Computer-Controlled Lighting System
By Dave Rye

For years people have talked about Home Computers being used to control the home but the truth is until now there hasn't been anything that can really do this at an affordable price. Now all that has changed. I recently purchased an IBM® Aptiva™ from RadioShack™ and it came with a surprise bonus. It included something that IBM calls Home Director.™ It's a Home Automation system that controls lights and appliances using the readily available modules sold by RadioShack, Magnavox, X-10® and others. The enclosed literature promised that Home Director could do stuff I'd never heard of before and not only that, it was (as far as I was concerned) free, having been included when I bought the Aptiva.

The starter kit included the Home Director Serial Interface, a Lamp Module, and Appliance Module, the Home Director software on a CD ROM and a serial connecting cable. I couldn't wait to get started. I followed the simple set-up instructions and had the system up and running in no time. I connected the Serial Interface to the RS-232 port on my Aptiva using the supplied cable and popped the CD into the drive. The software installation was a snap with simple instructions to guide me through every step. The software even showed full color photographs of the included modules showing how to install them. I had everything plugged in, connected up, and running in literally a few minutes.

I discovered that the interface was indeed more powerful than anything I had seen or heard of before. I quickly discovered that it was a 2-way interface having the capability of both transmitting and receiving X-10 compatible signals onto and from my house wiring. This is what (I discovered) makes Home Director so powerful. It can perform complex Macros - sequences of events that IBM calls Routines, whenever it receives a command from any X-10 or RadioShack plug 'n power controller over my house wiring.

I already had quite an extensive X-10 system in my home so the modules weren't a problem (even though Home Director came with two modules). I also had plenty of controllers around the house from which to activate the Routines. The first thing I did was to set up a wake-up Routine. I decided to set up a routine to turn on my bedside lamp and radio at 7:00 AM (on weekdays only) and to turn on the coffee pot at the same time. I wanted the coffee pot to turn off one hour later in case I forgot to turn it off before I left for work. The first thing I needed to do was to install on-screen modules to match the physical modules in my home. I clicked on the lamp module icon on the toolbar in the Home Director main screen and a Lamp Module appeared on the screen. I then clicked on the Appliance Module icon and an Appliance Module appeared on the screen. I set the codes for the on-screen modules to match the actual modules in my bedroom.

I already had my two bedside lamps on X-10 modules set to codes A4. One of these is a Lamp Module and the other is an Appliance Module. I have them both set to the same code because I make use of a little known and undocumented X-10 feature. When I want to turn on both modules I press 4-On on my bedside Mini Controller but when I want to read and my wife wants to sleep, I press 4 dim (instead of 4 On) which turns my Lamp Module on but not the Appliance Module on my wife's side. Of course I could do this by setting the two modules to different codes, but I have so many modules in my home that I don't want to use up codes unnecessarily so I find this feature quite handy. So I set both on-screen modules to A4. I then clicked on the Appliance Module icon again and set it's code to A2 (the code I use for my coffee pot).

I selected New Routine from the Routine menu in the Home Director main screen (fig 1.)

Figure 1

and this took me to the Routine Assistant screen (fig. 2) with a new Routine button shown on the left side of the screen and my three installed modules on the right side of the screen. I dragged the A4 lamp module and the A2 appliance module from the right side to the left side one at a time and dropped them onto the Routine placeholder. I set both of these to turn on, I then dragged both of these modules from right to left again and this time set them to turn off after a delay of 60 minutes.

Figure 2

I then returned to the main Home Director screen and set this Routine to activate on weekdays at 7:00 AM. (fig 3).

Figure 3

Having discovered how easy it was to set up Routines I quickly set about making Routines for all my daily tasks. I set up a coming home Routine which turns on my outside floodlights, my front porch light, my inside hall light and my living room stereo and turns the outside lights off 5 minutes later. I activate the Routine by pressing a button on a wireless key chain remote control that I keep in my car. When I enter my driveway I press the button, this transmits a wireless radio frequency (RF) signal into my home. The signal is picked up by an X-10 transceiver (which I already owned) which re-transmits the signal onto my house wiring. The Home Director interface receives this signal from my house wiring and activates my "coming home" Routine.

Another neat feature of the Home Director is something that the manufacturer (X-10) calls Virtual Wiring.™ This lets you literally re-wire your home at the click of your mouse button. I have been using X-10 products since their introduction back in 1978 and have accumulated many modules around my home. The evolution of my system is such that various modules are scattered around my home on different codes which I have become familiar with over time. I'm used to the fact that my bedroom radio is code A5, my living room stereo is A8, my porch light is A15, etc. This means that the modules aren't necessarily coded in "convenient" groups.

For example I attached an X-10 wireless wall switch near my front door so I can turn my living room stereo on and off as I enter and leave my home. The problem is that X-10 wireless wall switches have 4 buttons that are grouped in banks so you can set them to control modules 1, 2, 3, & 4 or 5, 6, 7, & 8 etc. My stereo in on code 8 but there isn't anything set to codes 5, 6, or 7 that I need to control from my front door. I don't want to change the codes on my modules because everyone in my home has become familiar with the existing codes.

This is where Home Director and Virtual Wiring comes in: I "Virtually" re-wired my home on the Home Director screen. I mentioned before that my porch light is set to A15, I wanted to control this from the 7 button on the wireless wall switch near my front door. To do this I set the wireless wall switch to Housecode B. I then set up a Routine so that when the Home Director interface received B7 ON it turns on A15. When it receives B7 OFF it turns off A15. I have therefore re-mapped (or virtually wired) the button on my wireless wall switch to my outside porch light.

I have now placed these wireless wall switches all over my home and set each of them up to control different lighting patterns. I have a button that means I'm home and it turns on certain lights and the stereo. Another button means my wife is home and when she presses this a different set of lights turns on as well as the bedroom TV. And the best is that I can (and do) change these patterns at will just by dragging and dropping icons on my computer screen. I've set up Routines for mood lighting, party scenes, goodnight Routines, etc. My Home Director even has a feature that lets me monitor every X-10 code it sees on my house wiring. I can at the click of a button see what time my son's bedroom light last turned on (so I know exactly what time he came home last night!).

The more I use Home Director, the more uses I find for it. It seems to me that IBM, X-10, and RadioShack have a winner here. They've finally put the Home in Home Computer!

Editors Note: Home Director from IBM is similar in function to ActiveHome from X10 USA.

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