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I had a unique opportunity to select a lighting control system in my house - We had
been planning to build a house for about 5 years, and we got to the blueprint stage and I
knew that I wanted to have something beside standard wall switches - something that
controlled "the house", not just the "lights". I talked with Richard
Scholl at Worthington, and decided on using digital wall switches so that each single gang
box could provide control over a variety of devices in addition to lights. At that time,
the switch with the most potential was the Geffen Controller. But I knew there was trouble
when I went to Dallas to the home automation convention (about 2 years ago) and Geffen was
a no-show. Back to the drawing board with Richard. He sent me a Neltech keypad to examine,
and I decided that it was going to fit the need. Each Decora-style Neltech ( model 6D3+6)
I used has 6 buttons, is a model with small green LED lights marking each button as well
as three at the top (green/orange/red). When connected to a logical controller like my
StarGate, the LEDs can be controlled independently, and serve nicely to locate the buttons
in the dark. You can also use the LEDs to indicate off/on status of each/any device in the
house, armed/disarmed status of security systems, indicate whether garage door is open,
etc...
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Of course, I have a Leviton whole-house surge supressor installed, as well as several X10 noise filters (one on an electric blanket for the SO, another on the Kenmore refrigerator that turned out to be one bad noisy boy, X10 noise-pollution-wise), and a bridging amplifier for the two phases of 110v. Don't automate home without these!
In all, I installed nine LM4s, controlling lights throughout the house. In the year since, I have had two identical problems where one circuit of an LM4 stopped responding. One locked into an on state, the other an off condition. In both cases PCS proved to be completely responsive and repaired them and returned them to me in a timely manner, so I have no complaints. One cannot reasonably expect indefinite infallibility in electronics so I've learned to really value good customer service. I've installed a variety of other X10 switches, for example a 4-way hallway circuit, and a couple of single-light wall switches sprinkled around the house. These serve as a safety measure in the event that for whatever reason my central system (StarGate) is down. I don't view home automation as being infallible, and I have been known to make a mistake or two in programming (<G>), so both my SO and daughter (and myself) feel better having a few good old-fashioned paddle switches at hand. Lights can be controlled in our house using the Neltechs (there are 8 in my house including one weatherproof model), using any phone (one of StarGate's built-in virtues), using Leviton RF remote controls, and of course, the paddle-switches. I bought a copy of both HAL2000 and HomeVoice in the hopes of adding voice control to the system, but haven't gotten reliability to an acceptable level yet. And after that, of course, we will be looking at the new user-interface product inspired by the justice department's investigation of Microsoft - called Mindreader 1.0. Apparently Bill Gates felt the need for this product during his meetings with congress, and with it I'll be able to just THINK my lights on! Stay tuned for developments.
I was born in a log cabin in.....waitaminnit, wrong story. Okay, I'm from
south Texas, Uvalde to be exact. Mah forbears arrived in Natchitoches around 1843, and
have settled in various parts of Texas since then. I've lived in San Antone, Dallas, Round
Rock, and Austin since college, and find the hill country to be nearly perfect for my
lifestyle, so we are building a nice home in Lago Vista, 18 miles from downtown Austin.
Kind of like having yore cake, and french fries too.
I grew up in a real Rexall Drug Store in Uvalde, complete with soda fountain and
small-town benefits. Somehow I remained sane and gradjiated High School in 73'. I stayed
in Uvalde for a couple of years, attended a junior college, and got most of my pharmacy
pre-requisites out of the way. I also got a first degree brown belt in TaeKwanDo and
Kodokan Judo from sensei Lonnie Green, largely as self-defense from all of the republicans
that I matriculated with. (Enrollment was about 1000 people: 999 rednecks and me). Somehow
I was able to graduate from the University of Texas in1978 from College of Pharmacy with a
B.S. (seemed a fitting term, somehow). I spent my last year in San Antone at the UT HSC
where I received clinical training as a hospital pharmacist.
I have practiced pharmacy in independents, chain stores, apothecary, large hospitals
(>600 beds) and small hospitals (<100 beds). Also directed the services for a small
hospital for 4 years, and learned to design databases and build/program computers in my
spare time. Co-authored a dynamic comprehensive pharmacy management system called Rx-Link
, using DataEase for DOS, a 4th-generation relational RAD tool (See Periwinkle's page for
DataEase info). RxLink is perhaps the largest PC-based computer tool for running a
hospital pharmacy, in terms of reports and features.
I currently provide custom programming solutions and training in PC operations. I've
logged more than 1.5 million miles with American Airlines, am a life-time gold member with
platinum membership in AA, Marriott Marquis Platinum, gold standing with Hurts, er,
Hertz., traveling to hospitals around the YewEssHay and Canada. I've personally trained
pharmacists in more than 100 hospitals and analyzed pharmacy practices in those hospitals
in order to customize their softwares. I am a technofreak, believing that if it is new and
technical, it must be better, and if it doesn't turn out that way then it was incorrectly
documented and improperly implemented. Two books I think yew should read: High Road(Ben
Bova) and Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson).
