munck@Mitre-Bedford.ARPA (04/15/84)
I've had a R.S. CoCo and their discontinued Plug & Power controlling
most of the lights and appliances in my house for several years now.
The program has slowly become more complex and well-adapted to my needs,
as I've added BSR controllers for things as diverse as furnace control
and the hifi volume level. It has temperature and humidity sensors,
calculates local sunrise and sunset, knows about days of the week
and holidays, can detect door and window openings and whether I've
gotten out of bed, and speak through a voice synthesizer over the
phone or hifi. The phone interface can detect ringing, dial out and
decode Touchtone signals, and switch my phones and the IBM PC's modem
to either of my phone lines.
The biggest problem has been that the BSR controller modules, which cost
an average of $15, tend to burn out if the light bulb they're controlling
goes or in electrical storms. I've probably bought about 40 of them and
have 25 still active. The newer switches and outlets that are installed
in electrical boxes as a permanent part of the house wiring seem
to survive better than the little brown boxes that you plug in.
-- Bob Munckburton@fortune.UUCP (04/19/84)
#R:sri-arpa:-1228600:fortune:28000029:000:222 fortune!burton Apr 18 17:29:00 1984 - I'd do private mail, but notes doesn't tell me where. yo've described a system that would make Steve Ciarcia proud. How do you tie in sensors to a BSR system. I thought it was send-only, with no receive capabilities.