my xlobby setup

by **damage** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:07 pm

sorry no home theater setup here :wink:

i'm just using xlobby as a front end to control my home automation system. i've added an xlobby page to my HA website describing how i'm putting it together.

http://www.kjsdoghouse.com/autohouse

by **bmblank** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 3:58 pm

Holy crap, man! That's alot of stuff! How does that system do when you're not following a routine?

by **damage** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:07 pm

everything is pretty automatic. motion sensors control lighting in the house. the alarm is monitored so the system knows when we're away. sensors in the car track which cars are home. pretty much sensors on/in anything & everything so the system has enough input to figure out what to do. i'm thinking it's time to RFID the kids

by **bmblank** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 5:38 pm

Actually RFID probably isn't a bad idea just in case, god forbid, anything happens to them. My cousin got his cats rfid-ed just incase they ran off. But thats besides the point. The house sounds pretty sweet. If you don't mind my asking, how much $$$ did this whole thing set you back?

by **damage** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 6:18 pm

actually i have no idea how much it all costs and that's good cuz if i don't know the wife doesn't know! it's been a work in progress since about 1995

probably the most expensive parts of the system (aside from the wiring in the walls and pcs - all of which are refurb or home built or free) would be the jds timecommander+ which was about $700ish back in 95. the IR expander which connects to the tc+ was about $200. starCOM software cost about $100. i don't have any fancy x10 switches, just the standard x10 brand toggle switches. i have some leviton appliance type switches but i got those 2nd hand from a guy over on cocoontech.com who upgraded to insteon. in fact, most everything i buy, i get from ebay or another automation junkie or on clearance. i got hal deluxe for $7 @ lowes

the rio receivers from ebay. slimp3s on clearance. squeezebox on craigslist for $35. i use a wgl800 (20 or 30 bucks) to receive the x10 rf signals and buy the x10 motion sensors and alarm sensors (not for alarm use!) off ebay or when x10 has their 10 for $x deals. 3com audreys from ebay & another cocoontech user. xantech IR stuff from ebay. all the ir emitters from a local electronic surplus store (i paid $1 for dual headed emitters) i use a lot of free software (xAP, xPL) and write a bunch of scripts to tie everything together.

it seems like it costs a lot, but i'm cheap

and it's been over the course of more than 10 years now

by **bmblank** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:09 pm

That definately sounds pretty cheap. I mean.. Expensive, but cheap, considering... I guess the thing that would top it off would be the x10s and the sensors. Other than that it's not much different from normal. I suppose the converters needed to get the x10 and the sensors and the cameras and junk could get up there too. That's an awesome project though.

by **damage** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:48 pm

actually the cameras i have are pretty cheap. again closeout deals - about $20 each. i think the avg price i paid for an x10 switch/module is about $6-8. the sensors were about $6 on average. the jds tc+ talks directly to x10 so nothing else is needed there. the wgl800 interfaces to the x10 motion & alarm sensors.

by **rembetis** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:52 pm

damage wrote: squeezebox on craigslist for $35.

Now that's what I call a score.

by **damage** on Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:05 pm

rembetis wrote:
damage wrote: squeezebox on craigslist for $35.

Now that's what I call a score.

hehe. the guy i got it from was one of the original netscape guys from UIUC. needless to say, he wasn't really all that interested in how much he sold it for

the hal deluxe i got for $7 brand new is probably my steal of all time. it normally costs this much: http://automatedliving.com/shop/hal101s.shtml