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Battery Packs for X-10 Cameras?
dustinc20 asks: "I dont know if this is the right area, but being as this is a geek site I'd ask my fellow geeks if anyone knows a way to build a battery pack for one of those X-10 cameras. It has a frequency encoder(?) in the power supply and this makes it more complicated than just supplying 12vDC."
Lots of it.
At radioshack we had wireless cameras simular to X10's (In a way) that also had battery packs! We slammed them on some RC vechicals, threw them in the roof to lay some wire.
I'm a big retard who forgot to log out of Slashdot on Mike's computer! LOOK AT ME.
(registration required) Here's an article at the New York Times with a little more detail.
I woke up and mommy came in to change me and get me ready for school. I was still sleepy so I didn't' say much. I had my breakfast and then watched TV for a while and then mom sent me off to the bus stop. I got there and Emily wasn't there. I wondered if she was sick to or something. A few minutes later Emily came down the street and then stood there with me. "Why were you late today Emily?" "Oh I was just watching TV and lost track of time. But I'm glad I made it here on time." "Yeah I am too. It would be weird if I were the only one getting on the bus from this stop." "Yeah."
A while later, the bus came and we took our seat. We were both kind of quiet and mostly just looked out the window. We got to the school and walked to our classroom. Our teacher was out so we had a substitute teacher that day. This was going to be quite interesting since Emily and I would have to be getting our diapers changed throughout the day.
As we went outside for morning recess Emily and I started to walk down the sidewalk to where the nurse's office was. "Hey you two, where are you going?" We stopped and turned to face him. "We're going to the nurse's office, we'll be back in a little bit." "Why are you both going? You will need a note from the teacher to get in." "No we wont, we always go to the nurse's office every day." "Oh ok. May I ask what for?" "Um well, we both wear diapers and Mrs. Peters changes us." "Oh I see, well ok then go on."
"That was kind of embarrassing wasn't it Tiffany?" Emily asked me as we continued walking. "Yeah it was, but oh well. At least he was cool about it though." "Yep you're right." We came inside the nurse's office and she said hello and changed our diapers for us and we went back outside to play. The rest of school went ok. We went to get changed at lunch and afternoon recess. But when I raised my hand in the last class of the afternoon and asked to go to the bathroom the teacher told me no. "Why can't I go?" "Because you are a baby and babies go potty in their diapers." The class laughed at me. "Well I already did go potty, I need to be changed!" "You just went there during recess, you don't need to go again, just wait until you get home." "NO! I am going." "TIFFANY!!! Get back here now." "NO! You meanie! I'm gonna tell my mommy what a mean teacher you are!" I stormed out of the room.
As I was running down the hall to the nurse's office I started crying because of what had happened. When I came in Mrs. Peters asked me what was wrong. "My teacher is mean. I told him I had to go potty and he said I couldn't go and that I had to go in my diaper. I already was wet and I wanted to be changed and he told me to wait till I went home. All the kids were laughing at me and when I left to come here, he yelled at me." Mrs. Peters held me and comforted me. "Oh Tiffany, it's ok. I will tell the principal about this and they wont let him substitute here again. Everything's gonna be ok. Come on baby, let me go change your diaper." She carried me and put me on the table and changed my diapers and powdered me and put a new one on. I stayed in her office a few minutes while she called my mom to come pick me up since I was so upset.
A few minutes later the bell rang. I saw kids going past the window heading for their bus. I asked Mrs. Peters If I could go outside to see if my friend Emily wanted to come home with us. I found her a moment later and she came in the door to the office with me. "Are you ok Tiffany" she asked as she hugged me. "Yep I feel better now. My mommy will take us both home. So now you don't have to ride on the bus alone. "Excuse me, I didn't meant o interrupt but Emily, do you need your diaper changed before you go?" "Um yeppers, I wet." "Ok come with me then and we'll take care of that."
After she was finished getting changed my mom came in. "Hi Tiffany,, Hi Emily. Are you gonna come home with us today?" "Yeah." "Ok great." I went to my mommy and hugged her. "Aww baby it's ok, mommy is here now. Shhh." She gave me a kiss and then we both left and got in the car. On the way out my mom thanked Mrs. Peters for everything she had done for me.
Mom stopped by Mc Donald's on the way home and got Emily and I milkshakes. I had strawberry and Emily had chocolate. We pulled into Emily's driveway. My mom went to talk to her mom. We asked if we could go down the street to Laura's house and see how she's doing. Mom said yes.
We got to Laura's house a couple minutes later. After we rang the doorbell her mom answered. "Oh hi girls, come on in." "Thanks. How's Laura today?" "Well she's not feeling to much better." "Oh, that not good." "nope, but she will be glad to see you two." Laura's mom walked us down to Laura's room and we saw Laura in bed. And what really surprised Emily and I was that she was in DIAPERS.
Laura's mom left the room. "Hi guys. How was school today?" "Oh it was terrible. We had a substitute teacher and he didn't know about Emily and I being in diapers. He yelled at me before time to leave and so I cried and left and Mrs. Peters called my mommy and had her come get me and Emily." "Oh wow that really sucks. I'm sorry you got yelled at." "Um Laura?" Emily said and then paused. "I see you are in diapers too?" "Oh yeah, um, well I, I have been having a hard time getting up to go potty because my fever and I was dizzy. And I had a few accidents. Mom decided to just let me go potty in diapers until I felt better. I hope I can convince her to let me wear them even when I'm not sick. I, I am starting to like them, allot." She blushed. "Aww! That's so cute!" I said and smiled. Emily nodded.
"I hope she does too. Then all three of us will be in diapers." Laura said. "Yeah they'll have to higher an extra nurse just to change us." I said and then we all laughed. "Well we should go, and let you get better. We missed you allot. Hope you get well." "Thanks I will. I am glad you both came to see me. You are my bestest friends in the whole world." We both smiled. As we left the room Emily turned to face her and said "Enjoy those diapers you cute little baby!" Laura just blushed and then said bye.
We said bye to Laura's mom and left and went to Emily's house and then after we sat and talked a while in the living room. We had some apple juice to drink and then we left. We got home and when I walked into the kitchen I saw Tammy sitting there. "Hi Tiffy, how was your day?" "It not to good Tammy, but I ok now." "Aww. Come here and tell Tam Tam all about it ok?" She held me in her lap as I explained what happened at school.
Dad got home a while later and we had dinner. After dinner Tammy gave me a bath. "Wow it's been a while since you give me bath Tam Tam. Because you always busy with school." "Yep, I missed it too. You're such a cute baby." She kissed my cheek and splashed some water on me. I giggled and splashed her, getting her shirt wet. "Oh you silly girl, stop that." She tickled me and I splashed her more. "Stop you're gonna get me soaked. I might as well jump in there with you and get my bath too the rate I'm going." We both laughed some more and I took my little cup that she used to rinse my hair after washing. I dumped it all over her. "OH! You BAD BAD baby!" she said while smiling at the same time. All of a sudden to my surprise, she jumped in the tub and started to tickle me. "Tammy you have your clothes on silly." I said while giggling. "What does it matter you got me all wet you silly baby, and now I'm gonna tickle you!" She kept tickling me and we both laughed.
Oh my goodness I am all wet. I gotta get these clothes off so I don't drip all over the floor." "Me sowwy I got you all wettie Tam Tam." I giggled. "Oh yea, Sure you are." She said sarcastically. "It's ok though I will just get my shower now." "What am I gonna do?" "You are going to sit here and play with your toys and I will keep the bath water in for you to stay nice and warm in, and I will stand up and get these clothes off and throw them in the sink. Then I will close the curtain and get my shower. Then let the water out, and dry us both off. Is that ok with you?" "Yeah, me play with my rubber ducky." "ok you do that." She took off her soaked shirt, which was clinging to her, and then her bra. Then she slipped off her shorts and panties and then pulled her wet socks off. She threw the clothes into the sink so they wouldn't drip everywhere. She reached out and grabbed an extra towel and wash clothe. Then closed the shower curtain and turned on the water. I played there in the water while she took her shower and washed her hair.
She finally let all the water out and dried me off first and stood me outside the tub. Then she dried off. She carried me to her room wrapped in a towel. I laid on her bed while she changed into her jammies. Then she carried me to my room and unwrapped me and diapered me and put my jammies on too. She got a plastic bag and carried her dripping wet clothes out to the laundry room. Mom asked what was going on and Tammy told her and she just laughed. "You two girls are so silly sometimes. I am glad you had fun though."
Tammy came into my room and got me ready for bed an hour later. After she got me tucked in she stood by my crib. "Remember yesterday how when we went to the revival meeting I went down to the altar?" "Yep and you were crying." "Yes, I was. Do you know why?" "Because you were sad?" "Well sort of. I mean I was sad at first because I realized that I didn't have Jesus in my heart. I realized I had been going to church and being good, and I thought that was what would save me. But I realized Jesus is the one who saves us. I trusted him last night as my Savior Tiffany." "Oh Ok. That is neat." "Yes, it is more than neat, it is awesome." She kissed me goodnight and started to leave the room.
"Tammy?" "Yes Tiffy?" "Um, how do I know if I have Jesus in my heart?" "Well if you are not sure, then that probably means that you haven't asked him to come in yet. Would you like to ask Jesus into your heart Tiffany?" "Yes, me want Jesus too." She came back to my crib and picked me up and we kneeled next to my toy box. "Ok Tiffany, you can repeat this prayer after me. It's not the prayer that saves you, its what you are saying, to God. You have to mean it ok?" "Ok, me ready now." "Ok! Here we go. Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and that I do bad stuff sometimes. I also know that I was born with sin in my life. Jesus, I believe that you died for me to take my place. I know that sin leads to death, and you died in my place. I accept you now. Not only to take away all my sins, but to help me do better. I am sorry for everything I have ever done wrong, and I want you to live in my heart now. I don't just want you to love me, but I want to love you back. I want us to be friends too Jesus. I believe that you have come to live in me now. I trust you Jesus. And I pray in Jesus' name, Amen."
I repeated everything that she said and I did understand it. I realized that I did need Jesus in my life. "Thank you Tammy. I am glad I did that. I feel good now. Kinda like you did last night." "Yep, that's awesome!" She hugged me and carried me to the living room and put me down. I went over to where mom and dad were and I told them that I got saved. "Oh honey, that is so neat! I am so proud of you." She hugged me and dad hugged me to. After a couple minutes of just talking about God and stuff I went back to my room and Tammy tucked me in once more.
I too, just like Tammy, had a peace in my heart. A peace, a love that I couldn't understand, or put into words. I soon fell asleep.
Why are X10 cameras so popular? Why do people think they are worth their $80 and what do they use them for? Are they being used for surveillence of their families? Or are managers spying on or monitoring their employees? Either of these scenarios are undesirable from the standpoint of the family members or the workers. Who wants to be watched like in 1984? Basically, surveillence culture will lead to a culture of fear of doing anything except what you would be able to do in public.
Thanks,
Travis
forkspoon@hotmail.com
So, you're the one who makes X-10 think their pop up frenzy advertising will work.
;-)ing
Burn the heretic
only half
Get the EULA T-shirt
Here are some more links on the subject.
Who run Barter Town?
Um,
The X-10 protocol used the 60Hz power as it's carrier, right? That's how it sends controls to the camera telling it when to broadcast, what frequency, etc.
So you question must be asking, how to bypass the controls, and always broadcast, as if it's been initialized by battery?
I dunno. All those damn pop-under ads still make me want to jump up and down on the cameras instead of trying to find you a real answer.
"God is dead." - Frederik Nietzsche
Advertise the hell out of them with annoying pop-up ads!
Whoops, that idea's already taken!
Seeing as how I did this very thing last night... just grab 8 AA batteries and a holder, then connect the holder to the camera/transmitter. Absolutely no funkiness, just plain 12 volts.
Of course, you can also replace the crappy camera with a decent one (try Supercircuits). You might want details on the wiring for hooking it up, too.
I do so love people who support their popunder ads.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
A friend of mine had one of those cameras. We hooked it up to his R/C car and drove it around with video. All we did to get was get one of those battery pack things that can be found at radio shack and hooked it up to the camera. It worked great. It may have been 8AA battries, I'm not sure now, but it's simple math to figure out what you need.
The battery pack has a voltage doubler inside it because it only has 4 AA batteries inside. This only gives 6V which is why you need the voltage doubler. The unloaded output is roughly 15V.
Just do what another poster did and get enough batteries to make a 12V DC supply. Remember that you can't switch it on or off once you do this since the switiching mechanism is built into the wall wart.
I tried using a 9-volt battery with my X10. No extra hardware, just stripped the wires and pressed them against the terminals.
Works fine. I use it all the time on little RC cars. Lots of fun.
Also tried a 1 pint 12 volt lead battery - ran for like 3 days with the one I used. RC car had a little trouble hefting the battery though.
Of course, I'm not going to accept any blame if you fry yours.
.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
I have seen the X10 camera at my local Fry's, and the quality goes way beyond bad, far into the range of unacceptable.
Definitely no good for the sexual hijinx implied by the ads. It might be acceptable as a surveilance camera to show stuff happening in real time, but I wouldn't count on getting evidence out of the horrid, grainy images.
If it worked as well as the pictures in the ads imply, it would actually be a great toy (and I'd probably own a few). But it doesn't even come within screaming distance of decent quality.
Whether you want the camera for spying or good dirty fun, it's simply not - ahem - up to the challenge.
D
I think we have a candidate for Most Original Troll 2002 here.
...thinking of filming your h0t neighbor while she takes a shower?
Where did you get your information? Power supplies aren't designed with "frequency encoders" or anything like that. Either a power supply outputs DC or AC. Since solid state electronics require DC, it seems pretty obvious ALL you need to do is strap 12V worth of batteries on it.
I've always wanted to grab an X10 with batteries and stick onto a helium blimp and float it around the house. Attach a food tray to the blimp and you are one step closer to breakfast in bed!
---- The geek shall inherit the Earth.
Ok, I really hate to say this but X10 of what ever the company is sells batteries for thoes cammers and If I remmeber they are LiOn so they last for like a couple ours. Have you looked at the site, under "Accessories" ?
snowulf.com
http://www.x10.com/products/x10_zb10a.htm
Right there. Now they have changed them so that they are just a AA battery holder, taking 4 batteries. If you dont care about how it looks, goto radio shack and follow peoples sugestion about a the voltage double (or a transformer).
snowulf.com