Home Automation

2010-02-09 18:29

Laszlo Lives Again

I’m happy to report that Laszlo, the home automation computer, is back with us.  The 2.0 version sports a dual core processor, more onboard cache, and significantly faster memory.  Of course, home automation mostly just telemeters bit commands and so the computer doesn’t really require...

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2009-08-27 14:32

That Special Visitor (or how to securely let someone into your house on the cheap)

Because I keyed every lock in my house off a master, I don’t like letting anyone borrow a key.  If I were to lose a key, it would require changing 11 locks.  It takes me on average of 20 minutes to rekey a lock (yes, I’m very slow) so I came up with a way to let people into my...

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2009-01-10 17:56

Ghost in the machine

The problem with X-10 technology is, well, X-10 technology.  Now I must caveat that it works very well on clean lines.  The problem is that there are several "dirty devices" that produce an inordinate amount of line noise.  For the last few months, I've been chasing a pest in my...

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2008-11-02 07:29

Night Lights

One of the nicest aspects of having a central home computer is that I can tie in the lighting system to the alarm system. This gives me an inexpensive way to create a feedback control loop using $10 motion sensors.  When I built the house, I made the decision to run extra...

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2008-10-01 10:35

Laszlo Online

I'll try to slowly migrate all of the tip and tricks from my last site.  I don't think I'll have enough time to moderate a forum so I apologize in advance.  Laszlo, the super smart guy who lives in the closet, was named after Lazlo Hollyfeld from the movie Real Genius.  I named him...

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