| Author |
|
judetf
Senior Member
Joined: January 23 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 234
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 05:32 | IP Logged
|
|
|
(Thought maybe to start a thread where people post cool (simple?) usages they've made of PH, just to give others some jumping off ideas. Mostly it's selfish, 'cause I'd love to hear what other people are doing. But with my 2+ days of playing with PH and my first Insteon devices, I'll be a contributor and offer up the first thing I did that got the wife's eyes to glow brightly.)
Programmed a button on a KPL to run Tony's Weather macro, then execute a ph_TTS call to state, "The current temperature is {CURTEMP}." And followed that by running "match" against the CURFORECAST global variable and if the word "snow" is found, TTS continues to state that, "There is snow in the forecast."
Nothing fancy - only works b/c the PH computer is within earshot of the KPL (though I have grand visions of doing whole-house audio and going for some cooler effects). But since we don't wake up and immediately go to the computer, this is a simple (dare I say elegant?) way of getting a snapshot into the weather. Next steps will be checking for rain, and I'll probably look to configure things to auto-run the weather and/or weather advisory checks, and see if I can't get the KPL button to blink or glow if a storm's a-brewing, to give us a visual cue before even hitting the button.
So, that's the first cool, fun (simple) idea I came up with. Who's got others?
jtf
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
TonyNo
Moderator Group
Joined: December 05 2001
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2889
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 07:43 | IP Logged
|
|
|
There have been many posts on this subject which cause me to think hard about it.
The thing that got me started was outside Christmas lights. Plug-in timers don't account for changing dusk times and that irritated me. It was downhill from there. 
I think the coolest thing my system does is announce when the National Weather Service issues bulletins. The system plays an alert tone and states the issue. If no one is home, it sends a text to my phone.
Then there are the really simple ones, like turning lights on when you enter a room. I am so used to this, I forget that there are some rooms that don't do this. 
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
nadler1ny
Newbie
Joined: February 26 2006
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 07:48 | IP Logged
|
|
|
Just to take the KPL usuage one step further - I have a KPL in the kitchen which does the following:
Button 2 is a mute button - muting the kitchen speakers
Button 3 is volume up
Button 4 is volume down
Button 5 turns on itunes on my PC and cycles through 5 different music playlists. If my receiver is on instead of itunes - this buttons changes the FM stations on my Receiver instead of playlists.
Button 6 loads Internet explorer and a local streaming newstation and turns off itunes and the newstation if either is on.
Button 7 - announces the weather (using Tony's weather macro also) and also announces the temperature in the kitchen.
Button 8 - sets a 'security' macro which turns on some lights throughout the house at various times.
In addition, double presses (FAST ON) of some of the buttons have special uses. For example, a double press of button 5 announces "DINNER IS SERVED IN THE MAIN  DINING ROOM" throughout the house.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
BeachBum
Super User
Joined: April 11 2007
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1880
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 13:45 | IP Logged
|
|
|
I started back in the 70s impressing my girlfriends with my cool way to turn lights on and off. Back in the early days it was BSR dark brown X10 modules. Still use a few. Since then the whole house now runs off of 3 systems with PH being the big boss on 2.
__________________
Pete - X10 Oldie
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Gadgets
Senior Member
Joined: January 28 2008
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 178
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 14:27 | IP Logged
|
|
|
Do you like to sleep in on weekends? We do.. one of my early things I did when I first got into X-10 years ago was to kill the phones, and the doorbell at 7am on weekends, and turn them back on at 11am, or we could hit a button on any controller to turn them back on if we were up before then. Why did I do this? My sister-in-law... she had a young kid like us (4 weeks apart), only ours slept late, and her's was up at 7am.. being the kind or person she is, she felt because she was awake so should everyone else... and thus would begin the phone calls. As it is today, now the kids are teens, the second the time passes that the phones turn on.. they are ringing!
The doorbells got added because of some kid who lived down the street would come calling on my boys (again when they were just little) at 6am, 7am, whenever she got up bascially, her parents would apparently let her out to bother whom ever she could. We had an electronic doorbell at the time, and as long as you held the button, it would "ding-dong".. and she would hold it until someone answered! Best thing I STILL do with my X-10.
__________________
Friends, don't let friends install Norton Products
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
TonyNo
Moderator Group
Joined: December 05 2001
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2889
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 18:03 | IP Logged
|
|
|
Ah! The really cool one I forgot about was kids playing "ding dong ditch". My doorbell can only be rung once per minute!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
tbeckman
Senior Member
Joined: December 30 2007
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 149
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 18:42 | IP Logged
|
|
|
TonyNo, what are you using to turn lights on when you walk into the room? Thanks.
TonyNo wrote:
There have been many posts on this subject which cause me to think hard about it.
The thing that got me started was outside Christmas lights. Plug-in timers don't account for changing dusk times and that irritated me. It was downhill from there.
I think the coolest thing my system does is announce when the National Weather Service issues bulletins. The system plays an alert tone and states the issue. If no one is home, it sends a text to my phone.
Then there are the really simple ones, like turning lights on when you enter a room. I am so used to this, I forget that there are some rooms that don't do this. |
|
|
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
TonyNo
Moderator Group
Joined: December 05 2001
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2889
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 19:12 | IP Logged
|
|
|
In my foyer and utility room, I have X10 RF Motion sensors (X10 #RMS18) that fire a trigger to turn the lights on for five minutes. Additional motion within the five-minute window extends the On-time for five minutes after that.
In my master bedroom, I have been testing two next to each other, but angled outward, so that the two signals are sequential. In this way, I can tell if the motion is in or out and then increment or decrement a room counter to know when it's empty, and then turn off the lights.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Gadgets
Senior Member
Joined: January 28 2008
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 178
|
| Posted: February 11 2008 at 22:22 | IP Logged
|
|
|
TonyNo wrote:
| Ah! The really cool one I forgot about was kids playing "ding dong ditch". My doorbell can only be rung once per minute! |
|
|
I don't know if that would have worked for me. My doorbell was one of those electronic piezo buzzers that go "ding-dong" (or as close as elecronics could make it sound). I would have had to have a timer to cut it off, then not allow it again for 1 minute. I never had the problem with "ding-dong-ditch" I have surveilance cameras and the kids know I can just look at the recordings. In this new house I've caught the group that egged our house one year, and broke into my garage the following year. Different kids, but same family... apparently not too bright. :-)
__________________
Friends, don't let friends install Norton Products
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
jeffw_00
Super User
Joined: June 30 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 929
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 10:46 | IP Logged
|
|
|
http://www.electronichouse.com/article/controlling_the_home_ with_powerline/
You have to remove the space in the link, I can't seem to do it
Edited by jeffw_00 - February 12 2008 at 13:02
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
BeachBum
Super User
Joined: April 11 2007
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1880
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 11:36 | IP Logged
|
|
|
Jeff, the forum got you. You need to remove the space after home_ that was inserted.
__________________
Pete - X10 Oldie
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
jeffw_00
Super User
Joined: June 30 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 929
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 13:01 | IP Logged
|
|
|
x
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
jbbtex
Senior Member
Joined: February 15 2007
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 181
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 14:17 | IP Logged
|
|
|
I have a x10 Universal module I've wired in parallel with a standard 24vac doorbell. It triggers a macro that checks daylight/dark status and turns on the porch light if it's dark out.
Motion sensor in master bathroom. If motion is detected after 6 am on a weekday, the current weather conditions and forecast are announced (one time) via TTS over speaker in the bathroom.
Weekday morning schedule announcments via TTS. It's basically a count down for the kids so that they get off to school on time.
Tipping bucket rain gage. Uses a x10rf door/window sensor (thanks, TonyNo) to increment global variables and keep track of rain for the day, month and year.
__________________
Brady
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - Gen. George S. Patton
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Gadgets
Senior Member
Joined: January 28 2008
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 178
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 15:41 | IP Logged
|
|
|
jbbtex wrote:
I have a x10 Universal module I've wired in parallel with a standard 24vac doorbell. It triggers a macro that checks daylight/dark status and turns on the porch light if it's dark out.
|
|
|
Oh, I like that one.
__________________
Friends, don't let friends install Norton Products
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
BeachBum
Super User
Joined: April 11 2007
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1880
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 16:53 | IP Logged
|
|
|
On that line I have a Powerhouse Sundowner that trips if it starts to get dark out before sunset and brings up the house lights. If it gets bright again they go back down. Also, after 10:00 PM, if the bedroom TV is turned on then a count down starts and the house goes through a dimming process. Then if the TV is shut off, either by PH or controller, the whole house goes to bed. Likewise in the morning PH is my alarm clock. I integrated my Insteon and X10 controllers so that PH reacts to the same buttons. Makes life less complicated for the wife. On the TTS side besides “happy hour” and “time to go to the beach” it announces incoming callers using Tony’s code over the house system. Just a few things PH does for me.
__________________
Pete - X10 Oldie
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
jeffw_00
Super User
Joined: June 30 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 929
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 18:01 | IP Logged
|
|
|
how do you get callerid info into PH?
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
TonyNo
Moderator Group
Joined: December 05 2001
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2889
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 19:54 | IP Logged
|
|
|
With a Caller ID-capable modem. You then need my CID macro or Dave's CID plugin (I use his plugin now).
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
BeachBum
Super User
Joined: April 11 2007
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1880
|
| Posted: February 12 2008 at 22:14 | IP Logged
|
|
|
Yes, I use the plugin but I then took Tony’s code and expanded on that. I use my Outlook database as a reference and built an INI file from that. I first search for a hit on the number. If that doesn’t match then I use the actual data that came in on the callerid. This allows me flexibility to announce what I want over TTS.
__________________
Pete - X10 Oldie
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
judetf
Senior Member
Joined: January 23 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 234
|
| Posted: February 24 2008 at 17:19 | IP Logged
|
|
|
I'm still tweaking the code a bit so I'm not going to post it (well, I will if anyone wants it), but I'll give a report on some changes I've made to TonyNo's weather macro to suit my tastes; maybe they'll inspire someone else.
Rather than use TonyNo's separate Weather Advisory macro, I started reading the Weather Underground page for SVR.gif which is what they put out there if they have a weather advisory. If there is an advisory, I capture the text and the link, and store those as global variables.
Additionally, if there hadn't been a weather advisory before now, I send the text and the link of the advisory to myself and my wife via e-mail, so that we can be alerted during the day if PH picks anything up from Weather Underground. (I have the macro running hourly.)
I added a global variable to store the time/date that the macro and forecast was last updated.
I modified the forecast variable a bit: the page includes the forecast for the upcoming week, which doesn't interest me. I tweaked the code to capture the forecast for today and tomorrow (it will include day, afternoon and night forecasts for both days, if they exist).
I created a global variable to record the "high" and "low" temps for the next two forecasts (either "today and tonight", or "tonight and tomorrow" or whatever, depending on what the WU forecast currently has). This is nice: the results are something like "Tonight's lows around 15. Monday's highs in the lower 40s."
Finally, I created a global variable for my TTS output. This variable gets read via the push of a KPL button (and this is where the practical value, for us, is huge). This variable takes TonyNo's original string with the temperature, humidity and windchill. It also scans the forecast (for the next 2 days) for snow or rain (or stupid synonyms for them, like "drizzle"), and if it's in the forecast I add that. If there is a weather advisory it includes that information. And finally, it adds the high/low information. So, an example of what we hear when we trigger the TTS macro (at the ungodly hour of 4:45am when we get up and have to dress for work) is:
"The current temperature is 44 degrees, and the humidity is 30%. There is snow in the forecast. There is a Special Weather Statement in effect. Tonight's lows around 15. Monday's highs in the lower 40s."
Anyway, sorry if this bores anyone, but as I'm getting my hands wet, I'm having tremendous fun playing with new things, and sharing adds to it.
jtf
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
TonyNo
Moderator Group
Joined: December 05 2001
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2889
|
| Posted: February 24 2008 at 17:47 | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thanks for posting. Nice tweaks! I'm going to incorporate some of that into my system.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Active Topics 
Memberlist 
Search 
Help
Register 
Login
PowerHome Messageboard : PowerHome General
Topic: Fun ideas
