays to do switching.

X10.Com also has assorted other home audio/video products, particularly wireless links (it's not clear if there is more than one "channel" nor if receivers can be tuned between "channels"). There also are some ways to send "remote control" signals around the house -- apparently the Anywhere 2000 Remote sends both IR and RF signals, but there also are IR repeater devices available for other remotes. Incidentally, if you use this referall link you can get a coupon for a discount from most of their items.

Is it discontinued? I see it at http://www.x10.com/products/x10_mk19a.htm and it looks like they still sell it.