The Houselinc is a home automation controller that allows you to control ALL of your X-10 and IR devices. You program it with the software that it comes with (you can download free from www.smartlinc.com). Once you download to the Houselinc, it is a stand alone system not needing to be connected to your computer (I keep mine hooked up all the time to “monitor” all X-10 activities via the monitor feature). The Houselinc has IR blasters on its front panel and 4 IR outputs on the back. The IR output can be programmed to any port your want. For example, you have 2 Sony TV’s in your home theater room and they both have the same IR codes but you don’t want to change the channel on both. You can program one to use IR port 3 and the other to use IR port 4. Mount the IR emitter on each one and program them as different units in the IR file. This will allow you to change the channel on TV1 or TV2 independently. As far as macros, you can make the Houselinc do anything you want. It checks qualifiers before it issues a command or macro. This means that you can have a motion sensor only turn a light on between 9:00pm and 5:00am, only on the weekend, only during the month of May and on and on and on. The Houselinc knows what time it is, what day it is, what season it is, what month it is, when the sun will rise when the sun will set. My garden lights turn on at sunset and off at 10:00pm during the week and 11:00pm on the weekends. A remote chime only sounds at night. The nightlight, tripped by a Hawkeye, only comes on at night. The morning macro, which wakes, me only do so during the week. You could have a macro that “turns on the house when you get home” that will, in the winter, turn on the fireplace. In the summer, it would set the a/c to 72 and turn on the fan. You could have a macro that turns the TV on and tunes it to the Discovery channel at 8:00pm on Sundays so you will never miss the X-10 show (coming soon to a theater near you, we all wish). Yes, most satellites will tune to a program at a certain time, but only if the system is on. The interface port allows you to hook up the Break Out Box, B.O.B for short, adding probes to detect the status of your audio video system. There are light probes, which detect LED status lights of the unit, video probes, which detect a video signal, ac probes, which detect a/c voltage, and RF probes that detect RF from a transformer or the tube of the TV. The RF probe can also detect water, and the light probe can be used on any light. You use the probe status as a qualifier. If the TV is off, turn it on in the power on macro. This way it will never turn it off if it was on and you wanted it on. I use the Houselinc to turn on and off all my audio video, not a remote. I have a pronto so I could easily create a macro in it to do so but instead, the Houselinc Does it. This eliminates the need for discrete power commands and the need to have the pronto facing the equipment at all times. It also eliminates the long wait before the panel changes to the correct one. Relaylincs can be used to control multiroom speakers, fireplaces, sprinklers, a/c ducts and more. I use them on the fireplace and to control my multiroom speakers. Push a pool macro, if its night the pool lights come on and the speakers by the pool play the music. Every morning a 3:00am the second receiver turns on and adjust the volume to a preset level so I don’t have to worry about where I left it the night before. Every morning, only the bedroom and master bathroom speakers turn on to 80’s music, regardless of where we left it the night before. Anyway, any X-10 input can cause anything to happen. I use the slimfire remotes to do macros; I have a XPT transmitter with a 4 button plate mounted at each door, which will allow me, with one button, to turn the house on or off. The other 3 buttons are used for various other macros. The slimfire remote in my wife’s car will turn on the outside lights and turn on the inside lights if she wants. It will also open or close the garage and trigger other macros. Sprinklers are controlled by the Houselinc to water more in the summer, less in the winter. Water only if it hasn’t rained in the last 24 hours. I can water any zone by its self, turn it off and totally control the sprinkler through the Houselinc. I am using Touchlinc LCD panels throughout the house and can label the “buttons” to do anything I want. Temperature control, light control, macros, speakers off and on, volume, channels …Anyway, as you can see, your imagination is the limit of what you can do with the Houselinc. Also JDS has similar features but I don’t know much about it. Robert from RCI Automation has several posts about it and he also has his own website. (looks like he beat me)
