RE: [misterhouse-users] HELP! NEED those Misterhouse stories

[James A. <ja...@ha...>]

Heres my Misterhouse story:

	I have Misterhouse running on a linux server in the garage. My
current setup is not nearly complete, I am still trying to figure out
just what I want it to do. I have it setup to send a text message to my
phone when anyone comes in the front door after the house has been empty
(no motion) for a period of time. I can tell when the boys get home from
school and give them a call. When on vacation I can tell when the cat
and gecko were being looked after. I also have the front porch light set
to turn on at dusk then dim to about 40% after 5 minutes. When motion is
sensed at the front door then light will go to 100% then dim back down
after a time limit. After dark the livingroom and kitchen lights turn on
when motion is detected then turn themselves back off. I have the
Smarthome light switch with the 8 buttons in the livingroom and master
bedroom. Everyone needs one of these. It is a 2way device and you can
program each of the 8 buttons to send an x10 command. I have one that
operates the local light, one for turning all lights on, one for turning
all lights off. I have one programmed to tell (speak) me the current
weather forecast via my Audrey in the livingroom and one that sets movie
mode (dims the livingroom light, turns off the kitchen lights and dims
the foyer light). The neat thing about this switch is that each button
has a status led that will also turn on when it sees the x10 code
assigned to it. From the bedroom I can look at the light switch and tell
what lights are on around the house.

	When I wake up in the morning and walk into the livingroom I am
greeted with a 'Good morning James, todays weather conditions are ...'.
The practical application has to do with my wife. She was in an accident
last year and is now paralized on the left side. She can't turn over at
night (pressure relief) so I get up a lot during the night to take care
of her. I have two lamps in the bedroom using 2way x10. Anytime I get up
they will brighten so I can see what I am doing. After midnight only the
one near her turns on to about 30%. I just get back in bed and they turn
off in a few minutes. I also tied on of those rf remotes to the right
side guard rail so she could press it if she needed me (she takes long
naps during the day). I have it programmed to send a text message to my
phone and blink the bright green light on top of the livingroom Audrey
so whoever is in there can check on her. On night I decided to try and
lay her more on her stomach than her side (kind of half on side / half
on stomach). She said it felt good. I was in the room for awhile when I
got a phone call and went to the livingroom to talk. After about 30
minutes the green light on the Audrey started to flash and I got paged
on the cell phone. I ran into the bedroom to see what was going on. I
usual casually check on her but this was different. When I left she was
in the middle of the bed facing the left side and the guard rail was
down so that the remote was about 4 inches below the mattress top. I
knew there was no way she could reach it. It turns out she had managed
to roll completely on her stomach and her head was facing the right side
and she managed to get her arm out from under her and reach the remote.
She was in pain (she was laying on her stomach tube) and out of breath.
She told me she was very glad to see me. It took her a few minutes to
recover, she must have been struggling for some time to be out of breath
like she was.

	That is enough for now. It does much more and will do much more
when I get the time to work on it.

- James Armstrong