The Home Automation Zone

 

So, you've ordered a box full of X10 equipment or an Activehome kit, and aren't really quite sure what to do other than to plug your living room lamp into a lamp module, or you just want to take on a new project. There are unlimited applications for X10, and not everyone will have the same needs, but this page might give you some ideas. Some might be rather simple, some more complex, so use what you feel comfortable with. The great thing about X10 is that you can eliminate many irritating situations that you would otherwise just put up with. If you would like to submit your idea to be posted on HAZ, please send me an e-mail.


Aquarium Lighting

Since I've recently gotten back into the fish keeping hobby, I've realized how useful X10 automation can be to control the aquarium lighting. I feed my fish twice daily, before and after work. I have noticed that some of the fish take quite a while to "wake up" after the lights come on, and they will not eat until they are awake -- The other fish just gobble up all of the food. Now, I just have the fluorescent light fixtures on my 55 gallon tank come on (using my X10 Activehome Computer Interface Kit ) about 30 minutes before I leave for work, so the fish are wide awake when I feed them. The lights stay on for a couple of hours, turn off during the middle of the day (when the tank gets some natural light), and come back on in the late afternoon until around 9:00 pm. This way the plants get some light, and the fish are awake when I feed them. Plus, it's cool to be able to turn the tank lights on or off from across the room. ;) Remember to use an appliance module for fluorescent lighting; the lamp modules are only good for incandescent lights.

 

 

Outside: Security Lighting Part II

Now that I have moved into my newly constructed house (which I've loaded up with home automation and networking stuff), I can give you some of the details on some of the newer gadgets I've ordered. For security lighting in the rear of the house, I wanted to use motion detecting flood lights -- It just so happens that X-10 and Leviton both produce motion sensing floods that are controllable by and can directly control X10 devices. Both models are capable of activating up to 4 other X10 devices based on motion and 4 X10 devices based on a dusk/dawn setting. This way you can have the flood light turn on lights inside the house, or activate a chime to let you know that someone is outside your home (this would be particularly useful in the driveway; you could have the porch lights with the flood lights come on if someone comes up the driveway). The flood lights have an adjustable timer so you can have them on from 30 seconds to 30 minutes.
Outside: Low Voltage Lighting

A friend of mine -- who I have recently gotten interested in home automation -- has those low voltage lights alongside the walkway leading up to his front door. They are powered by a transformer with a built-in mechanical timer with those little plastic tabs that you pull out or push in to set the activation time. The problem with this setup is that you need to keep changing the little tabs start time as sunset changes during the year. Plus, if there is a power failure, you must reset the timer to the correct time (which is tough when you are on vacation).

Using Activehome (or some other X10 computer controller), it is easy to fix these problems. All you need to do is plug the transformer/timer into an X10 appliance module, being sure to pull out (or push in) those little plastic tabs so that the timer is no longer turning anything off -- it will still turn, but as long as there is power going to it, the low voltage lights will be on -- it also does not matter what time the timer is set to. You then set up the appliance module in Activehome to turn the lights on at dusk and off at dawn or whatever time you like -- as long as you told your Activehome software where you live, it will calculate sunrise and sunset for your location. Unless your PC is on all the time as a home automation controller, you will want to download the settings into your CM11A so that your timed events will work with the PC turned off. The other advantage of this setup is that you can also control the low voltage lights with any X10 controller to override the computer controller.
Outside: Outdoor lighting for Security

One of the most important benefits of using home automation equipment, is the additional security it can provide in and around your home (by the way, this is a great way to sell your spouse on why you need to order a case of X10 wall switch modules!). One of the first projects I would recommend if you are getting into home automation, is to replace the wall switches that control your outdoor lighting with X10 wall switches -- particularly at the front entrance and any other areas that you use frequently. Once you have installed the switches, use the Activehome software to set up the new modules, and set up the times that you would like to have them come on automatically. This will work the same way as for the low voltage lighting above -- you may want to set the modules for "security mode" (which you can find by pressing the "special" button in the Timer Setting window of the module you are setting up. The security mode will randomly turn your lights on and off within a 30 minute window of the time you set (or sunset), so it looks less like your lights are on a timer of a light sensor.

This is great when you come home in the dark, as your lights are already on and waiting for you, instead of fumbling around in the dark. You could also have interior lights come on in conjunction with the exterior.

Instead of leaving the front lights on all night, you might think about an outdoor motion sensor (which is just a waterproof version of the MS12A). This way, you could have your lights go off at a preset time (say 11 pm), but if anyone approaches the house, the motion sensor could flip them back on for a given amount of time.

Yet another advantage of having the lights controllable via X10, is that you can keep a remote next to your bed so if you hear a noise outside, you can just flip on some lights.
Attic Fan: X10 / Thermostatic Control

This question came up on the Home Automation Zone Message Board: How do I thermostatically / X10 control an attic fan that is currently controlled by a normal wall switch?

If you do not need to be able to set the thermostat using X10, what you might want to do is replace the fan's wall switch with an X10 switch that can handle a motor-type load. This Leviton model from smarthome.com: http://www.smarthome.com/2206.html will work. Be sure not to try using a regular X10 dimmer-type wall switch -- these can not handle anything but incandescent lights.

Connect an X10 "Powerflash" interface -- set to "mode 3" -- (http://www.smarthome.com/4060.html) to a thermostat, which would provide contact closure to the powerflash interface at the appropriate temperature/times.

The powerflash interface will send out an X10 signal to a particular house/unit code (the wall switch) when the thermostat opens/closes the contacts, starting and stopping your fan. You would also be able to override the thermostat using a standard X10 remote control. Note that
your thermostat might need a separate power source if it is an electronic / setback model.

The Garage: Garage door opener

I decided that it might be useful to be able to activate the garage door opener from an X10 controller or the computer. This would save running to the garage to close the door if it was left open. This can be accomplished using an X10 dry contact relay module (I used Radio Shack 61-2688, which may be discontinued - other versions are available). All you need to do is set the relay module to "momentary" contact and I set mine to "relay only"; then run a 2 conductor insulated wire (I used alarm wire) from the screw contacts on the module to the screws on your garage door opener that your inside switch are connected to. Set the house code and unit code that you want to use and plug in the module. When you send the "on" signal to the unit code you chose, your garage door should open or close. The "off" signal will have no effect.

The drawback to doing this is that wireless X10 signals do not have the security codes that most garage door openers do, potentially leaving your door vulnerable to stray signals from neighbors (or criminals) causing your door to activate. Since I really only wanted to be able to close the garage door (which we often keep open during the day in the summer), you can wire a normally closed magnetic security system switch in series with the relay module, attaching the switch so that when the door is open, the magnet is activating the switch. This will allow the door to close on command from an X10 "on" command, but it will not open using X10.
The Garage: Lighting & More

It seems like I used to end up walking into our attached garage a night, taking out the trash or carrying something making it tough to flip the switch for the overhead lights. So, using an X10 motion sensor (an X-10 MS12A or MS13A will work), I set it up to automatically turn on the lights. Actually, instead of activating the normal overhead lights, I have a fluorescent shop-light in the garage, which I plugged into an appliance module (never try to plug a fluorescent light into a lamp module!), which provides plenty of light for most activities.

The other garage related problem that I was running into, was that I would walk into the house from the garage after getting home and would have to fumble around to turn on a light in the kitchen (there is no wall switch inside the garage entry door). So I installed a 2 unit wireless wall switch (X-10 RW684) in the garage which controls the garage fluorescent light with one switch and initiates an Activehome macro with the second switch that turns on both an overhead kitchen light and the lights in our living room. This makes it rather nicer to walk into the house now that I don't have to trip over any of the kid's toys to turn on a light. You could accomplish the same thing with a key chain remote instead of the wireless wall switch, but I didn't want to add another remote (besides the car alarm) to my keychain.
Holiday Lights

One of my favorite applications for X10 modules is to hook up all of our holiday lights so that we can turn them on and off with the click of one button. Every year, we put up those single bulb candles in all of the front windows of our house, including the garage. These candles do not even have switches on the cords, so we used to have to go to each room and plug them in. X10 came to the rescue! Just plug the lights into lamp or appliance modules, then set them to the same house and unit codes -- They will all respond to to the same signal. I also plugged our Christmas tree lights into a module for X10 control.

As a variation to this, I decided it would be interesting to create a macro with Activehome which would turn on the window candles, turn on the Christmas tree lights, turn the living room lights on to 50% brightness and start the O-Scale train that runs around the tree (the train transformer was plugged into an appliance module and set to the desired speed) -- All with one push of a button.

X10 also can be useful at Halloween, particularly when you set up a motion detector (MS12A or MS13A) to turn on something spooky when the trick-or-treators approach!