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| Volume 2 Issue 5 October 1997 |
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Letters - Oct97 - [HTI Home Page] |
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Submit your letters by Email to news@hometoys.com. Please include "Letter to the Editor" as the subject and make sure you give us your name and home town. If you don't want your Email address included with the letter then indicate that in the message.
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know that I have been reading HTI News
since the first issue and I think it is better than any of the
Magazines out there! Keep up the good work, and Thanks!
Matt Grippaldi
CSP Technologies
Many thanks Matt, we aims ta please. Hope you like the new look of our site.
HTI,
I have been scouring the Internet for about two weeks now looking
for information on Home Automation. I have to tell you, I am
REALLY excited about it! I'm wanting to start a business offering
these services, and am looking for some resources to help me get
started. ( I am on information overload at this point.) I have
found so much that I don't even know where to start. I even
considered going with someone like PerformaHome, but have not
read too many good things about the company. (I don't expect you
to comment on that. Business ethics, and all.) So, if you have
the time, what would a professional in your line of work
recommend to a newbie like me. I have some financial backing and
have been working with PC's and programming for several years.
Help me out if you can. If not, thanks for you time reading this.
Have a Great Day!
Mark Hager
Hi Mark,
Getting into the Home Automation
business is no different than any other venture with the main
drawback at this time being customer acceptance. the best advise
I can give you is that you do your homework ahead of time.
Examine your marketplace to determine if a new business can be
sustained. The first few years will be tough and a lot of energy
spent convincing prospective customers that they need what you
have to offer. Be prepared to put in long hours for little return
at the beginning.
You need to decide which products you want to promote and
install. This is a tough decision and will require you to try out
as many systems as you can. Fortunately many controllers have
demo software to give you a feel of what they can do (Look in my
shareware library). Also, do a search for "dealers" in
the Directory at HTI and contact others who are presently in the
business. They are the best source of info and could help you
make some key decisions. Also, use the internet for research and
learning. There is lots of info available. CABA and the Home
Automation Association are also good sources. There is a Home
Automation show in Orlando next Feb. which you should attend.
I feel that Home Automation will grow rapidly over the next few
years and will reward those who stick with it but it will take
hard work and tenacity to see it through.
All the best and good luck on your venture. If you like what
you're doing, that's half the battle won.
Does X-10 produce a wall switch that will on/off a circuit with an incandescent driveway light and three transformers for three different low voltage landscape lighting circuits? I have a controller and use X-10 for normal interior and porch lighting. I have not been able to get any help at Radio Shack or Eagle Hardware.
John G. Mulligan
I sent this one off to Phil Kingery and he managed to find the time in his very busy schedule to answer John's question. Thanks Phil.
Most of the "wall
switches" offered by Radio Shack are actually dimmer
receivers even if you don't use them to dim. The advantage of the
dimmer type units is that they can be designed and manufactured
in such a way as to require only a connection to the
"line" and "load" wires in a wall box. The
disadvantage is that they are typically limited to only 500 watts
and can only used with incandescent lights.
If a neutral wire is also available in the wall box, other types
of receivers can be used. There are many X-10 compatible
receivers that are not dimmers at all. They have relays instead
of triacs. Their advantage is that they can be used for all kinds
of loads other than just incandescent lights. Relay type
receivers can also carry much higher current (15 to 20 amps) and
so would be a good choice for your "driveway light and
transformers". We at Advanced Control Technologies, have a
20 amp wall-mount receiver that may be right for your job (our
part number is the RS120, or the RS100 for a 3-way version). We
also sell a fixture mount receiver (RF100) that is also a 20 amp
X-10 compatible receiver that you can hide inside a junction box.
It does not have a decorator face-plate, nor local control button
like the RS120, but if you only want to be able to send signals
to it from you main controller or other transmitter, it may also
be an option. These products are available from most of the
larger mail-order home automation places (like Home Automation
Systems, Hybrid Technical, etc. ).
If you are actually wanting to "dim" your driveway
light plus dim the low-voltage lighting (connected to the
transformers) then I would have to have more information before I
would make a suggestion. We do sell some special X-10 compatible
dimmers that are rated for non-linear loads (like motors and
transformers) but they require a neutral connection and, like our
other wall-mount dimmer, they too are limited to 500 watts. If
you are interested, the part numbers is the RD160. It is a 3-way
dimmer that can also be used as a single dimmer receiver.
To be fair, Leviton also has similar receivers as the ones I
mentioned, but ours are better because when you buy ours, it
helps me make my mortgage payment.
Hope this helps. -Phil Kingery, ACT, Indy
To whom it may concern,
I thought this was a very interesting story that can be applied
to the home controls industry. It certainly applies in South
Texas.
Steve,
I grew up in northern BC. At the time, the community (as the
entire region) did not have TV - it was only introduced the last
year I was in high school (early 1960's).
The local Hudson's Bay co. (department store) is a national
chain. As often happens in national chains, some merchandise
arrived un-ordered by local staff, but part of national buying
decisions. The furniture department, where I worked part time,
received a couple of automatic dishwashers. They were unable to
sell them - the machines stood on the floor for a couple of
years!
I left town to go to college. On coming back at Christmas break,
I discovered they had a whole range of new dishwashers on sale.
On questioning, I was told that that since the start of TV
broadcasting, (and with some commercials as well) people saw
these machines on TV and started buying the dishwashers!
What is the moral to this story?
Steven D. Shepard
SBT AUTOMATION
Being one of those Canadian guys myself ... I gotta agree eh! TV is the best place to get the message out about Home Automation. Before you know it, everyone will be walking around like Captain Picard talking to their houses. Oh Oh ... I see a problem here. It may just get too easy to "Mute" those commercials that drive us crazy but fill us in on all the new stuff we can buy. Back to the drawing board.
