Re: [misterhouse-users] Mechanical Switches

[Kirk B. <ki...@ka...>]

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004, Nate Hill wrote:

> I've got a question for those who have implemented Misterhouse on a larger
> nature, like Bruce has.  How do you handle the conversion from mechanical
> light switches, like a regular old light switch-up is on, down is off, to
> that of the non-mechanical switches that are used for automation?  For
> instance, I currently have one light switch connected to MH and to turn
> that light on or off, you hit a button that's in the place of the
> lightswitch.  Do you replace each lightswitch with these?  Also, on a
> lamp, I have a light module.  It now MUST be turned on or off via a remote
> or computer.  Otherwise, the circuit is cut manually and can no longer be
> toggled via computer or remote.  Does this question make sense or is it
> just babble?

I replaced all of my light switches with X10-capable ones.  I really
like the nice 2-way Leviton ones, but at $60/ea, most of my light
switches are the cheap ones from X10.com that I picked up on sale for
$10/ea.

In cases where I had 3-way switches (where two swiches control the same
light) or unused switches, I put in X10 control pads.  I really like the
nice Smarthome.com one with 8 buttons, but since that costs upwards of
$60, many of mine are the cheap X10-Pro 4-button control pads.  The
Smarthome.com 8-button one can be purchased with an integrated dimmer
now so that it can actually be placed anywhere an existing light switch
can be found -- and it provides high-quality control of the light AND
8 buttons to control other devices.

As far as lamps, I use light modules like yourself.  Again,
Smarthome.com has some nice ones that have a "local control" feature.
With this, you always leave the light on, but if the light is off, you 
can turn the switch off and on again to turn the light on locally.

But, using the control pads, I'm able to control all such lamps from the
wall, so I really never use the local control feature.  I also use
buttons on the control pad to enable "movie mode" and (soon) to turn on
the spa outside.

Finally, now that I have motion detectors everywhere and use occupancy
tracking and predictive/automatic lighting, I rarely touch any of the
light switches at all :)

-- 
Kirk Bauer <ki...@ka...>
http://linux.kaybee.org | www.autorpm.org | www.logwatch.org